Illustrator Sarah Fox-Davies gives us a
glimpse into the wonderful world of Little Beaver, and shares some of her original
sketches for her new
book Little Beaver and the Big Front Tooth.
What did the beaver say to the tree?
“Nice gnawing you.”
I have discovered that one of the best trees to gnaw (if
you’re a beaver) is the aspen, which has tasty bark, and grows near the lakes
and ponds where beavers live.
If you’re a beaver, you can eat the bark of the aspen. You
can cut down the tree with your sharp front teeth, and use it to built a dam,
or make a beaver lodge to live in.
I like to search for this kind of information when I'm illustrating a
book. The characters are important, but their surroundings can be
interesting, too.
If you met him before in Little Beaver and The Echo, you will know that Little Beaver lives by the edge of a big pond.
This time one of his big front teeth is loose. How will he be able to eat bark, and do all the other things that beavers do? Little Beaver starts to panic. Is he really a beaver at all?
Luckily,
there are other animals living around the pond who are not so confused,
especially Wise Old Beaver, who seems to have answers to all Little
Beaver's questions about teeth.
To illustrate Little Beaver and the Big Front Tooth, I started by doing small sketches with a pen. You can see some of them here.
Then I drew the finished pictures with pencil, and painted them with
watercolour. After the small sketches, we made a few changes to some of
the scenes.
For fun puzzles and games with Little Beaver and his friends, have a go at our activity sheets!
Little Beaver and The Big Front Tooth by Amy MacDonald is available to buy here.