Slavin, Bill 1959-

SLAVIN, Bill 1959-

Personal

Born February 12, 1959, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada; son of William Joseph Vincent (an electrician) and Dorothy Barry (Rugg) Slavin; married Esperança Melo (a book designer), June 2, 1990. Education: Attended Sheridan College (Oakville, Ontario, Canada).

Addresses

Home— Box 431, Millbrook, Ontario LOA 1GO, Canada. E-mail— bslavin@nexicom.net.

Career

Tele-Direct, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, layout artist, 1978-81; General Store Publishing House, Burnstown, Ontario, Canada, art director, 1982-87; freelance illustrator, 1988—. Founder with wife, Esperança Melo, of company Kinder Box. Has exhibited artwork in shows at the Millbrook Gallery, where he is part of an artists' collective, and the Portuguese Consulate in Canada.

Member

Canadian Children's Book Centre; Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers; Millbrook Gallery.

Awards, Honors

Honor title, Storytelling World, 1997, for The Stone Lion; Book Illustration of the Year, Alberta Book Awards, 2000, and Book of the Year, Foreword Magazine 's Book Awards, 2001, both for The Bone Talker; Ontario Silver Birch Award, 2001, for Adventures in the Middle Ages; Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice, Starred Selection, 2003, for The Big Book of Canada: Exploring the Provinces and Territories; Red Cedar Award, 2003, for Adventures in the Middle Ages; Hackmatack Award, 2003, for Adventures with the Vikings.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

The Stone Lion, Red Deer College Press (Red Deer, Alberta, Canada), 1966.

ILLUSTRATOR; FICTION

Paulette Bourgeois, Too Many Chickens, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1990, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1991.

Bob King, Sitting on the Farm, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1991, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Ben Brooks, Lemonade Parade, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1991, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1992.

Ethan Miles, Otto's Tricks, Silver, Burdett, & Ginn (Morristown, NJ), 1992.

Nathan Zimmerman, How the Second Grade Got $8,205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1992.

Kathleen Tucker, reteller, The Cat Came Back, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1992.

Amanda Lewis and Tim Wynne-Jones, Rosie Backstage, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, retold by Tim Wynne-Jones, Orchard (New York, NY), 1996.

Ted Staunton, Morgan Makes Magic, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1997.

A. W. Cockerill, Emma on Albert Street, Black Cat Press (Cobourg, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

Howard Engels, A Child's Christmas in Scarborough, Key Porter Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

(With Joe Weissmann) Truly Scary Stories for Fearless Kids (anthology), Key Porter Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

Ted Staunton, Morgan and the Money, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 1998.

Shelley A. Leedahl, The Bone Talker, Red Deer College Press (Red Deer, Alberta, Canada), 1999.

Ted Staunton, Morgan's Secret, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2000.

Ted Staunton, Great Play, Morgan, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2001.

Priscilla Hawthorne, editor, Chills and Thrills (anthology), Key Porter Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

Ruth Miller, The Bear on the Bed, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

Ted Staunton, Morgan's Birthday, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2002.

Linda Bailey, Stanley's Party, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

Ted Staunton, Morgan's Pet Plot, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2003.

Eileen Spinelli, Something to Tell the Grandcows, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (Grand Rapids, MI), 2004.

Ted Staunton, Morgan Makes a Splash, Formac Publishing (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), 2004.

(With Esperança Melo) Robert Heidbreder, Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

ILLUSTRATOR; NONFICTION

Catherine E. Forrest Weber, Fancy That!, General Store Publishing House (Burnstown, Ontario, Canada), 1984.

Donna J. Hall, My Dog Diary: Your Complete Canine Record Book, General Store Publishing House (Burnstown, Ontario, Canada), 1986.

Sid West, Speech on the Throne, General Store Publishing House (Burnstown, Ontario, Canada), 1989.

Brian McFarlane, Hockey: The Book for Kids, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1990, reprinted as Hockey for Kids: Heroes, Tips, and Facts, 1994, Morrow (New York, NY), 1996.

Dennis McCloskey, Side Splitters: Jokes and Riddles for Canadian Kids, General Store Publishing House (Burnstown, Ontario, Canada), 1992.

Catherine Ross, Circles: Shapes in Math, Science, and Nature, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1992, Addison Wesley (Reading, MA), 1993.

Linda Granfield, Extra! Extra!: The Who, What, Where, When and Why of Newspapers, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1993, Orchard (New York, NY), 1994.

Claire Mackay, Touching all the Bases, Scholastic Canada (Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

Catherine Ross, Triangles: Shapes in Math, Science, and Nature, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

Cynthia Pratt Nicolson, Earthdance: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tidal Waves, and Geysers Shake Our Restless Planet, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

Linda Granfield, 1987: The Year I Was Born, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

Liz McLeod, The Phone Book: Instant Communication from Smoke Signals to Satellites and Beyond, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

Linda Granfield, 1988: The Year I Was Born, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

Paulette Bourgeois, The Sun, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

Paulette Bourgeois, The Moon, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1995.

Catherine Ross, Squares: Shapes in Math, Science, and Nature, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Pat Hancock, 1985: The Year I Was Born, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Cynthia Pratt Nicolson, The Earth, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Liz McLeod, Stamp Collecting: For Canadian Kids, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Linda Granfield, 1984: The Year I Was Born, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Pat Hancock, 1986: The Year I Was Born, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Jane Drake and Ann Love, A Kid's Guide to the Millennium, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

Cynthia Pratt Nicolson, The Planets, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

Cynthia Pratt Nicolson, The Stars, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

Maxine Trottier, One Is Canada, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

Ann-Maureen Owens and Jane Yealland, Canada's Maple Leaf: The Story of Our Flag, Kids Can Press (Buffalo, NY), 1999.

Cynthia Pratt Nicolson, Comets, Asteroids and Meteors, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

Alannah Hegedus and Kaitlin Rainey, Shooting Hoops and Skating Loops: Great Inventions in Sports, Tundra Books (Plattsburgh, NY), 1999.

Linda Bailey, Adventures in the Middle Ages ("Good Times Travel Agency" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

Linda Bailey, Adventures in Ancient Egypt ("Good Times Travel Agency" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

Cynthia Pratt Nicolson, Exploring Space, Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

Frieda Wishinsky, A Quest in Time, Owl Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

Linda Bailey, Adventures with the Vikings ("Good Times Travel Agency" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001.

Alannah Hegedus and Kaitlin Rainey, Bleeps and Blips to Rocket Ships: Great Inventions in Communications, Tundra Books (Plattsburgh, NY), 2001.

Linda Bailey, Adventures in Ancient Greece ("Good Times Travel Agency" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

Christopher Moore, The Big Book of Canada: Exploring the Provinces and Territories, Tundra Books (Plattsburgh, NY), 2002.

Linda Bailey, Adventures in Ancient China ("Good Times Travel Agency" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

Linda Bailey, Adventures In the Ice Age ("Good Times Travel Agency" series), Kids Can Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Contributing artist to books, including Mother Goose, A Canadian Sampler, and The Spirit of Canada.

Adaptations

Sitting on the Farm and The Cat Came Back have been adapted for computer.

Sidelights

Bill Slavin, artist for numerous children's books and author of the award-winning The Stone Lion, had ambitions to be an artist, and specifically a book illustrator, at an early age. While in third grade, he produced an illustrated book, Zok the Caveman, which, he once told SATA, "was such a success that I promptly followed it up with a sequel, The Adventures of Black Cloud, Son of Zok. " Also while in third grade, he had what he calls his first commercial success, a prize-winning poster aimed at discouraging smoking in bed. He took first place in the poster competition and won twenty-five dollars. He kept on writing and illustrating books and comics throughout elementary and secondary school and had a comic strip, "Rat Fink," published in a local newspaper while he was in high school. He then studied cartooning and graphic illustration for two years in college before going to work as a commercial artist. After several years of doing this work for publishing houses and educational software companies, he finally got a chance to fulfill his ambition of illustrating a children's book with Too Many Chickens, written by Paulette Bourgeois. Children's books have become his primary work. "It is work which I love, and I consider myself a most fortunate person to be working in this industry," he once told SATA.

He illustrated Too Many Chickens in pastel, but since then watercolor, pen and ink, and acrylic paints have become his preferred media. "I tend to work quickly and impetuously at my art, but am trying to learn to slow down," he once told SATA. While he enjoys fiction, nonfiction has come to dominate his body of work. "Although my first love is and always will be the story-book, nonfiction illustration poses its own challenges," he noted in a biographical sketch published on the Web site of the Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers (CANSCAIP). "My real lack of interest in things scientific seems to have made me uniquely qualified to illustrate this genre. I believe it is the desire to make my work interesting to me that defines how I embrace these subjects, and the result is an approach to the illustrations that is not overly ponderous or didactic. Having said this, I have a real love for history, and am thrilled by books or the parts thereof that have a historical slant. And coming full circle, I believe my love for the narrative found in picture book illustration is reflected in my nonfiction illustration."

While Slavin has worked primarily as an illustrator, he received substantial acclaim for The Stone Lion, which he wrote as well as illustrated. The book is set in medieval Europe, and the lion in question graces a cathedral tower but dreams of becoming free to roam. It bonds with a young apprentice silversmith who misses both his home village, which is far from the cathedral town, and his grandmother, who is dying back there. The grandmother and the lion once knew each other, and when the young man reunites them, they are able to find peace and release. The book features "a gravely luminous story" about a youth learning to deal with death and loss and also encountering "the truth of dreams that are, like love, strong as death," remarked Linda E. Marshall in Canadian Children's Literature. With his imaginative text and subtle illustrations, Slavin has created "an ethereal, yet believable world of fairy-tale," added Julie Bergweff, writing in Books in Canada. A contributor to Resource Links deemed The Stone Lion "a touching and stirring story," "quiet" and "evocative." Further praise came from Kelly L. Green in Canadian Book Review Annual, who called the novel "wonderful" and pronounced it "highly recommended."

In his illustration-only assignments, Slavin has contributed to a wide variety of storybooks for children, usually without any restrictions dictated by the author, as he noted on the CANSCAIP Web site. The Cat Came Back is Kathleen Tucker's retelling of a traditional story in song about a cat who just would not stay away. The text and Slavin's watercolors are "well-married," noted Melody Collins Thomason in Canadian Children's Literature, with both having a lighthearted, humorous tone. A more serious tale is told in Tim Wynne-Jones's adaptation for middle graders of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Some critics commented that the adaptation simplifies but does not sugarcoat the story of the cathedral bellringer Quasimodo's sufferings at the hands of people who see only his grotesque physical appearance, not his loving nature. Slavin's illustrations show his "mastery of detail" in portraying the story's setting, Paris in the Middle Ages, a Publishers Weekly reviewer observed. Back on the lighter side and aimed at younger readers is Linda Bailey's Stanley's Party, about a dog who, bored with being left alone, decides to indulge in all sorts of forbidden activities when his owners are out. Eventually, he hosts a large party for his canine friends, but his owners walk in on it—and they then conclude they should take Stanley with them more often when they go out. Slavin illustrates this story with a diverse assortment of dogs, and he displays "great skill and humour," according to Resource Links critic Isobel Lang. Booklist contributor Ilene Cooper found Slavin's artwork "bursting with life," while School Library Journal 's Shawn Brommer reported that "Slavin captures the frivolity of Stanley's bash." A Kirkus Reviews writer summed up Bailey and Slavin's collaboration as "a triumphant cautionary tale that will leave both adults and kids laughing."

Slavin and Bailey have also teamed up for a series of books that join fact and fiction to teach middle graders about history. In the "Good Times Travel Agency" series, three siblings journey through time to experience life in a variety of periods and cultures. Their adventures have much humor to appeal to children but also provide plenty of facts. Slavin's cartoonish artwork is "packed with details," commented Donna L. Scanlon in a School Library Journal review of Adventures in Ancient Egypt and Adventures in the Middle Ages. Critiquing the same books, Resource Links contributor Valerie Pollock noted that these details are "interesting and amusing." Francisca Goldsmith of Booklist, discussing Adventures in Ancient Greece, called Slavin's efforts for that book "handsomely painted" and "inviting."

Slavin's science-oriented books include Bleeps and Blips to Rocket Ships: Great Inventions in Communications by Alannah Hegedus and Kaitlin Rainey. Spanning such topics as paper manufacturing and fiber options, the book offers elementary and junior high school students a look at how communications technology has evolved over the past two centuries. Slavin's illustrations, reported Linda Wadleigh in School Library Journal, are "expertly done," frequently featuring extra information and "a touch of humor."

Slavin produces his work from a setting he calls "paradise," a farmhouse on the outskirts of Millbrook, Ontario. He and his wife, artist Esperança Melo, share a studio in the house. They work together on a variety of projects, including book formatting and design, and Slavin once described Melo to SATA as "an integral part of all I do." They also are members of the Millbrook Gallery, a collective of nineteen artists from the area.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, 2002, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Adventures in Ancient Greece, p. 486; July, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Stanley's Party, p. 1895.

Books in Canada, February, 1997, Julie Bergweff, review of The Stone Lion, pp. 33-34.

Canadian Book Review Annual, 1996, Kelly L. Green, review of The Stone Lion, pp. 6088-6089.

Canadian Children's Literature, spring, 1996, Melody Collins Thomason, "Of Didacticism, Nonsense, and Sea-Turtles," review of The Cat Came Back, pp. 39-42; fall, 1996, Linda E. Marshall, "Winged Words, Aerial Visions," review of The Stone Lion, p. 129.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2003, review of Stanley's Party, p. 298.

Publishers Weekly, October 13, 1997, review of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, p. 75.

Resource Links, April, 1997, review of The Stone Lion, p. 162; April, 2001, Valerie Pollock, review of Adventures in Ancient Egypt and Adventures in the Middle Ages, p. 44; June, 2003, Isobel Lang, review of Stanley's Party, p. 1.

School Library Journal, December, 2000, Donna L. Scanlon, review of Adventures in Ancient Egypt and Adventures in the Middle Ages, p. 94; August, 2001, Linda Wadleigh, review of Bleeps and Blips to Rocket Ships: Great Inventions in Communications, p. 198; July, 2003, Shawn Brommer, review of Stanley's Party, p. 87.

ONLINE

Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers Web Site, http://www.canscaip.org/ (January 29, 2004).