Nikki McClure

 

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011

The Writer’s Story: 3:30PM,

The Garfield Book Company

Reading: 7PM,

The Regency Room

 

Nikki McClure lives in Olympia. She is a self-taught artist making papercuts since 1996. McClure makes a calendar of her papercuts every year that are sent far and wide. She has also written and illustrated several children’s books and journals including her latest book To Market, To Market and the New York Times Best-seller All in a Day, by Cynthia Rylant. Her images also appear on Patagonia apparel and as magazine illustrations. Sometimes McClure collaborates with her husband, Jay T. Scott, making lamps, and with her son making gardens and large holes in dirt. In addition to all of this work, she picks blueberries, swims in wild lakes, and makes an occasional pie.

 

On To Market, To Market

Readers join a mother and child on their trip to the farmers market, meeting vendors and learning how they prepare their goods for sale. Exact, masterful cut-paper illustrations bring the market’s smells, produce, bustle and cheery people to life. At each stand, a double-page spread introduces the artisan and the next item on the family’s shopping list. On the left, proud portraits of smiling producers selling their goods immediately humanize the quotidian errand; on the right, the list item appears in large, colored lettering followed by a brief introduction to both sellers and their products. McClure calls the vendors by their first names only, and her conversational tone feels almost as warm as a good handshake. A page-turn takes readers back to the orchard, field, smoke-house, garage or barn where their goods originated—earthy, realistic scenes captured brilliantly through bold, black lines and the use of a single color associated with each item. Opposite pages deliver lengthy, sometimes exhausting, descriptions of each production process. McClure clearly wishes to honor the sellers’ unflagging energy and admirable work, and she succeeds handily through her lively illustrations. Here, cut paper reads as freeze frames, action shots of real people with cockeyed grins, tattoos, funny hats, dogs and children.

 

Praise for Nikki McClure:

“This uplifting picture book succeeds in introducing children to the perennial promise of tomorrow through lithe language and honed imagery.”

   —Kirkus

 

“A handsome, effective piece of bookmaking that captures the glory of a day and the possibilities it holds.”

   —Booklist