How much fun can one person have with a banana? The answer lies in this illustrated compendium of twenty wacky tricks. Making use of objects that can, like all the best guests, be found in the kitchen, 20 Party Tricks is funny, amazing, easy to follow, and occasionally downright disgusting. It's also the perfect gift for the hostess with the mostest, the wallflower longing to blossom, and anyone who'd like to be the life and soul of the party.
Sophie Blackall is a Brooklyn based Australian artist. She has illustrated over twenty books for children, including Ruby's Wish (Chronicle Books, 2003) which won the Ezra Jack Keats Award, Meet Wild Boars (Henry Holt, 2005) which won a BCCB Blue Ribbon Picture Book Award and the Founders Award from the Society of Illustrators, Big Red Lollipop (Viking, 2010) which was a New York Times Top Ten Picture Book for 2010, and the ongoing Ivy and Bean series (Chronicle Books), which has over a million copies in print.
Blackall has collaborated with many notable authors, including Aldous Huxley, Judith Viorst, Jane Yolen and Meg Rosoff.
Her editorial illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Time, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Town & Country and many others.
Her latest project, http://www.missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com Missed Connections, which began as a blog in early 2009, is an ongoing series of paintings based on real, anonymous messages posted online by lovelorn strangers.
"Blackall, who elevates everything she illustrates, has a knack for using clever details to get the humor across."--Booklist
"Khan has an ideal collaborator in Sophie Blackall, whose Chinese ink-and-watercolor drawings convey exquisite detail and precise emotion. Like all the best picture books, "Big Red Lollipop" amply rewards close examination." - New York Times
"One of the best picture-book artists around, Blackall offers winsome art that is interesting in its use of perspective, perceptive in its depiction of family dynamics, and just plain adorable in its effort to make ferrets fetching. This is a book that's clever in every sense of the word: skillful, original, and witty." -Booklist
