Apr 21, 2020
David Roberts is a multi-award-winning and New York Times best-selling illustrator who has earned great acclaim for his distinctive style. While the world comes together to fight a global pandemic, schools have closed, and the public activities that we are used to experiencing with our children are all off-limits. David joined me to share his insightful thoughts about how to interact with our children during this odd time in our lives. He offered this wonderful piece of advice too: allow your children to lead you with their imagination, and pick up on the points they are giving you about the world and about life. David also shared how he uses thoughtful and constructive feedback in his work, his love of fashion, and the art of storytelling through his illustrations.
David was born in Liverpool and studied fashion design at university in Manchester. After graduating, he worked as a milliner and a fashion illustrator but always felt his true calling was in children’s books. David finally realized his dream when his first book was published in 1998, and since then he has collaborated with some of Britain’s finest children’s authors, including Julia Donaldson, Sally Gardner, Philip Ardagh, Jacqueline Wilson, and Andrea Beaty. He is also the creator of the popular Dirty Bertie books (Stripes/Little Tiger Press). His previous work includes collaborations with his sister Lynn on retellings of several classic fairy stories. Their book Little Red was shortlisted for the 2005 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.
In 2006 he won the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize Gold Award for his line drawings in Mouse Noses on Toast (Faber & Faber). Tinder written by Sally Gardner was shortlisted for both the CILIP Kate Greenaway and Carnegie Medals in 2015. He lives in London with his partner.
Tune in to hear David’s thoughts pertaining to:
A key question I ask David is: Tell us about how you handle constructive feedback? How do you let it roll off your shoulders (or incorporate it to improve your output)?
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