Update: Marjorie
van Heerden’s 2017, 2018, 2019
and the first half of 2020
and the first half of 2020
“These past few
years I have been very busy illustrating and loving every moment – but I have
neglected updating my CV. Below is a
summary of what I have been busy with...”
Marjorie started working on the The Adventures
of Willy Nilly & Thumper series in 2014.
The first year she spent mostly developing the characters and the design of the
books, and also creating visual material for a website to market the series. At
the same time the team in the USA chose the first few stories, rewriting and
editing where necessary and sorting out the order in which these first stories would
be published. And then Marjorie started with the illustrations.
In early in 2016 the first two books were printed. In May 2016 the author, Jim Henry, invited
Marjorie to fly to Texas, as his personal guest, for the official launch of the
first two Willy Nilly and Thumper
books.
The following years (2016 onwards) Marjorie spent illustrating
the books in the The Adventures of Willy
Nilly & Thumper series, written by Jim Henry (with Jimmy Patterson) and
published by Willy Nilly Books, Midland, Texas.
Published in 2016:
Book One: The Lost Treasure of Mount Methuselah
Book Two: The Hermit’s Last Hairs
Book Three:
Stella Star
Published in 2017:
Book Four:
Charlie the Cross-Eyed Crocodile
Book Five:
The Very Hungry Ogre
After the five books in this series, the adventures
of Willy Nilly and Hopper (Thumper’s new name) continue in a new series called
the Tales from Hoop ‘n’ Holler:
Book One: The Wizard’s Apprentice (2018)
Book Two: The Underground Invaders (2019)
Book
Three: Sly Fox Stew (2020)
To date there are six books in the Tales from Hoop ‘n’ Holler series, so
there are three more books in the pipeline.
The
books in the series received some awards in the USA:
The Adventures of Willy Nilly
& Thumper:
Book Three Stella Star (2016) -
Winner of the 2018 Reader Views Kids Choice Award.
The Adventures of Willy Nilly
& Thumper:
Book Four: Charlie, the Cross-Eyed
Crocodile (2017) - the 2017 Writer’s Digest Award - Honorable Mention.
Tales from Hoop ’n’ Holler: Book One - The Wizard’s Apprentice (2018) – Bronze
medal winner of the 2019 Moonbeam
Children's Book Awards an award from entries all over the world.
The Wizard’s Apprentice was also the Winner of the 2019 Readers
Views Kids Award for Best Children’s Book of the Year.
Although
this series of amazing American books has kept Marjorie very busy during this
period she did manage to illustrate at least one book for a South African
publisher each year...
In 2015 and 2016 Marjorie was also doing
illustrations for Storiemuis (“Story Mouse”), the series of Afrikaans
children's books written by Leon Rousseau and
published by Human & Rousseau Publishers in Cape Town – The six books in
the series were illustrated by three illustrators, Marjorie, Karen Ahlschläger
and Johann Strauss. “Storiemuis
Book 6” was shortlisted
for the MER Prize at the 2017 Media24 Books
Literary Awards for illustrated
children's books.
Marjorie also illustrated a book by South African
author Wendy Maartens. It is a collection of stories related to the sea, and
published in both English (as Sea Stories)
and Afrikaans (as Stories van die See)
in 2016.
In
2017 Marjorie illustrated Die Leeutemmer
se Assistent
, written by Solet Scheeres (in Afrikaans) and
published by LAPA Publishers (South Africa).
In 2018 she illustrated Peter Pan and
Laurie, A Sequel to Peter Pan and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, written
by Marié Heese, published in the original English and in Afrikaans translation by
Protea Books in 2019.
Grandma Lim’s
Persimmons-
written by Sunita Lad Bhamray, illustrated by Marjorie Van Heerden was
republished in Korea by Jungin Publishing Co (Originally Published by
Oyez!Books, Malaysia May 2013).
In 2016 and in 2017 Marjorie was, for the seventh and
eighth consecutive years, invited to present a 5-day Children’s Book
Illustration Course at the Centre for Comic, Illustrative and Book Arts (CCIBA)
at the Stellenbosch University’s Department of Visual Arts (part of a series of
creative workshops offered by the university during the Spring Break).
Marjorie continued as Co-RA for the South African
chapter of the SCBWI through 2016, 2017 and 2018, but because of her work load she
decided that it was time to cut back on some of her additional commitments and she
reluctantly decided to step down from being a Regional Advisor. So, on the 1st
of December 2018 Marjorie van Heerden resigned as Co-RA of the South African
chapter of the SCBWI. She received Regional Advisor
Emerita status (which includes life time membership) from
the SCBWI after 18 years of enthusiastic and dedicated leadership.
Kathleen Ahrens,
International Advisor Chair & Angela Cerrito, Assistant International
Advisor wrote:
Thank you for 18 years of
Leadership.
Many of you know Marjorie van
Heerden (http://www.grafikon.co.za/) who has been founder and Co-RA of SCBWI’s
South Africa chapter since 2003. But I bet you didn’t know that she also
started the chapter in Greece and was RA for Greece for 3 years in 2000-2003.
Marjorie
began illustrating children’s books in 1983. Before joining SCBWI, she was
gathering children’s book people together for talks, workshops, lectures, and
university courses. So, you can imagine the result when Marjorie and SCBWI
finally connected!
In her
own words: When I found out about the SCBWI I felt as if I had
discovered friends and family I had never known about and since becoming a
member I have been encouraged and supported to follow my dream of helping the
children’s book writers and illustrators of Africa to develop their craft and
to follow their own dreams.
Marjorie
led SCBWI South Africa with a Co-RA by her side (first Paddy Bouma and since
2008 Elaine Ridge) and Jenny Hatton as ARA. Marjorie’s also had a team of
dedicated committee members helping to make the magic happen. This team has
organized an event at least every other month and several large international conferences
hosting superstars like Ken Brown, Harriett Barton, Tony Ross, Katherine
Patterson, Steve Mooser, and many others. The conferences and special events
are too many to mention here, so I’ll mention only one. Marjorie initiated the
first children’s book conference in South Africa. Towards
Understanding hosted 550 delegates with keynote speaker Joseph H.
Schwarcz, author of Ways of the Illustrator: Visual Communication in
Children’s Literature and The Picture Book Comes of Age:
Looking at Childhood Through the Art of Illustration.
Marjorie,
we can’t thank you enough for all that you have done for SCBWI and for the
world of children’s literature!
Marjorie’s
last day as Co-RA was 1 December. She now joins the ranks of RAE. To
congratulate her off list please write to marjorie@grafikon.co.za
Kathleen
Ahrens, International Advisor Chair & Angela Cerrito, Assistant
International Advisor
To continue:
From the beginning of 2020 Marjorie has been very
busy. She finished the illustrations for Book Three: Sly Fox Stew of the Tales from Hoop ‘n’ Holler series. It was
published in May this year.
And she is currently busy with the final colour
illustrations for Jump the Moon,
another American children’s book. It was written by Kathy Simmers and is to be published
in the USA later this year (2020).
Fortunately, before the current lockdown, Marjorie
managed to get together enough art materials to finish the next four books that
are lined up. That means she will be able to continue working, so Marjorie will
spend most of her time safely in her studio, during this terrifying Covid 19
Pandemic. Although on request she helps
illustrators on the Internet with their work (via zoom, the
video and online chat communication service). You can contact her on marjorie@grafikon.co.za for
more information about these one-on-one sessions.
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