More faces of Early Harvest!
Work on our thirteenth Early Harvest book continues, and the team has been busy making the big decisions about who, what and how. Following on from our last update, in which we announced this year’s double-theme and introduced you to our team of young editors, this time we’ll reveal the title, introduce the cover illustrator, and hear some more feedback from the editors.
But before we catch up on those big decisions, the current news is that this week is the deadline for student submissions from our eight participating schools! Year 5/6 students have been busily working on creating, writing and editing their stories, and by this time next week the editors will have their hands full reading them all.
Choosing the title
Once the book has a theme - in this year’s case Betrayal and Survival - it needs a title! This wasn’t always the case: in the early years, Early Harvest was published more like an annual magazine, so it’s title was just “Early Harvest” or “Early Harvest 5”. Sometimes the theme was a subtitle, as in 2018’s Early Harvest: Dreams. But since we switched to the book format in 2019, every Early Harvest publication has had its own title - and that’s a big choice!
Our editors had so many ideas, but eventually whittled them down to a shortlist of ten. They sought feedback from 100 Story Building staff, but had the discussion and put forward their cases for their favourites before coming to a consensus. And we are now excited to announce the title of thirteenth Early Harvest book…
Two-Faced Tales!
Cover Artist Decided!
Holly’s first piece for Early Harvest, for the story “The Largest Ruby” by Keely Topalides in Early Harvest #2.
Early Harvest is primarily about amplifying the voices of young people. But our young editors also get to choose and commission work from professional writers and illustrators, providing experience of art direction and editorial feedback.
One of the big choices is the cover - and that starts with the cover artist. The editorial team go over portfolios of work from multiple candidates, and this year they’ve have chosen experienced Early Harvest illustrator Holly Adkins!
Holly is a Sydney-based comic artist and illustrator, who specialises in interestingly believable characters in fantastic situations. You can find her on Instagram as @tinytelephones. Her work is influenced by mythology, real life and the grey line in between, a style which has made her popular with many editorial committees in the past - she’s contributed art to every Early Harvest book since the second one! However this will only be her second cover, after previously providing the cover to the crime and mystery themed Early Harvest 6 in 2017.
More from our Young Editors
We asked the Editorial Committee if there was anything they wanted the world to know about Early Harvest - and here’s what they said!
The Early Harvest committee is a very amazing and welcoming place and group. I think you should read our book because we put soooo much effort into it and it's funny, interesting and all the above! — Ayla
We are everyday kids picked out. We try our best and share our thoughts. We are honest, funny, kind and reading lovers. You can do whatever u want bc we can do whatever we want! — Shreya
Early Harvest Editorial Team is one of the most bestest things ever created! Its an amazing chance to collaborate and share ideas!! — Amy
We have so much fun while getting LOTS done, they say that's how school works but it isn't... This on the other hand though :) ! — Tilly
Jules Coscolluela and the other Early Harvest facilitators are so excited by the progress the team has made so far. We can’t wait to show you more of what they’re up to in the coming weeks!
Watch out for more two-faced updates!
If you’d like to find out more about Early Harvest and all our programs and workshops, sign up to our Enews to get informed every couple of months or so! (You’ll find a link at the bottom of the page.)
