Pin, Isabel 1975-

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Pin, Isabel 1975-

Personal

Born 1975, in Versailles, France. Education: Attended École des Arts Décoratif (Strasbourg, Austria) and Hamburg Fachhochschule für Gestaltung.

Addresses

Home—Berlin, Germany.

Career

Author and illustrator.

Awards, Honors

First prize, Institut Charles Perrault; Kinder-und Jugendbuchpreis Luchs 230, Radio Bremen, 2004, for Kleiner König, wer bist du? by Antonie Schneider, 2006, for Ein Regentag im Zoo; numerous other prizes for illustration.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Der Kern, Michael Neugebauer (Zürich, Switzerland), 2001 translation by Rosemary Lanning published as The Seed, North-South Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Wenn ich groβ bin, werde ic Nobelpreisträger, Hanser (Munich, Germany), 2005, translated by Nancy Seitz as When I Grow Up, I Will Win the Nobel Peace Prize, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2006.

Papa Sumo, BajazzoVerlag (Zürich, Switzerland), 2005.

Ein Regentag im Zoo, BajazzoVerlag (Zürich, Switzerland), 2006.

Als alle früher nac Hause kamen, Peter Hammer (Wuppertal, Germany), 2006.

Wenn mein Papa weg ist …, BajazzoVerlag (Zürich, Switzerland), 2007.

ILLUSTRATOR

Nadine Bru-Cosme, L'indien d'à côté, Nathan (Paris, France), 2000.

Gilles Barraqué, Pas de pitié pour la canaille, 2003.

Antonie Schneider, Kleiner König, wer bist du?, Aufbau (Berlin, Germany), 2004.

Gudrun Mebs, Sie hat mich einfach mitgenommen, Suerländer (Düsseldorf, Germany), 2004.

Sidelights

Born in Versailles, France, Isabel Pin studied illustration at the École des Arts Decoratif in Strasbourg, as well as at Hamburg, Germany's College of Design. Now living in Berlin, Germany, she both writes and illustrates books for young readers, many of which have been praised for their reassuring texts and pacifist values. Characterized by a Publishers Weekly contributor as an "antiwar allegory" featuring a "surreal, post-apocalyptic landscape," Pin's self-illustrated picture book The Seed focuses on two groups of insects as they plan to battle over a cherry pit that has fallen on the line dividing their two territories. Their preparations for battle cause them to ignore the seed over several years; when they return to the border to confront each other, the Scarabs and the Chafers realize that their battle is pointless: the seed has grown into a lush cherry tree with fruited branches overhanging both territories equally. Pin's "unusual" artwork is "filled with texture," noted School Library Journal contributor Marianne Saccardi, the critic adding that the "fantastical creatures"—part cockroach and part bee—are imaginatively rendered. In Publishers Weekly the critic concluded of the book that, by integrating art and text, Pin "unite[s] the elements into a sophisticated but amiable whole."

Also focusing on conflict resolution, When I Grow up, I Will Win the Nobel Peace Prize finds a young boy assuring himself (and the reader) that he will grow up to do good things. However, as a child his rambunctiousness is hard for him to control, and things get broken despite his good intentions. Citing the book's "sly, ironic humor and unusual illustrations," a Kirkus Reviews writer suggested that Pin's book would be appreciated more by parents than children because of the young protagonist's moral confusion, the critic adding that the author/illustrator's "vaguely cartoonish characters," with their oddly proportioned bodies, "add to the oddness" of the European import.