Meet Phoebe Gilman-Author and Illustrator

I am joining other teachers  in sharing Canadian books/resources this week. I chose to focus on Phoebe Gilman and her books.

Phoebe Gilman was born in the USA, but she moved to Canada as an adult and she taught art at the Ontario College of Art. She created her stories based on events in her life. She continued writing and illustrating children's books until she died in 2002.
The picture above shows some of the books that she wrote and illustrated. These are my personal copies.

My students loved the stories about Jillian Jiggs and her imaginative actions and adventures. They also enjoyed the story Something From Nothing and how Gilman added the story of the mice to the main story through her illustrations. Another thing that she did was add illustrations from her previous books into each new book she wrote.

A few years ago, Scholastic put out a VHS called Meet Phoebe Gilman. I still have a copy of the tape. On the tape she reads the two books above and then she talks about how she came up with the ideas for her books. She also shows how she created her books. I wish it was still available for you to see.

I have chosen the book The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs to focus on. It is a delightful story about a little girl who has a big imagination. She often gets so caught up in creating stories and adventures that she gets messy. Her mother says her room looks like it has been lived in by pigs.
In this story, Jillian finds a jar of buttons while cleaning up her room and the buttons remind her of pig noses. This gets her imagination going and she decides to make pigs. Check out the book to see some of the delightful pigs she makes and what happens when she decides to sell them.

I created this product to accompany the book The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs. Click on the image to get a copy.

I hope you get a chance to check out some of her books. I think you will enjoy them.