Welcome to #TheQuickSixInterview with Kylie Howarth!
We’re deep-sea excited to welcome the talented author-illustrator, Kylie Howarth, on board our blog to share her epic adventure in creating her new junior fiction graphic novel series – Kev and Trev. The first to walk the plank is the hilarious Snot Funny Sea Stories!, which is literally wildly comical as well as literally made to accommodate neurodivergent and hesitant readers and spark their interest in books. Through the text and animated illustrations, Kylie carefully designed layouts, fonts, word choice, sentence types and other reading conventions, whilst splashing in rhyme, punny puns, jokes and a whole lot of crazy comm-ocean. Dive into the fun with Kev and Trev as they hunt for mysterious merpugs and missing emergency snacks on their sail through the high, and wild seas! Snot boring whatsoever – actually fin-tastic!
We love Kev and Trev, Kylie! Thanks for sharing your PUG-lishing journey with us! 🙂
About the Author-Illustrator
Kylie Howarth is an award-winning, internationally published children’s book author and illustrator from Western Australia. She was raised in the country alongside her brother, dog, sheep, several orphaned kangaroos and one very cheeky echidna. Her obsession with animals also extends underwater, as she has braved lionfish in Egypt; piranha and pink dolphins in the Amazon; marine iguanas and hammerhead sharks in the Galápagos Islands; and whale sharks, manta rays and humpback whales at Ningaloo, Western Australia. The textures in Kylie’s book illustrations are created with her two adventurous young boys during their backyard art sessions.
@kylie_howarth
Please find Kylie Howarth at her website: Kylie Howarth and on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X
Kev and Trev 1 can be found at Kylie Howarth’s website and purchased through Affirm Press.
WHO wrote, illustrated and published this book?
Kylie Howarth wrote, illustrated and designed this book, published by Affirm Press.
WHAT is it about?
Kev and Trev are best friends living their best lives on the high seas. There’s just one thing they need … money to fix their crumbling houseboat! Luckily, Kev and Trev have a plan. They’re going to write a book so they can get rich and famous.
With the help of a grumpy squid called My Happy, the pair land a book deal. The only catch? Their publisher is actually a PUG-lisher, and she insists they write a story about a merpug. If Kev and Trev want to make their dreams come true, they’ll have to sail to new waters and find some elusive merpugs.
This book is about story. It’s also about embracing who you are and living your best adventurous and creative life.
What is your favourite part of this book?
Trev struggles with reading and often misreads the titles of the stories Kev writes. She therefore illustrates some funny characters (for example a Pig Shark instead of a big shark) when she makes the art for their book. I love that Trev’s mistakes always turn out to be happy accidents and are celebrated rather than criticised.
What media did you use to illustrate it?
I worked digitally in Procreate to create the linework for most of the book. I then added hand painted textures that were created with my kids during our backyard art sessions.
For the short stories (that are written and illustrated by Kev and Trev throughout the book) I needed a slightly different style. As Trev paints with a feather and squid ink, I began creating them using a feather and ink too, until I worked out how to mimic the look with a digital brush.
WHEN is its release / launch date?
30th July 2024
WHERE did the inspiration for this book come from?
Kev and Trev sprang from the boring school readers that failed to captivate my children week after week. I was determined to help my boys learn to enjoy reading, so I began making them funny rhyming ‘lunchbox mini books’ which I’d slip into their school lunchboxes. Soon their friends and teachers started reading them too, and often begged me after school for the next instalment. I shared a few of them on Instagram and received great feedback. I was also contacted by two publishers who were interested in this style of storytelling. From there I worked with Affirm Press to develop this unique graphic novel where characters, Kev and Trev, create and share the funny, short stories.
WHY is this book meaningful to you?
Having dyslexia present in my family, I am passionate about creating children’s books that cater to neurodivergent readers as well as confident ones, ensuring accessibility and enjoyment for all. With one third of children in Australia unable to read properly, it’s never been more important for children to find books they can easily read, relate to and enjoy.
Why would its message resonate with readers?
Many children will relate to and delight in noticing protagonist Trev’s dyslexic character traits. They’ll enjoy the humorous incidents and notice that she also has great strengths when using her visual and creative thinking to solve tricky problems.
HOW long did it take to write?
Approximately three years to write, illustrate and design.
How long did it take to illustrate?
Being my first graphic novel – it took a lot longer than expected! I was warned by other illustrator friends that graphic novels are a marathon to create, and they weren’t wrong. For the final four months, I was drawing for ten to thirteen hours a day!
How do you feel about the text / illustrations? Do they convey the feeling or mood you envisioned?
I’m very happy with how the book has turned out and feel very proud to have created a more readable and inclusive book for children of all reading abilities to enjoy.
OTHER information or experiences you’d like to share?
As a graphic and book designer, I meticulously considered text design elements to achieve maximum readability. I researched and carefully selected font styles, font size, kerning, (the space between letters), leading (the space between lines of type), punctuation size and style, word length, sentence length, rhyme and rhythm.
It’s important to be inclusive and design text accordingly, because if you don’t you are excluding people with reading difficulties.
Please share your some of your favourite promotional or educational ideas for this book.
- Mini book making with kids
- Comic book creation
- Drawing comical characters
- Drawing mixed up animals ie Pig Sharks and Merpugs
- Writing short funny rhymes
- Drawing and painting with feathers
- Ocean themed activities
- Trev powers their houseboat using a popcorn maker she found in an op shop. How else could she power the boat?
- Trev creates her art with a feather and squid ink. How else could she create her art using found materials?
These are brilliant! You’re such a talent, Kylie! Thank you for bringing Kev and Trev into our lives! 🙂
Thanks to Affirm Press for a complimentary copy of Kev and Trev.
#thequicksixinterview #kevandtrev #snotfunnyseastories #adventure #juniorfiction #justkidslit
