Dojo X 3
October 28th, 2015
In 2008, Chris Tougas won the inaugural Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize at the Union Club of Victoria. Seven years later Tougas received the same prize from Samantha Holmes of Bolen Books at the annual gala for Dojo Daycare (Owlkids $16.95).
Samantha Holmes & Tougas
Dojo Daycare starts one morning when six young, black-garbed ninjas are dropped off at daycare. As soon as their ninja moms and ninja dads leave, the neophyte ninjas push and pull, bust and break, and generally turn the place upside down in a full-blown ninja riot.
None of the junior ninjas heed the master’s repeated mantra of honour, kindness and respect – until one little ninja steps up and rallies his ninja pals to undo all the damage that they have done just before their parents arrive for pick-ups.
“Great ideas are like ninjas,” Tougas says. “They sneak up on you and then… KABOOM! KAPOW! Sometimes a drawing will inspire the idea for a story but more often than not, the initial idea precedes any visual. In the case of Dojo Daycare, because I was writing in verse, the story needed to be quite thoroughly worked out before I began the storyboarding.”
A sequel, Dojo Daytrip, will be followed by a third title, Dojo Surprise, due in the spring.
Daycare 978-1-77147-057-5, Daytrip (Owlkids $16.95) 978-1-77147-142-8
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