Naomi’s tree book launch with Joy Kogawa and Ruth Ohi

Monday, May 19, 2008.

Ruth Ohi and Joy Kogawa unveil Naomi's Tree On May 8, 2008, The Japan Foundation in Toronto, Canada, hosted the launch of Naomi’s Tree, a picture book about friendship written by Joy Kogawa and illustrated by Ruth Ohi. It was a fascinating event that included a display of the real sketches and final artwork for the book.

We were there with our audio recorder running. We captured Joy Kogawa’s introduction of the book and Ruth Ohi’s explanation of the illustration process and then a demonstration of her technique.

On this edition of Just One More Book!!, excerpts of the book launch event and an interview with Joy Kogawa and Ruth Ohi.

Thank you very much to Ken Bole, President of The Canada Japan Society, for making us aware of this event.

Click here to view our photos of the event.

Filed under: Author,Illustrator,Interviews,Podcast

3 Comments »

Comment by Ken Bole

May 19, 2008 @ 12:01 pm

A very good interview. It was especially interesting to hear Joy talk about how her original book was much longer, and how she may go back to it in future. It was also evident that Joy and Ruth respected each other’s work, and I hope in future they arrange to produce another book together.

By the way, I used your podcast for my English lesson today, listening, replaying and discussing each segment. Thank you for providing such great content.

Comment by christine tripp

May 19, 2008 @ 8:48 pm

It was interesting that there was no art direction mentioned in the interview, but then again Ruth does not probably need art direction at this stage. Gail is an editor. I am not sure who, or if, there is an AD at F but it would be great to know if there was one that Ruth could consult with.
I agree with Ken, that it is always interesting to hear how a PB manuscript is peared down to it’s beared bones, and that it then relies on the Illustration to bring the content back to it’s original state with the images, as opposed to the text, as it would be with a YA or Adult story.

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April 22, 2009 @ 1:09 am

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