Social media offers stepping stone to children’s books
Cory Reid begun his career as an illustrator working for a greetings card company. He studied art at school, before moving on to do a BA Hons in illustration at Loughborough University. He now worked on a series of three books for Owlet Press, and here he talks about how that came about and what it means to be part of children’s publishing.
IN the space of two years Cory Reid has gone from greetings card company to freelance illustrator and a portfolio of three books for Owlet Press to his name. Having grown up with a love of drawing, Cory says he is delighted to be involved in the project and working with children’s titles. He says: “Eventually I ended up working for a large greeting card company, also for a long time. When the whole company was made redundant just over two years ago, I used this opportunity to take the plunge and really make a push into freelancing. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but financially it’s a risk I was always too nervous to take. It’s still early days and every day is different, but I’m really enjoying the journey I’m on and the clients I have been fortunate enough to work with.”
Diverse family
Cory’s latest project with Owlet Press sees him team up with children’s writer Eloise White on a series of We’re off to… adventures. The first, We’re off to find a unicorn, was published late last year. Cory’s social media profile helped him get noticed by Owlet Press and he says: “I was approached by Sam from Owlet
Autumn-Winter 2020
Press via my Instagram profile at the start of 2019 and was asked to work on a series of three titles. These are my first published titles so it was a huge honour to have been approached and when Sam mentioned he specifically wanted the stories to centre around a diverse family, this made the project even more appealing to me. “We’re off to find a Unicorn was published in November 2019 (available from all your usual stockists ) and will be followed by We’re off to find a Fairy and We’re off to find a Mermaid this October. “The books all follow a similar tone to We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and involve a family heading off on an adventure to
find these mythical creatures. On their way, they may not succeed, but they all find lots of different and beautiful endangered species. There’s so many different animals to learn about along the way (I learned plenty while illustrating the books) and there may even be some hidden mythical creatures scattered throughout the pages.”
Responsibility
Owlett Press is aware of its responsibility to its readers and is committed to producing books that are representative and inclusive. Cory says that being able to contribute to that ethos and allow more parents and children to see books that reflect their lives has been an additional positive for him.
He says: “I think it’s good that there are books like mine out there for parents to find – it just might require a little more research, but hopefully that will change and become easier. Children are like sponges and I think it’s important for all parents to be explaining things to them as well as reading the stories “I feel like I’m coming into the book market at an exciting time. I follow quite a few parents/pages who regularly share books to read and so many of them seem to be inclusive in some way. As I’m reminded by events around the world
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