I feel very fortunate to have seen my friend Yvonne Mes’s journey from pitch to publication. The timeline from accepting a contract to the launch of Yvonne’s book, ‘Meet Sidney Nolan’ has been short for a picture book, (11 months), but it was still an intense time for her. A lot of research, numerous drafts, then edits before the manuscript was finalised.
Her excitement when she found out the illustrator was Sandra Eterovic was contagious. Yvonne shared pictures of Sandra’s work with me, and I knew the story Yvonne had written would be brought to life by Sandra’s artwork.
When Yvonne showed me the cover, with its soft pink background and Sidney, looking very pleased with himself, I shared her joy.
I didn’t get to go to the launch of Meet Sidney Nolan at The Mad Hatters Bookshop in Brisbane, but I am very happy for my friend and I am overjoyed to share this beautiful book with my children.
Meet Sidney Nolan is published by Random House Australia, ISBN 987 0 85798 589 7 and is available in bookshops now. The teacher’s notes can be found here http://www.randomhouse.com.au/content/teachers/meetsidney.pdf