SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: CIRCUS GIRL
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Rutland
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: SATA 271
http://www.cambridgecreatives.org/008jnh/008jnha.htm; http://services.raincoast.com/scripts/b2b.wsc/fmp/184507/1845071271.htm
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Czechoslovakia; immigrated to England.
EDUCATION:Hornsey College of Art, graduate; University of London, graduate; University of California, Los Angeles, graduate.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author of books for children. Formerly worked as a textile designer and art teacher in Los Angeles, CA; lecturer at Anglia University; Bear Studios, England, cofounder, with Sue Porter, beginning 1993; Berryland Books, currently senior managing editor. Illustrator for British television. Presenter at workshops and conferences.
AVOCATIONS:Playing piano, amateur dramatics.
WRITINGS
Contributor to short fiction to periodicals, including Sugar and Woman’s Own. Author of “Groovy Chick” novel series. Also author of easy readers for Collins Educational, including Tortoise Trouble, Star Boy’s Surprise, Sam the Detective, Sam and the Dragon, Back Spin, and The Ball Burglary.
SIDELIGHTS
ENTRY SUBMITTED IN SGML FORMAT.
Born in Czechoslovakia, children’s book author Jana Novotny Hunter attended college and worked in the United States for many years before making England her permanent home. Among the many books Hunter has written for younger children, several are collaborations with British artist and illustrator Sue Porter. She focuses on beginning readers in her elementary-grade chapter books for the “Saturday Club,” “Sleepover Club,” and “Pet Detectives” series, while in her award-winning teen novel Read My Lips she focuses on Cat, a deaf teen who must make the choice between learning sign language or attempting to speak. “My brother and sister are both deaf,” Hunter explained to interviewer Cynthia Leitich Smith of Cynsations online, “yet chose opposing ways of communication, with profound repercussions. I wanted to explore this division further in the deaf community and saw the war within a school for the deaf as a parallel to other marginalized groups that break down into minority factions.”
Hunter’s collaboration with Porter has produced several popular picture books for younger readers, among them her early books I Have Feelings!, Ghost Games, and A Bearhug at Bedtime. A preschool picture-book starring a determined young guinea pig in which her text is paired with art by Lucy Richards, I Can Do It! was praised by School Library Journal contributor Linda Zeilstra Sawyer as a “charming book” that is “well suited to children who are starting nursery school.” In Kirkus Reviews a critic described the same book as “a wonderful introduction to nursery-school activities and materials” and predicted that Richards’ reassuring art will be “just right for settling the nerves of new nursery-schoolers.”
Hunter teams up with artist Carol Thompson for When Daddy’s Truck Picks Me Up, which finds a small boy anticipating his father’s arrival at the end of school … in a large tanker truck! In what a Kirkus Reviews writer described as a “playful, rhymed text,” Hunter captures a young child’s building anticipation as the closing bell nears, her story brought to life in Thompson’s “colorful, sketchy” pencil-and-watercolor art. When Daddy’s Truck Picks Me Up “will appeal to the crowds of boys who can’t get enough truck books,” according to School Library Journal reviewer DeAnn Okamura. Hunter opens other windows onto the preschool day in Little Ones Do!, featuring art by Sally Anne Lambert. Called a “sweet-natured” tale by a Publishers Weekly contributor, the picture book follows a small-winged young dragon over the course of a typical dragon day in his affectionate dragon family. Citing one strength of the reassuring story Hunter’s depiction of the youngster’s parents, the Publishers Weekly critic explained that the adult dragons “exude bottomless reserves of patience, orderliness and affection,” while in School Library Journal Karen Scott commended the “short, rhyming text and large, clear illustrations” in Little Ones Do!
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 15, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Little Ones Do!, p. 581.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2006, review of I Can Do It!, p. 574; July 15, 2006, review of When Daddy’s Truck Picks Me Up, p. 723.
Publishers Weekly, June 11, 2001, review of Little One’s Do!, p. 84.
School Library Journal, June, 1993, Anna Biagioni Hart, review of Ghost Games, p. 77; August, 2001, Karen Scott, review of Little Ones Do!, p. 154; August, 2006, Linda Zeilstra Sawyer, review of I Can Do It!, p. 90; October, 2006, DeAnn Okamura, review of When Daddy’s Truck Picks Me Up, p. 113.
ONLINE
Cambridge Wiggly Pencil Web site, http://www.cambridgewigglypencil.com/ (June 7, 2008), “Jana Novotny Hunter.”
Cynsations Web site, http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/ (March 21, 2008), Cynthia Leitich Smith, interview with Hunter.
Jana Novotny Hunter was born in Czechoslovakia and grew up in England. A graduate of Hornsey College of Art, she spent many years in America where she worked as a Textile Designer, Teacher, Writer and Mum. Jana has written over forty books for children, including the prize-winning story of a deaf girl's struggle to become oral, 'Read My Lips'. As a Conference Speaker and Lecturer, Jana focuses on the relationship between image and text in picture books, an expertise that has led to becoming an editor as well as a reviewer. At home with kids, whatever their age, Jana loves to visit schools and libraries or run writing workshops. Her lively presentations are popular with both teachers and pupils, offering the kind of fun in learning which enhances and supports the National Curriculum.
Jana Novotny Hunter was born in Czechoslovakia and grew up in England. A graduate of Hornsey College of Art, she spent many years in the USA, working as a textile designer, teacher, writer and mother. Jana has written more than forty books for children, including Read my Lips, the prizewinning story exploring the communication choices of a Deaf girl.
As a conference speaker and lecturer, Jana focuses on the relationship between image and text in picture books, expertise that has led to her becoming an editor as well as a reviewer. At home with kids of all ages, Jana loves to visit schools and libraries, or to run writing workshops.
posted on 15 May 2017
An Interview With Jana Novotny Hunter
The Letterpress Project has asked authors and illustrators to think about what has inspired them as artists, what their favourite books are and how they relate to their audience - we've also asked them if they themselves are book collectors.
We are delighted to present an exclusive interview with the children's author Jana Novotny Hunter. Jana was born in Czechoslovakia and grew up in England. A graduate of Hornsey College of Art, she spent many years in America where she worked as a Textile Designer, Teacher, Writer and Mum. Jana has written over fifty books for children, including the prize-winning story of a deaf girl's struggle to become oral, 'Read My Lips'. As a Conference Speaker and Lecturer, Jana focuses on the relationship between image and text in picture books, an expertise that has led to becoming an editor as well as a reviewer. At home with kids, whatever their age, Jana loves to visit schools and libraries or run writing workshops. Her lively presentations are popular with both teachers and pupils, offering the kind of fun in learning that enhances and supports the National Curriculum.
Interview: http://www.letterpressproject.co.uk/media/file/Jana_einterview.pdf
Jana Novotny-Hunter
Jana Novotny Hunter was born in Czechoslovakia and grew up in England. A graduate of Hornsey College of Art, she spent many years in the USA, working as a textile designer, teacher, writer and mother. Jana has written more than forty books for children, including Read my Lips, the prizewinning story exploring the communication choices of a Deaf girl.
As a conference speaker and lecturer, Jana focuses on the relationship between image and text in picture books, expertise that has led to her becoming an editor as well as a reviewer. At home with kids of all ages, Jana loves to visit schools and libraries, or to run writing workshops.
How can any little monster possibly go to bed when their tail isn't even tired? And when their knees still have plenty of bounce in them? And when their arms still want to fly like a jet plane? Bedtime is surely a long way off! Luckily, Big Monster has a strategy to outwit Little Monster, with the inevitable result! The collaborative work of author Jana Novotny Hunter and illustrator Paula Bowles, "My Tail's Not Tired" is a humorous and charmingly bedtime story that adults and children ages 3 to 6 will love to read (and play out) again and again. Unique, thoroughly 'kid friendly', and consistently entertaining from cover to cover, "My Tail's Not Tired" is especially recommended for family, preschool, day care center, elementary school, and community library collections. It should be noted for parents that "My Tail's Not Tired" is also available in a paperback edition (9781846439865, $7.99).
Jana Novotny Hunter, author
Paula Bowles, illustrator
Child's Play
250 Minot Avenue, Auburn, ME 04210
www.childs-play.com
9781846439858, $16.99, HC, 32pp, www.amazon.com
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/index.htm
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Hunter, Jana Novotny. "My Tail's Not Tired." Children's Bookwatch, June 2017. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A497910683/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6bd59f17. Accessed 17 June 2020.
Hunter, Jana Novotny MY TAIL'S NOT TIRED Child's Play (Children's Fiction) $16.99 7, 1 ISBN: 978-1-84643-985-8
Little Monster isn't ready for bed. What can Big Monster do?"You must be tired after your big day," says Big Monster. "No, I'm not," replies Little Monster. "My knees have lots of bounces in them." And so the battle begins. "Show me," Big Monster says, with a snaggle-toothed smile. Big Monster's turquoise blue, with orange-striped horns and a nose that resembles a child's drawing of an evergreen tree. Little Monster's a golden yellow, with a nose that resembles a cotton boll. Little Monster jumps on a trampoline but doesn't get tired. "My bottom wants to wiggle-jiggle." "Show me," is Big Monster's reply. Still to come are swinging, rolling around, and frolicking in a frothy bubble bath. Finally it's almost bedtime, but Little Monster's feet aren't tired; they "have jumps inside them." Little Monster jumps like a jack-in-the-box, then needs to take a last zoom around the room, arms extended like an airplane, finally settling in Big Monster's lap. But still, the eyes aren't tired. Big Monster (who is beginning to look pretty fatigued) leads Little Monster in an exercise: "Open, shut...shhh." And so to bed. Hunter avoids pronouns, so the monsters can be gendered any way readers choose. Bowles makes Little Monster appropriately sassy and energetic, and if caregivers are as tired as Big Monster after all Little Monster's antics, well, that's a welcome kind of realism. Simply sweet. (Picture book. 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Hunter, Jana Novotny: MY TAIL'S NOT TIRED." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2017. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A491934182/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=82141238. Accessed 17 June 2020.
Hunter, Jana Novotny CIRCUS GIRL Child's Play (Children's None) $17.99 5, 15 ISBN: 978-1-78628-298-9
A young girl dreams of being a circus star in this British import.
Posters of trapeze artists adorn Sky’s walls, and she sleeps under a comforter patterned with big-top tents and colorful balloons. “She dreams of clowns, / She dreams of acrobats, / She dreams of stardust; / All the fun of the circus!” In this dream, a diverse troupe of performers makes music and performs stunts, one of them a figure in a wheelchair. However, a persistent voice keeps interrupting: “Get up Sky!” and “Hurry up Sky!” Sky, who has brown skin and straight, black hair, eventually wakes and heads out to start her day. This is when readers get a glimpse that there just might be reality behind this dream. There is a big top in the background, and the school Sky heads to from her trailer is another one, with “SCHOOL” on its door. Sky is a circus performer after all! Camp infuses the art with circus enthusiasm: Sky balances towers of school books in each hand (juggling and tumbling texts are mixed in), and at breakfast, a pyramid of coffee cups take center stage on the table. Overall, the reveal is fun, but while readers will enjoy seeing that the figures from Sky’s dreams inhabit her reality as well, dragging it out over 11 pages serves to deflate rather than increase excitement.
This twist on dreams coming true goes on a bit too long. (Picture book. 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Hunter, Jana Novotny: CIRCUS GIRL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617193067/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=13b7a3c2. Accessed 17 June 2020.