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ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Carry Me!
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: www.georgiebirkett.com
CITY: Brighton
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: English
LAST VOLUME: SATA 249
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in England; married; husband’s name David; children: two sons, including Jack.
EDUCATION:Brighton University, B.A. (graphic design and illustration), 1996.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Illustrator and author.
AWARDS:British Booktrust Early Years Award, 2008, for Is This My Nose?, and shortlist, 2009, for The Big Night-Night Book; Myra Robertson Baby Book of the Year selection, 2009, for The Big Night-Night Book; Kate Greenaway Award nomination, 2012, for Share! by Anthea Simmons.
WRITINGS
Author’s work has been translated into Italian and Welsh.
SIDELIGHTS
UK-based author and illustrator Georgie Birkett creates colorful, tactile books for very young readers. One of Birkett’s most notable works is the award-winning The Big Night-Night Book, which features a little boy’s bedtime routine of bidding “night-night” to everything in his world. The board book incorporates appealing tangible elements, such as the fake fur of the boy’s favorite stuffed animal, but one standard bedtime guardian is curiously absent: “there is no adult present in this sequential, rhyming valediction to everything,” remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A Publishers Weekly writer predicted of The Big Night-Night Book that Birkett’s “snuggly, tactile tone will soothe readers.”
(open new)Bedtime is again the theme of Birkett’s 2015 book, Teddy Bedtime. The volume stars a titular stuffed bear, who enthusiastically takes part in a bedtime routine, alongside his stuffy friends. They take a bath, brush their teeth and hair, put on their pajamas, and crawl into bed, where they each tell a story to the group. Writing in School Library Journal, Brianne Colombo described the volume as “an easy, fun read-aloud.”
A Is for Apple is an alphabet-themed book, written and illustrated by Birkett. The volume features die cut letters and bright colors, offering both a visual and textural experience for reader. Each letter is paired with a thing that starts with that letter, as the book’s title suggests. A Kirkus Reviews critic suggested that the book was appropriate for a range of readers, asserting: “The format allows for significant developmental breadth.”
In Carry Me!, a little rodent named Wilbur deals with transitioning out of his stroller. Wilbur comes up with various excuses for why he cannot walk on his excursions with his mom. Finally, when Wilbur briefly leaves his stroller to pick up a dropped stuffy, he returns to find his mother in the stroller. He and his friends agree to push her around. A Kirkus Reviews writer called the book “an ode to exhausted mamas everywhere.” Another rodent stars in Snack, Please! Gertie has a big appetite and loves to eat snacks. She snacks during all her daily activities, always demanding more. Finally, her frustrated Daddy helps her to understand the effort required to grow and cook food, giving her new appreciation for eating meals instead of snacks. A Kirkus Reviews critic described the book as offering “a satisfyingly conveyed and empowering message about choosing what to eat.”(close new—more below)
Birkett began her illustration career in 1997, with Ivan Jones’ The Ghost Hunter, and her more-recent projects have included creating art for stories by writers ranging from Tony Bradman and Paeony Lewis to Kate Petty and Gillian Shields. In her text for Ha Ha, Baby! Petty traces a family’s growing consternation at its’ youngest member continues to wear a solemn poker face as the day goes on. Everybody tries all manner of tricks to get the baby to laugh or at least smile, but to no avail until the story’s narrator turns up. Birkett’s “childlike pastel-outlined mixed-media illustrations feature a cast of characters with round heads, large round eyes, and shaggy hair,” wrote Amy Lilien-Harper in her School Library Journal appraisal of Ha Ha, Baby!
During her long career, Birkett has also created several board books for the “Helping Hands” series of toddler guides. In Cook It! a girl and her father prepare a family dinner, and “Birkett’s bright, line-and-color illustrations focus on the child and her contributions,” noted a Kirkus Reviews writer. Birkett also focused on empowering young children through her work crafting the images for Ready, Steady, Grow! by Sophie Piper. Starting from the premise that nearly all kids of a certain age wish they were bigger, stronger, and faster, Piper offers tips on how to grow properly—through good diet, exercise, and safety. “The simple, colorful artwork uses broad, crayonlike lines to portray a variety of capable children,” asserted Carolyn Phelan in a Booklist review of the collaborative picture book. (open new)Birkett illustrates the story of an older sibling dealing with a new baby in the family in The Best, Best Baby!, written by Anthea Simmons. The older child, a girl, is initially frustrated with her new baby brother, annoyed by his actions and disappointed that he is unable to interact in certain ways. However, she ultimately comes to appreciate special moments of connection that they share. Margaret Mallett, contributor to School Librarian, described the volume as “a warm, very human book to read to big sisters and brothers.”(close new)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, January 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of Joe v. the Fairies, p. 119; March 15, 2010, Carolyn Phelan, review of Ready, Steady, Grow!, p. 45.
Daily Mail (London, England), November 12, 2010, Sally Morris, review of Share!, p. 78.
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2009, review of The Big Night-Night Book; May 15, 2010, review of Cook It!; December 15, 2011, review of A Is for Apple; January 15, 2017, review of I’m Big Now!; May 1, 2024, review of Carry Me!; September 15, 2024, review of Snack, Please!
Publishers Weekly, May 11, 2009, review of The Big Night-Night Book, p. 52.
School Librarian, winter, 2013, Margaret Mallett, review of The Best, Best Baby!, p. 213.
School Library Journal, May, 2008, Amy Lilien-Harper, review of Ha Ha, Baby!, p. 106; November, 2015, Brianne Colombo, review of Teddy Bedtime, p. 76.
ONLINE
Georgie Birkett website, http://www.georgiebirkett.com (October 17, 2024).
I live and work in the beautiful hilly town of Lewes, near Brighton with my husband, two sons and two cats. I have made lots of children’s books, working with many publishers including PenguinRandomHouse, Macmillan and Bloomsbury. Making children's books is the best job ever and so fun, I knew this would be my job even when I was in primary school!
QUOTED: "The format allows for significant developmental breadth."
Birkett, Georgie A IS FOR APPLE Tiger Tales (Children's Picture Books) $7.95 9, 1 ISBN: 978-1-58925-872-3
There's a lot of interaction in these ABCs. Each letter of the alphabet (both upper- and lowercase) receives its due in golden and dark type on blue backgrounds; the uppercase letters are die cut, allowing the yellow to peek through and creating a physical as well as visual shape. Arrows and numbers outline tracing steps for tactile emphasis, and compact flaps hold recognizable drawings of items with the appropriate initial letters. Lifting the flap reveals an additional item. "Pp is for pig / and pear // Qq is for Queen / and quilt." The selections wholly occupy their defined spaces (the picture of the yacht resembles a toy sailboat more than an impressive vessel). The companion, Count with Me, compiles numerals 1 through 20 in a similar format, along with simple addition problems at the end. The format allows for significant developmental breadth; younger children may focus on manipulating the squares while an older audience emphasizes problem-solving and writing. Varied applications from A to Z. (Board book. 2-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Birkett, Georgie: A IS FOR APPLE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2011. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A274719052/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c605c842. Accessed 15 Sept. 2024.
QUOTED: "a warm, very human book to read to big sisters and brothers."
Birkett, Georgie and Simmons, Anthea
The Best, Best Baby!
Andersen, 2013, pp32, 11.99 [pounds sterling]
978 1 84939 526 7
'And when I'm getting grumpy, and wish he wasn't there He smiles his special baby smile and tugs on my hair'.
Babies cannot do very much at first and this can be frustrating for older siblings. The older child in this realistic but hugely entertaining picturebook finds that her baby brother cannot run, dress himself or brush his teeth. Even the things he can do are often irritating throwing food, making rude faces, getting dirty and shouting. But the baby sometimes grabs her hand and stares at her face and she realises that her baby brother is fun and that she loves him. A simple rhyming text, which sometimes moves round the page, matches perfectly with colourful bold-lined illustrations often standing out against a snowy white background. The end pages are lively too--full of toys arranged in rows and, like the main text, likely to encourage talk and questions. This is a warm, very human book to read to big sisters and brothers coping with a new arrival in the family.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 The School Library Association
http://www.sla.org.uk/school-librarian.php
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Mallett, Margaret. "Birkett, Georgie and Simmons, Anthea: The Best, Best Baby!" School Librarian, vol. 61, no. 4, winter 2013, p. 213. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A354933892/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=42dde7ac. Accessed 15 Sept. 2024.
QUOTED: "an easy, fun read-aloud."
BIRKETT, Georgie. Teddy Bedtime. illus. by Georgie Birkett. 24p. Little Bee. 2015. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781499801507. LC 2015934158.
PreS--Teddy and his other stuffed animal friends love to play, jump, sing, and laugh, and they're also excited to get ready for bed. They splash in the tub, put their pajamas on, brush their teeth, and comb their hair. Before lights out, the little animals read individual stories that take them "almost... anywhere." Teddy reads about outer space, Elephant is engrossed in a tale with a snowy scene, Bunny is happily imagining herself in a gingerbread forest, and Kitty reads about ocean adventures. At last, after all the bedtime steps are completed, the animals are getting sleepy, and it's time to turn off the light, cuddle up, and say "Goodnight." The story's simple, rhyming text is fluid and to the point, and it is delicately complemented by Birkett's whimsical and endearing illustrations. Children will enjoy scanning all of the imaginative details packed on each page. VERDICT This little end-of-the-day book is a perfect choice for emphasizing nighttime routines with toddlers and would work well for an easy, fun read-aloud in a toddler bedtime-themed storytime.--Brianne Colombo, Pequannock Township Public Library, NJ
Colombo, Brianne
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Colombo, Brianne. "Birkett, Georgie. Teddy Bedtime." School Library Journal, vol. 61, no. 11, Nov. 2015, p. 76. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A433877974/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2460974d. Accessed 15 Sept. 2024.
Simmons, Anthea I'M BIG NOW! Andersen Press USA (Children's Picture Books) $17.99 3, 1 ISBN: 978-1-5124-3947-2
Rhyming text and exuberant art follow a little girl in an interracial family getting used to her status as big sister. The narrator has brown skin and tightly curled black hair in small braids with bows. Her mother and baby brother share her skin color and hair texture, but her father, her grandmother, and a friend are white. Race is unmentioned in the text, which introduces the girl's "baby big girl game," in which she playfully regresses and tries to wear her old baby clothes and squeeze into her baby bed. Her parents lovingly affirm her big-girl status, and while she seems a bit conflicted, other spreads show her decided enjoyment at doing things her baby brother cannot. Several British words and phrases ("Mummy" and "nappy," for example) are retained in the American edition of this picture book; this cultural specificity adds to its appeal, though there are times when the rhyme doesn't work particularly well, and it never seems essential to the book's success. A child's narration is often difficult to achieve without a sense of adult ventriloquism, and the rhyme makes this yet more fraught. A warm if at times stilted celebration of all things big girl. (Picture book. 2-4)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Simmons, Anthea: I'M BIG NOW!" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2017, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A477242289/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=93e729ca. Accessed 15 Sept. 2024.
QUOTED: "an ode to exhausted mamas everywhere."
Birkett, Georgie CARRY ME! Candlewick (Children's None) $17.99 6, 4 ISBN: 9781536231403
A youngster always wants to be carried but realizes that sometimes his mom gets tired, too.
Wilbur, a mouselike creature with a fluffball tail, is the apple of his mother's eye. They cuddle together all the time. But as Wilbur grows bigger and stronger (he's capable of executing "BIG jumps" in the park, and he adores doing "the wiggle-waggle" and "the boogie-woogie"), he still refuses to walk. In true youngster logic fashion, he declares: "But my stroller will miss me and get sad" and "Actually, my shoes get all grumpy-pumpy when I walk." But one day, when he accidentally drops his plush rabbit and hops out of the stroller to get it, he comes back to find Mommy sitting in the stroller! Poor Mommy needs a break, too. Wilbur decides to take care of her for a change and pushes her up the hill (with some help from his friends). Bright, cheery illustrations feature many parent/child relationships of all species (a tiny family of snails who wear hats on their shells in the winter are especially charming). Personified objects (such as a smiling moon or Wilbur's frowning legs saying, "Not today, thank you") add to the delight. Wilbur appears to be part of a single-parent household.
An ode to exhausted mamas everywhere. (Picture book. 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Birkett, Georgie: CARRY ME!" Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A791876761/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=29a1cae2. Accessed 15 Sept. 2024.
QUOTED: "a satisfyingly conveyed and empowering message about choosing what to eat."
Birkett, Georgie SNACK, PLEASE! Candlewick (Children's None) $17.99 10, 15 ISBN: 9781536238969
A determined snacker breaks her habit.
Gertie, a fuzzy blue mouse, loves eating her dad's cooking. In fact, she loves eating just about anything; she even tries to scarf down a slug in the backyard one time (yuck!). But then, Gertie discovers her most favorite food of all: snacks. "Sweet banana chips! Carroty rice cakes! Crunchy, munchy crackers!" Snacks are incredible, as evidenced by the "nom, nom" sounds that ensue when Gertie devours her favorite treats in the bathtub, in bed, on the couch--in short, everywhere. Gertie eats so many snacks that she isn't hungry at mealtime anymore. All she says is "Snack, please!" (One exception is when she's observing the ducks; then she says, "Snack, snack.") Fed up, Daddy takes Gertie to the community garden, where she picks vegetables alongside Grandma. Gertie then helps Daddy make a special meal for her friends. She's so excited that she eats everything on her plate! Taking ownership of what she eats helps Gertie realize how fun food preparation can be. Birkett's big-eyed, softly rounded anthropomorphic animals help the encouraging message go down easily, and the author/illustrator reassuringly notes that "Gertie still eats some snacks, of course. Everyone does, don't they?"
A satisfyingly conveyed and empowering message about choosing what to eat.(Picture book. 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Birkett, Georgie: SNACK, PLEASE!" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A808342876/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3d1b9990. Accessed 15 Sept. 2024.