THE RACE FOR THE CHINESE ZODIAC BOOK LAUNCH

My sister-in-law, Allison is a wonderful cook and cake maker. This time, she made a tiger cake for the launch of The Race for the Chinese Zodiac. It had a lovely tiger face surrounded by marzipan grass and stripey insides of chocolate, but you’ll have to wait until we cut the cake to see that photo.

tiger cake

My mum guarding the cake
My mum guarding the cake

It was a lovely launch held at Book Bonding in Niddrie. The owners, Natasha and Mark made a beautiful display of the books and their new bookshop is even better than before.

Sally Rippin and I have been friends for a long time and I’ve been wanting her to illustrate a book of mine for ages. Up til now I hadn’t written a picture book so I was thrilled when she said she would do it. Her illustrations are gorgeous, the colours amazing. Together with Regine Arbos, the designer, Sally has given the book a very special and vibrant look. They remind me of ancient cave paintings –  the illustrations, not Sally and Reg I mean. They are fantastic!

Sally and myself in front of the display
Sally and myself in front of the display

My good friend and picture book creator, Corinne Fenton launched the book for us. She was a little late getting to the launch and swears that she will never use a GPS navigating system again. It’s back to a Melways for her. After calming herself down with a glass of water, she stood up and gave her speech.

Corinne Fenton with my publisher from Black Dog Books, Maryann Ballantyne.
Corinne Fenton with my publisher from Black Dog Books, Maryann Ballantyne.
Corinne telling us how treacherous the streets of Melbourne are with only Navman as a guide.
Corinne telling us how treacherous the streets of Melbourne are with only Navman as a guide.

Next it was my turn to read the story.

Me reading

Reading my work out aloud I find is always a bit nerve wracking especially when I’m reading a picture book to a bunch of adults, so it was lovely to have the littlies in the audience.

littlies

Then I introduced Sally and she talked about the illustrating process.

sally and me e introduc

Sally, Dom and me

Sally and mum

sally1

sally2

Then Dom, Sally’s son, cut the ribbon to officially launch The Race for the Chinese Zodiac

cutting the ribbon

And now, at last, it’s cake time!

cake time

cake time 1

And it was gone in seconds!

zodiac book launch

And then there was beautiful face painting.

My gorgeous grand niece, Emma who The Race for the Chinese Zodiac is dedicated to.
My gorgeous grand niece, Emma who The Race for the Chinese Zodiac is dedicated to.

And here are some of the lovely guests who make a book launch possible!

senka king

Claire Saxby, Cath Crowley, Maryann Ballantyne

Jin Wang, Andrew Finegan

12

Margaret Bell, Dennis Hallissey, Janet Wang, Helene Chung

My daughter Lei Lei and Cam

3 thoughts on “THE RACE FOR THE CHINESE ZODIAC BOOK LAUNCH

  1. Looks like a lovely launch Gabrielle. Always think it’s special when both author and illustrator can be at a launch together and even more so with you and Sally being old friends. Congratulations. Great cake!

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