Kylie Howarth is an award-winning, internationally published children’s author-illustrator from Western Australia. Kylie has swum with whale sharks, manta rays and humpback whales in Ningaloo, piranha and pink dolphins in the Amazon, braved scuba diving with lionfish in Egypt, marine iguanas and hammerhead sharks in the Galapagos Islands and encountered great white sharks in South Africa! Today Kylie is visiting to talk about her latest book, the first in her graphic novel series, Kev and Trev: Snot Funny Sea Stories!
The publisher provided Alphabet Soup with a reader copy of Snot Funny Sea Stories.
From the publisher:
Join Kev and Trev’s epic deep-sea adventure – full of kraken laughs and comic commocean! Dodge flying coconut cannonballs, outrun ghost pirates, escape big sharks, pig sharks, and a punch-throwing pelican, all while hunting for mysterious merpugs and the missing emergency boat snacks! Water you waiting for? Jump on board Kev and Trev’s popcorn powered houseboat … and cross-your-claws it doesn’t sink!
You have published picture books and junior fiction novels and this is your first graphic novel. What brought you to create the Kev and Trev series?
I once made rhyming mini-books for my kids which I’d pop in their school lunchboxes. The kids loved these short, funny stories and often shared them with their friends and teachers. This inspired me to create a graphic novel series, that included lots of short funny stories written by the characters, Kev and Trev.
What tools do you prefer to use to create your graphic novels?
I use sketch books and a pencil for my initial ideas and story planning. I then use a program called Procreate (on my iPad) to illustrate my books. I also use anything from seaweed to broccoli dipped in paint and pressed on paper, to create interesting textures for my illustrations.
Your characters Kev and Trev write and illustrate their own rhyming short stories inside the book. Do you have a tip for kids wanting to experiment with rhyme?
Keeping a consistent rhythm and beat for each line of rhyming text really helps the story flow for your reader. To hear if your rhythm is working, try clapping along as you read your story out loud.
How does your editor feel about being turned into a squid? 😆
Ha ha! Kev and Trev’s editor is a grumpy squid named Mr Happy. Luckily my editor is never grumpy. She is also my publisher so identifies more with the lovely character of Tess the pug-lisher.
The book is stuffed full of puns and hilarious play-on-words conversations. What’s your favourite pun from Snot Funny Sea Stories?
I love the mixed-up book titles like THE BUFFALO (instead of The Gruffalo) and POSSUM TRAGIC (instead of Possum Magic.)
What’s next for Kylie Howarth?
I’m now working on the second graphic novel in this series – Kev and Trev: Snot Scary Jungle Stories.
Kev and Trev: Snot Funny Sea Stories is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
AWESOME EXTRAS:
See a short video of Kylie designing a character in the book [Instagram]
Download Kylie’s rhyming books/zines printables
Visit Kylie Howarth’s website for more about her and her books
alphabetsoup.net.au 