Freya Blackwood Wins 2010 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal

Posted on 24 June 2010

Scholastic Children’s Books is delighted to announce that Australian illustrator Freya Blackwood has won the 2010 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, the UK’s most prestigious children’s illustration award for Harry & Hopper (text by Margaret Wild). The book movingly portrays a young boy, Harry, coming to terms with the sudden death of his much-loved dog, Hopper.

Of this year’s winning book, Margaret Pemberton, Chair of the CILIP Kate Greenaway judging panel comments:

“In Harry & Hopper, Freya Blackwood excels in her use of muted colour, perspective, and exterior and interior space to give a powerful take on the father-son relationship, and a much-loved pet’s death. A sensitive issue for young children is beautifully handled, with Harry’s emotions and memories of Hopper expressed visually to great effect.”

• As well as gaining inspiration from her mother and grandfather, Harold Greenhill, an award-winning painter who won the Sir John Sulman Prize in 1950 and 1956, Blackwood also names Maurice Sendak and Shaun Tan as two of her favourite illustrators.

• Freya Blackwood was born in Edinburgh in 1975 whilst her parents were travelling round the UK in a VW camper van. She grew up in Orange, New South Wales, the city where she currently lives with her four year-old daughter, Ivy.

• Blackwood’s pictures for “Harry & Hopper” were partly inspired by one of her own childhood pets; Furlani, a beautiful grey whippet who met a similarly sad and sudden end.

• Blackwood conducts her work in a studio in her backyard. She often works at night to fit around her young daughter Ivy, and sometimes has to resort to wearing her dressing-gown and Ugg boots to keep warm.

On winning the 2010 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Freya says:

“I am so delighted to have won this amazing and prestigious award; it means a great deal to me. Librarians are so important for inspiring young readers and I’m glad my illustrations in Harry & Hopper have brought so much pleasure and, I hope, comfort to animal lovers everywhere.”