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TITLES
- Dinosaur Train (Harper Collins) 2002
- The A to Z Mystery series, written by Ron Roy (Random House, 28 titles since 1997)
- The Bailey School Kids series, written by Debbie Dadey and Marcia T. Jones (Scholastic, 61 titles since 1988)
- The Calandar Mysteries series, written by Ron Roy (Random House) 12 titles planned, starting 2009
- The Meanest Hound Around, written by Bill Wallace and Carol Wallace (Simon and Schuster, 2004)
- Stubby and The Puppy Pack to the Rescue, written by Nikki Wallace (Simon and Schuster, 2003)
- Bub, Snow, and the Burley Bear Scare, written by Bill Wallace and Carol Wallace (Simon and Schuster, 2003)
- The Big Apple Barn series, written by Kristin Earhart (Scholastic, 7 titles since 2007)
- Bub Moose, written by Bill Wallace and Carol Wallace (Simon and Schuster, 2002)
- The Night Before Christmas, written by Clement Clark Moore (Scholastic, 1989)
- The Temptation of Wilfred Malachy, written by William F. Buckley, Jr. (Workman, 1985)
- Also illustrated Milton Bradley's game "Guess Who" (1997) and frequent contributor to Cricket Magazine
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AWARDS
- Dinosaur Train was nominated for Oregon's 2009 SMART Book Award.
- The Meanest Hound Around was the recipient of the Iowa Children's Choice Award Master List and was named to the Young Hoosier Book Award Master List 2006-2007.
GRADES
Pre-K through 12
LENGTH OF PROGRAMS
- 30-75 minutes, including Q & A.
- 90 minutes for a combined presentation and cartoon workshop session.
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AUDIENCE SIZE
For assembly presentations, any size that fits in the room. But in general, the preference is to see the youngest students in smaller, more intimate groups.
PROGRAMS
The main focus of John's assembly presentation is the thought process involved in the creation of an illustration. He discusses his background and creative process as an author and illustrator. He shows a PowerPoint presentation that focuses on his own development specifically, and generally on what makes any illustration an effective device for telling a story (it should be noted that because of the nature of his work, many of slides are quite funny -but don't tell the kids that, let it be a surprise), He demonstrates with volunteers from the audience how he has kids pose as models for his illustrations. In closing he draws an 18 x 24 caricature of someone from the audience.
WORKSHOPS
John teaches a variety of fun cartoon workshops, suitable to ages K-6. The only materials needed are pencils and regular copy paper and a chalkboard or whiteboard for John to demo on.
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Large Group Draw Along: John has a number of "Draw-Along" cartooning activities that work well with large groups. These involve the students drawing what John is drawing in front of them, and there is always a humorous surprise at the completion of the cartoon. These activities can be tagged onto the end of an assembly, or scheduled as separate sessions. John will need an easel and an easel sized pad of paper, or an "Elmo" drawing projection device.
The following workshops are for smaller groups, class size: 30 students or less.
Funny Faces: John teaches the fundamentals of drawing cartoon faces, and helps the kids make their cartoons more expressive.
Match the Caption: The kids draw a cartoon to fit a randomly assigned caption. The objective is to communicate with their drawings.
Character/Setting/Story!: The older kids create a story by designing randomly assigned characters and putting them into a randomly assigned setting.
Pass the Caption: A kind of a cartooning version of the old "telephone game". Hard to explain in two sentences, but very fun.
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Caricature Drawing: Advanced, older students are taught some of the basic fundamentals about drawing realistic faces (caricatured or otherwise).
The only supplies needed are basic copy paper, pencils and erasers (and a chalkboard or whiteboard for John to demo on).
A WORD FROM JOHN STEVEN GURNEY
"As an illustrator, my job is basically to sit home alone and draw pictures. I really enjoy the opportunity to get out in front of people and talk about what I do. When I visit a school I don't like sitting around waiting for the next session to begin, I like to be kept busy the whole day. I am very flexible and kid friendly.
I think its important for students to understand that any illustrator's work is the creation of one individual, working in collaboration with an editor, and sometimes (but often not) an author. An illustration is designed to serve the author's story, but there is ample room for the illustrator to be creative in how he or she does so."
FEES
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$875 for a full day, plus travel expenses. Lodgings are required if travel is more than 90 minutes from Brattleboro, VT.
SET-UP AND EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS
For my assembly presentation I need a digital projector, and an easel with large drawing paper. A microphone if there is to be a large audience.
For the workshops each student needs a couple sheets of regular copy paper, a pencil and an eraser. I need a chalk board or a white board to draw on. I may need to xerox some worksheets in advance, depending on the workshop.
AUTOGRAPHING INFORMATION
I am happy to autograph any of the books I've illustrated. You can order them through me if you wish. If you want me to sign large quantities of the series chapter books, I would prefer it if you ordered them through me. However, if you have a special relationship with a local independent bookseller, I would like to support that relationship.
LEARN MORE ABOUT JOHN STEVEN GURNEY
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John Steven Gurney
710 Western Avenue
Brattleboro, VT 05301
Telephone: 802-258-2654
Email: johnsgurney@comcast.net
Website: www.johnstevengurney.com
The best way to contact John is by email.
Additional Information
