Illustrator Envisions Series of Children’s Books in Armenian

Arzoumanian has taken a somewhat novel approach to contacting publishers, sending them postcards of her work; this strategy has been successful. Her work has now been published by a number of different publishers. Her first book, Tunjur! Tunjur! TunJur!, with text by Margaret Read MacDonald, is the retelling of a Palestinian folk tale and was published in 2006 by Marshall Cavendish press in New York. It is the story of a Palestinian woman who prays for children but is rewarded, instead, with a little pot, that displays surprising human attributes.

The illustrations for this first book exhibit has become Arzoumanian’s identifiable style, a reliance often on circular shapes that portray both people and things, and a use of strong, densely-saturated color. Both attributes would seem to make her work irresistible to children. There is a simplicity and directness about her style that communicates instantly. Her most recent book, Children of God, illustrates a Biblical text, written by the South African Most Rev. Dr. Desmond Tutu.

Arzoumanian recently attended the Bologna Book Fair, which is entirely devoted to displaying children’s books, and hopes to see her work published in other countries than the US. Already, one title has been published in Lebanon.

Until now, Arzoumanian has illustrated work by other writers, but her new ambition is to write and publish Armenian stories for Armenian-speaking children.

“There is so little that is good that is written in Armenian for children. I want to write for these young readers so that the language will live on,” she said.

To that purpose, she has developed her own imprint, Kirk-Mirk, which, roughly translated, means “book fruit.” Her first title, Dzirani Anoush, is not about apricot jam, which is the literal translation of the title, but portrays twin sisters who make up new names for each other. While it is an entertaining story in and of itself, it also introduces new words and new ideas to the young reader, therefore the story functions as a teaching tool as well.

She has also illustrated So Many Houses, written by Hester Bass (Scholastic Library Publishing), Grateful Animals by Sona Zeitlian and Where Are You, Little Frog? By Kayleigh Rhatigan and published by Lark books.

Both Alik and Sevag Arzmoumanian have been active politically, and worked for Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, in 2004. They were also deeply involved in helping to expunge the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) program from schools and towns when it became clear that the ADL did not acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.

Arzoumanian is the recipient of American Library Association Award (2007) and is a member of the Graphic Artists Guild and the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators.

“What I want to concentrate on now is the writing and illustrating of children’s books in Armenian. There isn’t a wide selection of books in Armenian for children or indeed in any category. We need all kinds of books in Armenian.” To learn more about Arzoumanian’s work, visit her website at www.alikart.com