Children´s picture book 2021
The winners are:
Kotone Utsunomiya (JP), Yuki Taniguchi (JP): Momo and the little Witch
Karen Exner (G): Noah´s World
Michaele Kukovičová (CZ): Hlavní ulice
The members of the jury:
Sophie Van der Linden (F)
Joanna Rzyska (PL)
Andrea Antinori (IT)
Tomáš Klepoch (SK)
The jury report was presented by Sophie Van der Linden and Andrea Antinori on 4. 9. 2021 during Tabook festival in Tábor:
Kotone Utsunomiya, Yuki Taniguchi: Momo and the little Witch
When we saw the project of Kotone and Yuki, we were surprised: It looks like a fresh and individual project!
It is clear that Kotone has found a natural and personal way to tell a Yuki´s story through illustration.
The project we received is composed of a storyboard and some final illustrations, where also the sketches look already perfect to be published in a book. They have great colour palette, where also the white becomes important, because of the minimalist approach and because of the layout and the relation of the images with the text.
It is also very interesting how the space in the book is managed: the fairytale is composed of two stories that are told simultaneously. You can read the first on the left, and the second one on the right, with the center of the book that becomes an important element of the project.
Karen Exner: Noah 's World
"The Kren Exner project was unanimously selected by the jury. We all had a similar impression: we were captivated by the world of small boy Noah. In a restrained graphic narrative, the young author builds the world of a child with which we immediately feel a bond. The story is divided into short episodes that make up one lonely night of little Noah. The boy will spend it in the garden at the back of a large, modern house, making friends with the mole, talking to garden sculptures and catching stars.
The minimalist, black and white scraping technique is not accidental. It is a plastic synonym for a boy's loneliness. A convincing, promising project. Good luck Karen!
Michaela Kukovičová: Hlavní ulice (Main street) :
The project is an impressive leporello (accordion book) showing the windows of many shops.
Even before to read the name of the author, we could know that this project was from an already accomplished artist. The singular and expressive drawings, the humor contained even in its lines, the compositions, everything in these pages show the wonderful interlacing of mastery and very free aesthetic. The jury particularly focus on the work of typographies : the names and letters of the shops are evocatives and convey a lot of memories or references. As the project is pretty well-achieved, the jury hope the prize will help the illustrator to garnish more and more shop windows, why not with more and more stories !