SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: KIND CROCODILE
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: www.leotimmers.com
CITY: Brussels
STATE:
COUNTRY: Belgium
NATIONALITY: Belgian
LAST VOLUME: SATA 374
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born February 12, 1970, in Belgium; married; wife’s name Gina; children: Luna, one other daughter.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, illustrator, animator, and graphic artist. Creator, director, designer, and scripwriter of animated television series, including Ziggy en de Zootram and Dokter Diederik Diepzee.
AWARDS:Bookfeather Award, 2000, for Happy with Me; seven Flemish Children’s and Youth Jury Awards, including 2005, for Just in Time by Bart Demyttenaere, 2006, for Supermouse, 2007, for Who Is Driving?, and 2017, for Gus’s Garage; Boikenpauw (Bookpeacock) Award for best illustrated book (Flanders), 2012, for Bang!; CPNB Picture Book of the Year, 2019, for Een huis voor Harry; New York Times/New York Public Library 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books selection, 2019, for Monkey on the Run.
WRITINGS
Author’s work has been translated into thirty-two languages, including Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. Created the television show Ziggy & the Zoo Tram, which ran from 2016 to 2020 with fifty-two episodes in total.
The picture book Deep-Sea Doctor Derek is being adapted for television, with Timmers working on the adaptation.
SIDELIGHTS
Leo Timmers is a Belgian illustrator and author of children’s books with a fondness for animals, vehicles, and active narratives of all kinds. His interest in literature started with his fanatic devotion to comic books when he was a boy. He started drawing his own comics when he was eight or nine, and his father, being an artist himself, not only lent lots of encouragement but also helped Timmers self-publish his first comic when he was just eleven years old. They would travel to markets and bookstores to sell them. Speaking with Foreword Reviews about his innate creativity, Timmers related: “As a kid I made everything myself. With wood, cardboard shoeboxes, tape—I made just about anything! I really loved to do that and sometimes I think that the sense of space and volume in my work is also a result of making things in ‘3D.’”
By the end of high school, the extensive effort needed to write and draw even a single comic left Timmers instead pursuing an education and career in graphic design. It was another Belgian artist’s success in becoming a children’s book illustrator that inspired Timmers to shift fields. He visited the woman’s publisher, received a test assignment, and was soon illustrating his first picture books, favoring acrylic paints. After several years of mining other people’s texts for artistic inspiration, he realized that he would only find true fulfillment in both writing and illustrating his own books. One of his first self-illustrated titles, Blij met mij, was published in Flemish (or Dutch as spoken in Belgium) in 1999 and translated to English a few years later as Happy with Me. Regarding his affinity for animal characters, Timmers told a Wellington City Libraries interviewer, “I think animals are great because it creates a distance from our world. You are immediately in another world; you have all these different shapes and colours. You can talk about human things with a distance.”
Happy with Me finds a young boy inspired by his bedtime story to imagine how much fun being different animals could be—but he also recognizes the downsides. For example, having eight arms like an octopus might be four times the action, but it could also involve untying knots. Being human, the boy concludes, is pretty great after all. Booklist reviewer Lauren Peterson affirmed that Timmers “uses light and shadow to achieve great depth and dimension, and the brilliant colors … attract attention.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer found that the “illustrations are imaginative and accomplished,” making Happy with Me “highly visual and plenty of fun.”
Every spread offers a visual riddle in Who Is Driving?, as kids are encouraged to guess which of several animals belongs to a certain vehicle based on their costumes and accoutrements—the elephant with the flame insignia gets the fire truck, the pig with the pitchfork gets the tractor, and so on. In Booklist, Carolyn Phelan observed that “the clarity and pizzazz of the sturdy images will draw children into the fun.”
The Magical Life of Mr. Renny is a picture-book tribute to Belgian modern-art master Rene Magritte, whose famous portrait of a pipe includes the caption “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”—French for “This is not a pipe.” Timmers’s book features a dog named Mr. Renny who, selling his paintings in the market, meets a stranger in a bowler hat who can turn his paintings into real objects. This proves tantalizing and thrilling, until Mr. Renny’s friend Rose is disappointed, preferring beautiful art to shiny new things. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called The Magical Life of Mr. Renny a “vibrant, highly entertaining inquiry into the difference between what’s real and what merely looks real,” while a Kirkus Reviews writer affirmed that the “whimsical illustrations bring the story to life.”
Timmers offers young readers “a marvelously loony series of fender benders,” in the words of a Publishers Weekly writer, with Bang. After a deer in a convertible, reading a copy of this very book, accidentally hits a trash can, one automobile after another has a minor accident, often sending their cargo flying from car to car, until the unfolding catastrophe turns into a delightful ice-cream social. A Kirkus Reviews writer pondered: “A cautionary tale on the hazards of distracted driving? If anything, just the opposite, but it’s sure a lot of fun.”
Playing on the classic Frankenstein monster, Timmers wrote Franky, which finds young Sam, convinced that robots live in outer space, making a robot pal of his own. Sam and Franky enjoy their time together, watching UFO films and making a sand robot at the beach, until a spaceship drops down and robots just like Franky welcome him into their fold. A Kirkus Reviews writer called Franky “an imaginative and visual pleasure,” while a Publishers Weekly reviewer appreciated how this “tender, funny friendship story” intimates that “Sam’s creativity and faith have allowed him to tap into a truth far bigger than himself.”
Gus’s Garage features an industrious pig who repairs customers’ unusual vehicles by using objects he has salvaged. Rico the rhino gets an easy chair for his scooter, Walter the walrus a rooftop tub for cooling off, and Gina the giraffe an ingenius heating system to keep her neck warm. AKirkus Reviews writer declared that “supersaturated hues and maximum automotive whimsy make this one to pore over.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer admired how “amid all the fun, the emphasis is on imaginative tweaking, reusing things, and cheerful help, selflessly given.”
A young monkey caught in an after-school traffic jam with his father makes the most of the situation in Monkey on the Run, hopping from car to car for a series of mischievous deeds. A Publisher Weekly reviewer found that the “marvelous wheeled contraptions” bear abundant “comic gravitas, and the way the conveyances interact offers mechanical and character-based amusement. “Regarding his sympathy for the protagonist in Monkey on the Run, Timmers declared in an author statement for Gecko Press, “Like the little monkey, life started for me when school was done. Finally I could go home and play and draw!”
[OPEN NEW]
In 2019, Timmers’s A Home for Harry, about a cat that follows a butterfly, was elected Picture Book of the Year in the Netherlands. The same year, Timmers became the first Belgian illustrator to be honored by the New York Times, when Monkey on the Run was selected as one of the ten best illustrated children’s books of 2019.
[CLOSE NEW]
In Where Is the Dragon?, three hapless knights go on a nighttime search for the dragon their king has fearfully described, with only a candle to light their way. Every time they encounter a fitting and frightening silhouette, it turns out to be something “entirely benign and delightfully silly,” as a Kirkus Reviews writer related. The reviewer enjoyed the “wonderful, surprising rhymes” in the “Seussian singsong” text.
[OPEN NEW]
Kind Crocodile, which was translated from the Dutch by Bill Nagelkerke, is a board book about a crocodile who wants to be nice to other animals. He gets his chance when four animals, including an antelope, hog, and mouse, all take refuge from other predators by hopping on the crocodile’s back. By the fourth animal, however, the crocodile is struggling to carry everyone. The review for Publishers Weekly argued that this outing is not “as tight as Timmers’s previous works,” but it found it a “diverting reminder that kindness comes in all shapes and sizes.” The reviewer for Kirkus Reviews largely agreed, calling the story “a bit on the thin side” but appreciated the “humorously expressive illustrations.”
The picture book Elephant Island features Arnold, an elephant on the high seas who ends up shipwrecked on a tiny island. Different animals happen by and try to save Arnold, but he merely ends up wrecking their boats, too. Not discouraged, the animals start using the various boat pieces to enlarge their new home, and the island turns into a fun and complicated park. Carolyn Phelan, writing for Booklist, loved the book for its “likable main character” and the “joyous community” that is portrayed in this “tender yet dynamic” story. The reviewer for Publishers Weekly concurred, calling the book a “tribute to the power of collective, constructive play.”
[CLOSE NEW]
Timmers has also been praised for his illustrations in others’ works. Jean Rediy is the author of All through My Town and Busy Builders, Busy Week! In the first title, a little bunny and his mother tour their town while running errands, and from school to hospital to library and everywhere in between, they see everyday people doing interesting things. A Kirkus Reviews writer noted of All through My Town that “the acrylic illustrations are bright and busy, full of details to spot, animals to identify and things to find and count.” Busy Builders, Busy Week! shows the buzzing construction activity that raises a playground before the reader’s eyes. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found that the “big-eyed, cheerful animals” and “whimsical playground fixtures” help make for a “joyful cacophony of color and activity.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, July, 2002, Lauren Peterson, review of Happy with Me, p. 1861; December 15, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Who Is Driving?, p. 52; March 15, 2013, Andrew Medlar, review of All through My Town, p. 88; January 1, 2017, John Peters, review of Gus’s Garage, p. 100; March 1, 2022, Carolyn Phelan, review of Elephant Island, p. 60.
Horn Book Guide, fall, 2013, Rebecca Reed Whidden, review of All Through My Town, p. 14; spring, 2014, Nell Beram, review of Bang, p. 47; fall 2016, Martha V. Parravano, review of Busy Builders, Busy Week!, p. 18, and Nell Beram, review of Franky, p. 57.
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2012, review of The Magical Life of Mr. Renny; February 15, 2013, review of All through My Town; September 1, 2013, review of Bang; January 15, 2016, review of Franky; April 15, 2016, review of Busy Builders, Busy Week!; January 1, 2017, review of Gus’s Garage; February 1, 2021, review of Where Is the Dragon?; December 15, 2022, review of Kind Crocodile.
Magpies, March, 2007, Margaret Kedian, review of Who Is Driving?, p. 26; April, 2012, Jo Goodman, review of The Magical Life of Mr. Renny, p. 28; April, 2013, Sharon Greenaway, review of Bang!, p. 26.
Publishers Weekly, April 8, 2002, review of Happy with Me, p. 227; January 15, 2007, review of Who Is Driving?, p. 50; July 9, 2012, review of The Magical Life of Mr. Renny, p. 63; June 17, 2013, review of Bang, p. 61; December 14, 2015, review of Franky, p. 81; April 18, 2016, review of Busy Builders, Busy Week!, p. 115; January 9, 2017, review of Gus’s Garage, p. 65; November 27, 2019, review of Monkey on the Run, p. 28; January 17, 2022, review of Elephant Island, p. 66; January 2, 2023, review of Kind Crocodile, p. 50.
School Library Journal, January, 1998, Lisa Falk, review of Monkey See, Monkey Do: An Animal Exercise Book for You!, p. 87; March, 2007, Judith Constantinides, review of Who Is Driving?, p. 187; October, 2010, Heidi Estrin, review of Crow, p. 94; August, 2012, Martha Simpson, review of Oops!, p. 88; December, 2012, Joan Kindig, review of The Magical Life of Mr. Renny, p. 101; February, 2013, Lynn Vanca, review of All through My Town, p. 84; September, 2013, Gay Lynn Van Vleck, review of Bang!, p. 134; February, 2016, Melissa Smith, review of Franky, p. 4; June, 2016, Rachel Anne Mencke, review of Busy Builders, Busy Week!, p. 67.
ONLINE
Behance, https://www.behance.net/ (June 3, 2021), author profile.
Élami Agency, https://www.elami-agency.com (May 26, 2023), author profile.
Flanders Literature, https://www.flandersliterature.be/ (June 3, 2021), author profile.
Flemish Illustrators, http://www.vlaamse-illustratoren.com/ (August 15, 2017), “Leo Timmers.”
Foreword Reviews, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (February 22, 2017), Seth Dellon, “The Fine Art of Dirty Pigs: About the Cover of the Next Foreword Reviews.”
Gecko Press, https://geckopress.com/ (July 22, 2019), Leo Timmers, “I Like to Exploit and Stretch an Idea until It Reaches Breaking Point.”
Leo Timmers website, http://www.leotimmers.com (June 3, 2021).
Sandbox World, http://www.editoon.com/sandbox/ (September 13, 2007), “Leo Timmers.”
Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast, http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/ (January 24, 2021), “7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #727: Featuring Leo Timmers.”
Wellington City Libraries, https://www.wcl.govt.nz/ (March 8, 2014), “Leo Timmers: Writers Week Q&A.”*
Leo Timmers
Leo studied advertising and graphic design and worked for many years as an illustrator. He made his debut as a picture book author in 2000 with Happy with me and was awarded with a Bookfeather (most promising picture book debut) the same year.
From then on Leo wrote most of his books himself.
Gus’s Garage was awarded the 2017 Children’s and Youth Jury Award, a price Leo won seven times, and his book Bang was awarded the prestigious Bookpeacock Award (Best illustrated book of the year). A Home for Harry will be the Picture Book of the Year 2019 in the Netherlands.
His books have been translated in more than 25 languages.
Leo Timmers is also involved in animation projects. He created the TV- series Ziggy & the Zootram, and he is currently working on the TV-adaptation of his picture book Deep-sea Doctor Derek.
Leo lives with his wife and two daughters in Brussels.
www.leotimmers.com
Leo Timmers (1970) studied advertising and graphic design and worked for many years as an illustrator.
He made his debut as a picture book author in 2000 with Happy with me and was awarded with a Bookfeather (most promising picture book debut) the same year.
From then on Leo wrote most of his books himself. Gus’s Garage was awarded the 2017 Children’s and Youth Jury Award, a price Leo won seven times, and his book Bang was awarded the prestigious Bookpeacock Award (best illustrated book of the year).
A Home for Harry was elected Picture Book of the Year 2019 in the Netherlands and Monkey on the Run was chosen for the New York Times / New York Public Library 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Book 2019. Leo’s books have been translated in more than 25 languages.
Leo Timmers, trans, from the Dutch by Bill Nagelkerke. Gecko, $16.99 (28p) ISBN 978-1-7765-7470-4
This large-format board book unfolds with a witty pileup--a Timmers (Elephant Island) specialty--resulting when four animals successively seek refuge on the long back of grassy green Crocodile. First on board is a frantic little rodent who implores "kind Crocodile" to save it from a marvelously villainous snake with focused eyes and a long red tongue. Crocodile, as genuinely compassionate a reptile as the title promises, not only acquiesces, it also emits a menacing "GRRRR!" that sends the snake fleeing. As other potential prey stack up vertically on the scaly reptile's back, Crocodile remains committed to protecting each, but also appears increasingly beleaguered as the animals' weight becomes physically crushing. In a bumpy resolution that requires a jump on the part of readers, the previously fleeing animals muster some courage and turn the tables on a hungry lion. Their triumphant comment--"Nothing can scare us ever again"--naturally provokes Crocodile, who emits a playful'GRRRR... JUST KIDDING," reminding the group how recently they required external assistance. The story may not be quite as tight as Timmers's previous works, but it's a diverting reminder that kindness comes in all shapes and sizes--and sometimes requires community. Ages 2-4. (Mar.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Kind Crocodile." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 1, 2 Jan. 2023, p. 50. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A733160530/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=37af09c1. Accessed 20 May 2023.
Timmers, Leo KIND CROCODILE Gecko Press (Children's None) $16.99 3, 7 ISBN: 978-1-77657-470-4
Animals under siege solicit a crocodile's help.
A mouse running from a snake, a warthog fleeing a hyena, and an antelope escaping a cheetah implore "kind Crocodile"to rescue them. As each would-be victim runs up the croc's snout in terror (eventually forming a tower of animals on its back), said reptile erupts in a fearsome growl, prompting the hapless hunter to skedaddle. All seems well until a lumbering rhino, a fierce lion hot upon its heels, also appeals for assistance. As the rhino climbs on, the other animals catapult onto its back, and the rhino squashes the crocodile, rendering it speechless. A wild series of events ensues, including a welcome comeuppance for the lion and a lot of unjustified self-congratulatory comments among the formerly beleaguered animal supplicants, who seem to have forgotten to thank the crocodile for their rescues. The sly croc gets some of its own back in a teasing manner, though, and all ends on a friendly, albeit flat note; the croc's "joke" may confuse some readers. This tale, a Dutch import by way of New Zealand, is a bit on the thin side, especially on a crowded shelf of funny board books. Still, the humorously expressive illustrations are appealing, as are the prominent appearances of onomatopoeic animal howls incorporated at strategic points throughout. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A diverting read on the theme of enough-is-enough but nothing special. (Board book. 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Timmers, Leo: KIND CROCODILE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A729727426/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2271f82f. Accessed 20 May 2023.
Elephant Island. By Leo Timmers. Illus. by the author. Tr. by James Brown. Mar. 2022. 40p. Gecko, $18.99 (9781776574346). PreS-Gr. 2.
After a boisterous wave sinks his boat, Arnold the seafaring elephant swims for hours before climbing onto a tiny island. A mouse rows by and offers him a ride, but when Arnold steps aboard, the rowboat shatters. They use the wood to build a structure extending the minute island. Increasingly larger boats come to their rescue, break apart, and add to the ramshackle scaffolding and platforms, making space for a large crowd of creatures who join in the nightly singing and dancing. Even after "the sea lost its temper," smashing Arnold's strangely uplifting construction, the elephant uses the debris to build another fantastic structure, full of animal friends who enjoy the ongoing celebrations. Timmers, a Belgian writer-illustrator, creates a likable main character with a creative imagination and engineering skills. From the image of the solitary, stranded elephant quoting the ancient mariner, "Alone, alone, all, all alone. Alone on a wide wide sea," to the scenes depicting his joyous community at the story's end, the tender yet dynamic verbal and visual narrative never falters in this engaging picture book.--Carolyn Phelan
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Phelan, Carolyn. "Elephant Island." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 13, 1 Mar. 2022, p. 60. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A697177024/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b29af1b6. Accessed 20 May 2023.
Elephant Island
Leo Timmers, trans, from the Dutch by James Brown. Gecko, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-77657-434-6
When a "boisterous wave" sinks Arnold the elephant's boat--the stormy sea is rendered in almost palpably rough dark brushstrokes--he's stranded on a tiny rock barely the size of his foot. But though several seafaring animals offer to rescue him, each boat is swamped as soon as the pachyderm sreps aboard. No matter: like Timmets (Monkey on the Run), Arnold proves a gifted and deeply silly engineer. Salvaging the wreckage, the elephant rigs up an increasingly elaborate, improbable structure atop the diminutive rock, transforming it into a multilevel affair on which the group dances under a statry blue sky and "all night long sang whale songs." As is true for any trend-serting spot, "Soon everyone was setting course for Elephant Island," with each new animal deliberately contributing its respective vessel to create a towering attraction--complete with a waffle maker--that's portrayed with subtle sculptural dimensionality. When a second squall gives everyone the chance to head home, the group demurs; it's a picture book tribute to the power of collective, constructive play, and to heeding the call of fteedom. Ages 3-6. (Mar.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Elephant Island." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 3, 17 Jan. 2022, p. 66. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A691684696/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d38fa185. Accessed 20 May 2023.