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Interviews With 10 Australian Authors, Ch 9: Leigh Hobbs as Old Tom

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Author Leigh Hobbs
Interviews With 10 Australian Authors, Ch 9: Leigh Hobbs as Old Tom

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  5–6, 7–8, 9–10


Leigh Hobbs writes and draws the pictures in the Old Tom stories.

He describes Old Tom as being 'sneaky' and 'sly' and 'naughty'. What words would you use to describe Old Tom? In the video, Leigh talks about what he was like when he was a child. In what ways are Old Tom and Leigh the same?

Old Tom has one eye, always carries a fish skeleton and often has a mischievous grin on his face, especially when doing something 'naughty'. But Angela Throgmorton loves him anyway. In what ways is Old Tom actually a little boy?

The untidy, imperfect pen marks captures the messiness and imperfection of Old Tom himself. The style of illustration is an embodiment of Old Tom's personality. Of course, while the illustrations look easy, every line and shape is carefully drawn in order to create emotion and convey story. Hobbs pairs his illustrations with simple but clever words to create a dry, ironic humour that characterises his writing.



Production Date: 2015


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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