Chant & Rhyme Series

Chant & Rhyme Series

Peter Viska's understanding of children has rewarded him with a lifetime of publishing success. From the groundbreaking Wotcha-ma-callit Club children's pages in newspapers to hit TV creations such as Li'l Elvis and Jar Dwellers SOS he tickles children's funny bones by respecting their sense of humour and imagination. Never has this been truer than in the zany illustrations in his association with kid's chants and rhyme books.

It began with the Far Out, Brussel Sprout! series which has been printed over 40 times by three publishers and have sold in excess of a million books in Australia. Continuing from that success is a new series for Alicat Publishing that are packed with fun, irreverence and good time cheekiness.

Titled In Your Eye Meat Pie!, Hang Loose Mother Goose!, Stay Cool April Fool! and Take A Stroll Sausage Roll!, these four new books are freshly designed and packed with colourful chants and rhymes and matching outrageous illustrations. Readers learn what really happened to Mary's little lamb, where Little Jack Horner really stuck his thumb – and just exactly what Old Mother Hubbard found in her cupboard! Themed as nursery rhyme send ups, food parodies, action chants and spooky satire, this collection compiled by children's education specialist Peter Durkin lets us into the joyous world of the schoolyard during recess.


Peter Viska has illustrated over 40 books and created TV shows such as Li'l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers, Jar Dwellers SOS, The Hedge and Mr Snip and The Greatest Tune On Earth. He is currently the creative director and head honcho of Viskatoons. He's based in Melbourne.


A former Victorian State School Headmaster, Peter Durkin has been a leader in contemporary educational thinking and has created 35 books for the early English reading curriculum.


Chant & Rhyme Series
AliCat
Author: Peter Durkin
Illustrator: Peter Viska
RRP: $7.95 each

Interview with Peter Viska

Question: Can you talk about what inspired the Chant & Rhyme series?

Peter Viska: Peter Durkin and I have been working together on an early childhood educational app and during our creative sessions we started discussing our favourite chants and rhymes.

Peter D just happened to have compiled a huge stack of funny ones, so we decided it was time to put them into these new books. We also decided to group them in loose themes for each book.

So, Mother Goose has weird send ups of nursery rhymes, April Fool is a bit chilling, Meat Pie is food based and Sausage Roll has the cheekiest chants.

The world needed a top up of funny rhyme books so it was our mission to create them.


Question: Is it just the words that inspired you illustrations; or so much more?

Peter Viska: The words start the spark, but I remember many of these chants and rhymes from my childhood, so I combine the memory and the words to create a visual that amuses me and hopefully anyone else reading the book.


Question: When illustrating a book series such as this, what is important to you?

Peter Viska: First of all I transfer my original mental picture onto a page, a drawing tablet or an old envelope. I do this very quickly and work my way through the book, making little notes to myself.

I then go back and try to make sense of those scribbles and start to clean them up on a second pass. At this point I completely redraw the idea, fitting the image into a shape or size. It is now I try to add more fun, and then ink it ready for colouring.

I try very hard to leave room in the illustration for someone's imagination to finish off the action in the picture, or add the ending if two objects are about to hit, or crash.

It is very important to me that the illustration makes the reader look and then see the humour in the idea.


Question: What was it like working with Peter Durkin?

Peter Viska: Peter D and I have very similar sensibilities and senses of humour, so we look at the text carefully to work out which rhymes or chants are most amusing and will make the best illustrations. We rate them with a series of ticks. The rhymes with four ticks (out of four) get into the book.
Then we decide which rhyme will work best next to that one and so on, until we finish the book.

During the editorial sessions we laugh a lot and try to be serious about the funny content.

It is really hard deciding which ones to drop from the list.

Late in the sessions we decided to arrange the work in themes, so we had to start again to get a good balance.


Question: Are you currently working on another project?

Peter Viska: Yes, an idea of mine has been developed into a television series which will be on Channel TEN near the end of this year. It is called Jar Dwellers SOS and stars three incredible creatures that have been released from glass jars by Sophie and David who found them in an old cellar along with a book of instructions. Sophie sets about training them to survive in the wild with her Survival of Species program. The creatures (Ooble Crunch and Barka) have other ideas. Plus of course there is a crazed Professor trying to find them. There will be 26 half hour episode.


Question: Do you have a preference in regards to illustrating for books, newspapers, television or others?

Peter Viska: I really enjoy cartooning, illustrating and designing television shows, knowing that from a blank sheet of paper something can be created that will make someone smile or laugh here and on the other side of the world. That's what happened with a stamp I designed for Australia Post, with Li'l Elvis and the Truckstoppers and Monster Chef television series and now these four funny books and Jar Dwellers.


Interview by Brooke Hunter