[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-kevin-at-antwerp-boekenbeurs-2019":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"On Monday, Reeve & McIntyre showed up in Flanders to join our Dutch-language publishers at \u003Ca href=\"https://www.boekenbeurs.be/\">Boekenbeurs\u003C/a>, Antwerp's Book Fair. We were thrilled how excited the team at \u003Ca href=\"https://www.ballonmedia.com/\">Ballon Media\u003C/a> were about our Roly-Poly Flying Pony! Check out that big wooden Kevin! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/850540_original-424e47940b.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nIn that photo you can spot me, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philip-reeve.com/\">Philip\u003C/a>, translator of the Kevin books \u003Ca href=\"https://be.linkedin.com/in/saskia-martens-a174406\">Saskia Martens\u003C/a>, publisher \u003Cb>Philippe Nuyts\u003C/b>, publicity's \u003Cb>Jente Lambrechts\u003C/b> and our editor \u003Cb>Gaëlle Cooreman\u003C/b>. And below, you can see the lovely shiny books - \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"https://ballonmedia.shop/winkel/kinderboeken/het-verhaal-van-kevin/\">Het Verhaal van Kevin\u003C/a>\u003C/i> and \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"https://ballonmedia.com/albums/kevin-op-de-vlucht-9789403214122\">Kevin op de Vlucht\u003C/a>\u003C/i> - and one of the team modelling the Kevin shirt!  \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/850770_original-3377f37f0f.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThey even had these cool little biscuit boxes for display, Philip and I were well chuffed. Interestingly, several people came up and mentioned how glad they were to come across the book's message of body positivity - Kevin's a very roly-poly pony, but he's happy and great at flying - so that was good to hear. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/850977_original-29880bd765.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's the books' translator \u003Ca href=\"https://be.linkedin.com/in/saskia-martens-a174406\">Saskia Martens\u003C/a>, who came along to the fair with her family. It was great to meet her; so much of the success of the book depends on her writing skills! \\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/851439_original-184f1dbed2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's the desk where we did a signing session, and taught people of all ages how to draw Kevin. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/851528_original-7f23e02252.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n(If you missed it, there's a \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/kevins-great-escape/\">step-by-step tutorial here on my website\u003C/a>.) Here's Jente with her drawing, and a whole bunch of the children's drawings: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/851926_original-5b408fa29a.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/852090_original-0ee06ace0b.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/852431_original-d1e2bb169d.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/852574_original-94de55b3bf.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAntwerp's Boekenbeurs is different to a lot of other book fairs I've been to, in that it's so wonderfully family-friendly. Monday was a bank holiday, and there were loads of children browsing books and taking part in the many available activities. And all the books were for sale, so it was like one big awesome bookshop. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/853301_original-5f8df5d526.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThere was so much to look at! The Ballon team let us go off and browse after our signing event, and it was wonderfully inspiring, seeing all the amazing art and graphic design on display. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/853737_original-16fcf7e329.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nMany of the books were translated from other languages, but I was excited to see work by more local artists such as \u003Ca href=\"https://cargocollective.com/emmathyssen\">Emma Thyssen\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/carll.cneut/?hl=en\">Carll Cneut\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"https://petergoes.com/\">Peter Goes\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.noellesmit.nl/\">Noëlle Smit\u003C/a>. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/853975_original-4839801eb9.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI first came to Antwerp in 1997, when I was working at The Moscow Times and needed to go out of the country to renew my Russian visa. The thing I best remembered was the station, the fanciest I'd ever seen - so I was thrilled to get to revisit it: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/854224_original-b5d48d999f.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's our editor Gaelle, who collected us from the train and took us by tram to Antwerp Expo for the fair. Huge thanks to everyone at Ballon for publishing our books, bringing us out to Antwerp, and looking after us so well! It was great to meet you all, and thanks for a lovely dinner, Philippe! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/853078_original-0e2e0db11a.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThe person you can't see in the photos is \u003Ca href=\"https://global.oup.com/education/rights/?region=uk\">Regina Irwin\u003C/a>, the foreign rights manager at Oxford University Press who introduced the Ballon team to our books - thank you, Regina! Early the next morning, Philip and I made a mad dash into town to see as much as we could before we had to catch our train home. Here's the lovely book fair poster. (You can see from the dates that it's quite a long fair - we were there for the very last day.) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/852891_original-1abfc9502f.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nGoing to Antwerp was a great excuse to stop first in nearby Brussels to see two of my very best friends of a couple decades, Manoëlle and Mags. They put us up and we went for a beautiful autumnal walk in the grounds of the Rouge Cloitre Park.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/854595_original-40a2e53496.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd we had \u003Ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette\">raclette\u003C/a>! (This DIY meal is very Belgian and very yummy.) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/854428_original-987526a9a0.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nPhilip and I got to have a stroll on Saturday around Brussels' old city centre, with its lovely Art-Nouveau architecture: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/855069_original-9308dc6755.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThe Grand Place, which I remember well from a summer homestay programme when I was fifteen: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/855310_original-651aa233c3.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nLight coming through the beautiful modern stained-glass windows at St Nicholas's church: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/855796_original-97e8e3c74e.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nOn Sunday's walk, we passed the striking 1960's former Axa building in Watermael-Boitsfort:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/854800_original-7c07194019.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd of course we visited the Palaid des Beaux-Arts (trendily rebranded 'Bozar')...\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/856179_original-920daf4f26.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n...where the Bruegel paintings are absolutely unmissable. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/856478_original-69d728eb9c.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nPhilip drew this lovely study of a detail of a 1510 painting by Harri met de Bles:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/856706_original-99d5467196.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nA great trip! Thanks again to Ballon Media and Mags and Manoëlle for putting us up! \u003Ci>Merci beaucoup\u003C/i> and \u003Ci>veel dank\u003C/i>! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/855847_original-2b16c5af2d.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">","2019-11-13T21:03:00.000Z","kevin-at-antwerp-boekenbeurs-2019",[],"kevin at antwerp boekenbeurs 2019",1776628730402]