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Ron Lightburn's career as a children's book illustrator was launched with his Governor General's Award-winning artwork for Waiting for the Whales in 1991. Since then he has illustrated numerous other best selling picture books and has become internationally renowned for his sensitive storytelling skills and range of illustration styles, from the touching realism of How Smudge Came to the exuberant whimsy of The Happily Ever Afternoon. During the past quarter century his artwork has graced the covers of over sixty books and has been featured in magazines, calendars, posters and advertisements across North America. His client list includes the Province of British Columbia, Aliant, McDonald’s Restaurants, The Walt Disney Company, CP Hotels, Heritage Canada Foundation and General Foods. His artwork has been recognized and exhibited by The Society of Illustrators in New York and is included in the permanent collections of Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books in Toronto and the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy in Toronto. In 2005 his paintings for A Poppy Is To Remember were selected to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in the Library and Archives Canada publication Read Up On It.
Ron and his partner Sandra reside in the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. Their new picture book, Pumpkin People, reveals the secret life of the folk art figures that gather each year to celebrate the Kentville Harvest Festival.
author photo by Sandra Lightburn
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Pumpkin People
Text and illustrations bring to life the Pumpkin People created annually to celebrate the harvest in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia.
written by Sandra Lightburn
(Nimbus Publishing, 2008)
Resource Links Year's Best 2008
Quill & Quire, Starred review, Dec 2008
Bestsellers List, Chronicle Herald.ca
"One of Nova Scotia’s best-known festivals is celebrated in the book Pumpkin People, an ode to Kentville’s yearly event. Every autumn, in homage to harvest time, pumpkin figures appear throughout the town, decorating front yards, schools, churches and businesses. But what do these characters do after dark?
That’s the question the writing/illustrating team of Sandra and Ron Lightburn explore in this entertaining tale:
In fields they gather secretly
to celebrate so gleefully
the harvest of those autumn days
in odd and eerie pumpkin ways
The Lightburns, who moved to the Annapolis Valley in 1997, use gentle rhymes to guide readers through the otherworldly celebrations as the Pumpkin People sing and dance around bonfires. The illustrations are slightly eerie, sure to send shivers down the spines of young readers."
- Deborah Wiles, Bookworms, Chronicle Herald.ca, Oct 2008
“From the endpapers through the different styles of artwork, this book is a Canadian gem.…Highly recommended for elementary school classrooms.”
— Resource Links
“[In Pumpkin People] the Lightburns present a richly coloured and cheerful vision of the night’s doings…intriguing similarity to the “wild rumpus” of Maurice Sendak’s classic Where the Wild Things Are.”
— Quill & Quire, starred review |
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The Happily Ever Afternoon
Annick, Spring 2006
Shortlisted, 5th Annual Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award
for Excellence in Illustration, 2007 Atlantic Book Award |
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A Poppy is to Remember
Scholastic (Can), 2004
Finalist, 2006 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award
Nominated, 2005 Shining Willow Award,
Saskatchewan Young Readers' Choice
Podcast review by Just One More Book! - Nov 2006 |
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and as Un coquelicot pour se souvenir
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Wild Girl and Gran
Red Deer College Press, (Can) 2000
Our Choice Award from the Canadian Children's Book Centre |
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Driftwood Cove
written by Sandra Lightburn
(Doubleday Canada, 1998)
1999 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize |
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How Smudge Came
Red Deer College Press, (Can) 1995
1996 Mr. Christie’s Book Award
1996 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize
Podcast review by Just One More Book! - Jan 2007 |
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Mother Goose
A Canadian Sampler
Groundwood Books, (Can) 1994 (contributor) |
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Eagle Dreams
Orca Book Publishers, (Can) 1994
Our Choice Award from the Canadian Children's Book Centre |
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I Can’t Sleep
Orca Book Publishers, (Can) 1992
Rights available
Our Choice Award from the Canadian Children's Book Centre |
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Waiting for the Whales
Orca Publishers, (Can) 1991
1992 Governor-General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration
1992 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustration Award
1992 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award |
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Tiger Trap
written by Eric Walters
(Dundurn, 2007)
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The Dollmage
by Martine Leavitt
(Red Deer College Press, 2002)
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A Mighty Big Imagining
Our Canadian Girl Rachel Volume 1
written by Lynne Kositsky
(Penguin Canada, 2001)
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In the Clear
written by Ann Laurel Carter
(Orca, 2001)
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On Spec magazine
(Fall 1999)
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Stargate
written by Pauline Gedge
(Penguin, 1997)
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Awake and Dreaming
written by Kit Pearson
(Viking, 1996)
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The Dragon's Tapestry
written by Martine Bates
(Red Deer College Press, 1992)
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I Am An Actor
and as Je suis un comedien
Gage Learning (Can) and Editions de la Cheneliere, 2003 |
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23rd annual Kentville Harvest Fest packed with fun family activities
Visitors take in pumpkin people workshop, book sale, book launch and much more
Includes video footage of highlights Pumpkin People booklaunch and festival highlights
Nova News Now, October 2008 |
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The lore of the Pumpkin People
New book tells spirited, spooky autumn tale
Nova News Now, September 2008
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