• Age: 4 to 8
• Grade: p to 3
• Reading age: 6 to 9

Alberta Children's Book of the Year winnerAlberta Book Design Award winnerAlberta Illustration Award winner

In this wildly whimsical tale, a cautious but determined painter withstands the threats of a mob of monsters in order to pursue his art. But these monsters are bent on making mischief. What's an artist to do amidst all this chaos. While the energetic pranksters run amok, the painter resolves to stay put and paint-all day if he must. Gradually his desire to create outstrips his fear of the rambunctious rogues.

As the words diminish in On Tumbledown Hill with each page, the story is taken over by the hilarious witty revelations in the illustrations, and we discover who the monsters really are-a gang of unruly children out to have fun.

TIM WYNNE-JONES is one of Canada's foremost writers for children. The author of over thirty-five books, he is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Award, as well as a two-time winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and of the Arthur Ellis Award. His short-story collections include Some of the Kinder Planets, Book of Changes and Lord of the Fries. He is also known for his Rex Zero series. Recently, he wrote the young-adult novels The Ruinous Sweep; Emperor of Any Place, which earned seven starred reviews; and Blink & Caution, which won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Tim is also the recipient of the Edgar Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work. In 2012, he was made an Officer to the Order of Canada. He lives in Perth, Ontario.

Tim Wynne-Jones' profile page

Duan Petricic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, but loved to pretend that he grew up in Zemun, an old city located just across the river (and now a part of Belgrade). As a boy he did all the forbidden things that children do, but what Duan loved most was to draw. He started drawing at age four and, encouraged by his parents, he never stopped. He found inspiration in everything, and drawing became a way to communicate with the people around him. Two books that were very important to his childhood were an old encyclopedia with lots of pictures and The Boys from Pavel’s Street by Ferenc Molnár. Early on, he was moved by the drawings found within the encyclopedia. As he grew older, he adored many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, and Picasso. Duan has been illustrating children’s books for many years. He has received numerous honors and awards for his work, in North America and internationally, including an IBBY Certificate of Honour and an Alberta Book Award for On Tumbledown Hill (Red Deer Press). The Longitude Prize (FSG) was selected as a Robert F. Siebert Honor Book for a Distinguished Informative Book for Children in the US. His beautiful, evocative illustrations for Mattland (2009) by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert garnered Duan the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award from the Canadian Library Association as well as the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. His illustrations for Better Together (2011) by Sheryl and Simon Shapiro were described as “sublime” by Kirkus Reviews. When it came time to reissue Robert Munsch’s Mud Puddle (2012), Duan was Annick’s first choice to reillustrate the classic. The results are a fresh and energetic look that will delight a whole new generation of young Munsch fans. Duan’s latest book, The Man with the Violin (2013), was greeted with rave reviews, including starred reviews in Kirkus and uill & uire. Written by Kathy Stinson, this beautifully evocative picture book tells the true story of world-renowned violinist, Joshua Bell, who conducted an experiment by anonymously playing his priceless violin in the Washington D.C. subway station. Luckily for Duan, his profession is his favorite hobby and he is happy when at work. To young artists he would give this advice: “Think, think, think, think, draw!” Duan lives in Toronto where he is a regular contributor as an editorial cartoonist in the Toronto Star.

Dusan Petricic's profile page

" It is hard to find a children's author who can match Tim-Wynne Jones for originality, unpredictability and versatility. From his well-loved "Zoom" series to his Governor General's award winning young adult books, Some of the Kinder Planets (Short stories,1993) and The Maestro (1995), Wynne-Jones never fails to delight and challenge his young readers. On Tumbledown Hill is: A story in twenty-six sentences-no more! And every sentence is one word shorter than the sentence before. . . The artist has cleverly arranged the rhyming text of Wynne-Jones' twenty-six sentence story to diminish page by page as his bright, bouncy, water-colour illustrations take over the story.
Recommended"
— CM Magazine