New Zealand illustrator Sarah Wilkins on the international stage

 
Based in Wellington, illustrator Sarah Wilkins has an international career working for some of the world’s leading publications.
Wilkins is the only New Zealand illustrator to contribute to Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls – the phenomenally successful international children’s book that’s been a bestseller worldwide with its profiles and portraits of remarkable women.
Her illustrations appear regularly in media such as the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, The Telegraph and the Washington Post.

Sarah Wilkins has designed a mural in Paris, advertising campaigns that appear on the sides of buses in Helsinki, tote bags sold in New York and T-shirts worn in Japan.
Her illustrations have won awards and been exhibited in the USA, UK, France, Australia, Taiwan and New Zealand. This month Gecko Press releases Sarah Wilkins’ fourth picture book, The Longest Breakfast, written by Jenny Bornholdt.

Jenny Bornholdt is an acclaimed poet. In 2005–06 she was the NZ Poet Laureate and she received the 2003 Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

The pair collaborated previously on A Book Is a Book (Gecko Press 2013). Tilly Lloyd (Unity Books) said: you couldn’t get a more delightful collaboration.

The Longest Breakfast is a lovely family story with a kindly rumpled dad. The book has a diverse cast, relatable father, sisters, neighbours, friends – it’s a thoroughly contemporary household. It can be seen as a slapstick, with characters making unexpected entrances and with many misunderstandings.

‘Toot and Buzz’ as the book has become known in our house – what does the baby keep asking for? – makes one of the most repetitive and familiar parts of family life fresh and captivating, with delightful characters, bright illustrations and enough to chat about with little ones to last dozens of readings. It’s a winner. Thalia Kehoe Rowden for The Sapling

Sarah Wilkins is available for interviews and you can meet her at the Alliance Francaise Wellington on November 8 at 9am for a talk about her artistic life between France and New Zealand. 

The Longest Breakfast will be launched at The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington on October 29 at 10am.