Snark: Being a True History of the Expedition That Discovered the Snark and the Jabberwock ... and its Tragic Aftermath

Description

Gabriel Clutch was a thief and a liar but he was right about one thing. He told me he had a great secret in his collection that would shake the literary world to its roots if it ever got out...So begins the delightfully dark Snark, a tumultous romp through worlds created by Lewis Carroll and here brought to life through the vivid imaginings and fabulous art of award-winning author and illustrator David Elliot. What exactly did happen to the Snark expedition? Did his dagger-proof coat protect the Beaver from the Butcher? What befell the Boots in the Tulgey Wood? Who fell foul of the Jabberwock? The Bandersnatch? The Jub-Jub Bird? And, finally, the big question: what precisely is a SNARK? David Elliots hero, the Boots, here reveals the whole truth for the first time, from his recruitment to the Snark expedition, to his return from a journey of unimaginable, death-defying adventure ...In this charming book for grown-up children of all ages, David Elliot is at his spellbinding and artistic best.

David Elliot is an author and illustrator of childrens books, based in Port Chalmers, Dunedin. He has won many awards for his work, including New Zealand Post Childrens Book of the Year in 2011 (with Margaret Mahy) for 'The Moon & Farmer McPhee'. 'Pigtails the Pirate' won Best Picture Book in the 2003 awards. As well as writing and illustrating his own books, David has illustrated numerous books by others, such as New Zealand authors Joy Cowley, Jack Lasenby and Margaret Mahy; UK writer Brian Jacques (author of the Redwall series), and US writers T.A. Barron (Great Tree of Avalon series) and John Flanagan (Rangers Apprentice and The Brotherband Chronicles). Henrys Map was selected by the prestigious School Library Journal in the US for its Best Books list in 2013. In 2011 David received the inaugural Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award, and in 2014 the Storylines Margaret Mahy Award.

As an accompaniment comes Snark, a spoof-scholarly book by the author-illustrator David Elliott, weaving a new tale around The Hunting of the Snark, conceived as a sea-stained journal kept by the boot boy on the voyage, discovered in a bicorne hat-box. Here are Bellman,Baker, Butcher, Beaver, Billiard-marker and Co, searching for the elusive creature that may also be a Boojum. The narrative is inventive and nonsensical enough, involving a spiral island, the Jabberwocky and a portmanteau monster that devours both ship and crew. Filled with steam-punk figures, toves, borrogroves and tsu-namis, the free-wheeling, sometimes frenzied illustrations, in soft-pencil scribble-line overlaid with wet colour-washes, are energetically animated, with stylistic nods to Arthur Rack-ham, Edward Ardizzone and Dr Seuss, as well as to Tenniel. Then come thirty extra-illustrated pages of mock annotations, whimsically elucidating the Victorian allusions, amplifying but rather over-labouring the joke, itself testimony to the long life of Carrolls comic imagination. Times Literary Supplement June 2017 August 14 2017 - Otago Author, David Elliot, wins Margaret Mahy Book of the Year - Winner of the 2017 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Rich imagery, with compelling storytelling. It draws readers into the tale of Lewis Carrolls poetry like never before, say the judges of the winner of this years Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award in the prestigious New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Snark also wins the Russell Clark Award for Illustration. Pam Jones, convenor of the judging panel, says, Like Russell Clark, David Elliot has a clear wit that pervades his sketches. His draughtmanship is outstanding. However, its the cohesive way he has combined all elements of this book that won the judges over. David Elliots twist on Lewis Carrolls nonsense poems is unique, and offers everything the reader could want mystery, adventure and intrigue.