Sarah Ogilvie's illustrations are wonderfully vivid, particularly her rendering of the wide array of animals that pass messages along to each other and highlight the power of communication and friendship. Rainbow the dog even says at one point, 'Your plan won't work, it relies on other people, and only fools rely on other people'. By the end of the story he is proven incorrect as people (or animal) power wins out in the end. This reminded me of What the Ladybird Heard,with the animals coming together as a team and with communication being a crucial factor in foiling the plans of the wrongdoers. It's an absolute joy to read. SARA: It was great to finally see it. I think most illustrators have nervous excitement when they open the finished book for the first time. You almost always find a few little mistakes or things you would now do differently as you spend so many months working closely on the images. When the final printed book arrives quite a bit of time has passed, you've caught up on sleep and you can look at it with fresh eyes. Mink is wars van regels en op tijd naar bed gaan, ze gaat lekker haar eigen gang. Heel hoog schommelen bijvoorbeeld, maar dan wordt ze op een dag van de schommel afgeduwd, vliegt de struiken in en daar staat een jonge zebra. Mink's comment about seeking help is lovely - do you think we all need to be encouraged sometimes to ask for help? Hoe fijn is dit: een avontuurlijke Rundell voor een jongere doelgroep! De eerdere ‘Feo en de wolven of ‘De goede dieven’ zijn voor 10+. Dit geweldige zebraverhaal in drie delen kun je al veel eerder zelf lezen en voorlezen.

De wervelende illustraties van Sara Ogilvie zijn een feest om naar te kijken, je wordt vrolijk van de kleine illustraties tussen de tekst of juist van de spectaculaire paginagrote! De speelsheid spat ervan af. Een grote grinnik om Mink die de zebra even de trap opduwt, snel verstopt voor haar vader, maar ook Storm wordt realistisch weergegeven als hij verdrietig en boos is. Voorbeelden zijn ook de gemene meneer Spuug, de tevreden blikken van Mink en Storm ’s avonds in bed of de moedeloze gevangen dieren. De ontroerende eindplaten maken alle spanning goed. Ogilvie laat in haar illustraties zien dat lichaamstaal en mimiek veel vertelt. With no time to lose, Mink encourages Gabriel to find his inner warhorse and fight for his parents’ freedom. Employing the help of two more creatures, a cantankerous but delightful dog called Rainbow and a ledgerdemain-proficient squirrel named Rodentina, they head off in search of the evil, Terry-Thomas-inspired, Mr. Spit. Can they find the courage, wit and tenacity to win the day?De geweldige zebra-ontsnapping’ is echt een spannend, grappig én hartverwarmend verhaal. Het is een mooie overgang van prentenboek naar leesboek, maar zeker ook een ideaal voorleesboek. De tekst is verspreid over een zestigtal bladzijden mét prachtige illustraties van Sara Ogilvie. Die prenten zijn echt een enorme verrijking op elke pagina, zo speels en wervelend.

KATHERINE: Yes, exactly that! - to both ask for help, and to hear the call when it comes. I wanted to say: those who ask for help often create the potential for change: for something new, and more generous, to take shape. KATHERINE: A girl, Mink, is playing on the swing near her home when she hears a noise, goes flying and bumps her head. The noise was a baby zebra called Gabriel and the bump has shaken something loose: now she can understand animals, through pictures and colours behind her eyes. It transpires that the parents of the zebra have been stolen by an evil man called Mr Spit and so, with the help of an intrepid dog and squirrel, they set off on an unmissable journey to save them. Coffee house Caffè Nero has announced the 16-strong shortlist for the inaugural Nero Book Awards, recognising the outstanding books of the past 12...The illustrations expand the text and complement the written word. They also add humour to the scene and lighten the mood. Along with the cranky dog who bargains for a bone, all the animals are shown as eager to help. SARA: There were a few. Mainly the spreads that needed to show the full alphabet of animal pairs collected by Mr Spit. I really loved drawing them all but the varying sizes of them meant getting creative with positioning small creatures in places they'd be seen. Elephant trunk ends and little animals grabbing onto ears offered good solutions. SARA: A mixture of ways and media. The drawn line is very important as I'm a pencil scribbler at heart. I like to keep the energy in the initial sketches so I use a light box to translate my roughs to final drawings. The line work gets built upon with media such as ink, gouache, coloured, pencil, printmaking, collage, rubbings, stencils etc. Anything that gives the right kind of mark (I have used scanned banana peels and dried porridge before!) Drawings get scanned and digitally finished. The approach and media often depend on what the book is about and the atmosphere it needs.