Goal!
Written by Lydia Williams
Allen and Unwin 2021
A joyous and triumphant picture book about friendship, sport, and teamwork by Lydia Williams, goalkeeper for the Australian Matildas and for Arsenal in the UK.
Talented footballer and storyteller Lydia Williams has written another gorgeous picture book on friendship and resilience.
And I had a wonderful time drawing zoo animals – practising my big bear frowns and re-kindling my love of giraffes.
SBS online article here.
PRAISE for GOAL!!! by Lydia Williams
Goal!!! is a simply told picture book with a strong message and loads of heart. Lucinda Gifford’s colourful and punchy illustrations complement the text beautifully. You can almost see the soccer ball bouncing off the pages! This book made me think of times I was disheartened about not being good enough, and how the support of friends and lots of practise can really help. Little Lydia (and real-life Lydia) are absolute soccer superstars, but even they let a goal into the net every now and again, and that’s all part of learning and improving.
betterreading.com.au
I did the roughs and storyboard for GOAL!!! on my computer. This meant I could work out tricky compositions quickly, without going through loads of paper.
When I start on the illustrations for a book, I lay them out and make sure there's plenty of room for the text.
You can see here that the word WHOOOOOOSH! has a space in the middle. This is because it goes across the fold in the page (and the letters sometimes 'disappear' into the fold!)
Goal!!! features several exotic zoo animals. We tried out a crocodile, but didn't use it.
We stuck with the gibbon and the penguin. But the gibbon became blonde (which I think is always a female gibbon)
I loved doing the girafffe!
We swapped frogs and moose for meercats and armadillos.
