Year: 2007

Is this the children’s book equivalent to getting your picture on a Wheaties Box?

I think it probably is. Doesn’t the Hungry Catepillar look cute on Cheerios yellow?
It seems as though Eric Carle has teamed up with Cheerios to donate 100,000 copies of The Tiny Seed to whichever state answers the most trivia questions correctly at FirstBook.org Gooooo, Rhode Island!

Well, RI may not have the best chance of getting the books when there are big old states like Texas and California out there, but that’s OK- it’s a cool idea. Check it out and vote!

We actually have Eric Carle tiles in our kitchen. Eric and I had NO tiles in our kitchen for about 5 years, because we hadn’t found anything commitment-worthy. Then one day while at the Eric Carle Museum with the kids, we found these. Perfecto!

We had one of our first true springy days here in New England- and so we spent it in Mystic, CT. Here are some random scenes from around the town- I am sure some of you will know exactly where they are!

In town:

Old Mystick Village:

The Aquarium:

And in nearby Stonington, we found a nice little beachside area where the kids could check out the ocean. Only when we were leaving did we notice that it was OUR VERY OWN BEACH!

Here’s something special from Lunch Box Land this week- something with international flair!
Most of my lunch boxes depict TV shows or movies I know and liked.
Not this one.
I have had my “El Chapulin Colorado” (The Red Cricket) box for a long time, drawn to it merely by the weirdness factor. It’s a 10 out of 10 on the weirdness scale, I’d say. NOW, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I can share with you a snippet of this very wacky Mexican show:

Holy cow! I like this box even more now!! This show reminds me of Benny Hill in a way (LOVE him- wish I had a Benny box!). Has anyone ever seen this on TV before?? I guess it never played up here in New England- triste!

I don’t often talk about my “other” life as a product designer here, but I will today. I got word that one of the print patterns I sold last year is available in the real world! It’s not always easy to follow up with where surface patterns will turn up. This one, which I called CamoTurtle, has been made into these adorable boys swim trunks and shirts! It’s a surprise that they took one of the motifs from the pattern and used it as an element on the shirt. Well done!

Alas, I don’t have any boys- but I will pick up a few sets for some of the little boys in my life. These are available this season at several retailers, including Talbots and JCPenney. Cool!

Reading the newspaper the other day, I came across an article about Mayme Clayton, a librarian in California who spent her life amassing a huge collection of African-American history. Not merely huge- enormous and definitive! Before she died last year, she gathered almost 30,000 books, films, sheet music, and ephemera of all kinds, and created her own archive in her garage. Why? Because she saw that no one else was preserving this particular part of the past. So that “children would know that black people have done great things.” On a librarian’s salary, and later on Social Security, she managed to create one of the finest collections of African-American history in the world. And she dug around yard sales and flea markets to do it.

As an artist, writer, reader and unabashed HOARDER, all I can say is I LOVE this lady and her philosophy. HOORAY MAYME!

Hoarding with vision? I’ll say- check this out:

It’s a 1773 book by Phillis Wheatley called Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral. Phillis Wheatley was the first known author of African descent to be published in America, and this is the only known signed edition.

Thankfully the collection is getting moved out of the garage and will for now be restored and archived in Culver City, CA. Her son Avery (a retired art teacher, no less) is now in charge of the foundation to give the Mayme Clayton Collection a permanent home. Wow.

I don’t think it’s coincidental that Mayme was a librarian (book lover!) and her son was an art teacher. It’s the arts that survive the ages and inform future generations (hopefully) about what has passed. It’s the same people who tend to be the caretakers of the past.

Read more about her and her collections here, and join the effort to preserve them for future generations!

I doubt whether any of my collections or obsessions will be historically important.

I have an unnaturally large amount of relatives (and you know who you are!) and friends (and you know who you are, too!) who collect things as well- and some of them DO have historically significant collections. But it’s hard to quantify which things will be valuable in the future. There are different kinds of “value:” aesthetic, educational, personal connection, etc. I’ll just keep hanging on to my stuff- vive la collectors!

What do YOU collect out there??

Was there ever a funner time than the Great Depression? Not according to the Waltons. Sure, times were hard, but they lived on love and had some to spare. This was a favorite show of mine, since two of my Top Favorite decades are the 30’s and 70’s. The show is the perfect combo of both. Anyhow, this gem of a lunchbox is from 1973, and depicts the entire Walton clan with their cow, apparently at the magical moment of birth. Inspiring, and a life lesson, too!

A note about the art: I love the stuff from this era that is, oh, about 15% more cartoony than real life. Each of these actors’ likenesses have been captured; they are all recognizable, but they are also bumped up a couple of notches in caricature. I guess if they were 20% more cartoony, they could go into MAD magazine. But they’re juuuust shy of that! Skill, baby, skill. I wonder who painted these?? Probably a MAD artist!

Another winter, another SCBWI conference! I have only just now started collecting my thoughts and photos from this excellent event, and the time I got to spend following it. I am NOT a city girl at all, but it’s impossible to NOT be caught up in the excitement of the city, the fast pace, and the caliber of the speakers there. Well, at least for a little while. Then I need to go home and take a 24-hour nap!

We arrived in the city in time to hit the Kid’s Lit Drink Nite at Bar 9, set up by Betsy Bird (Fuse #8), who is surely one of the funnest librarians ever! It was neat, and somewhat surreal, shouting at all of the people from the kids lit blog world and beyond (yep- very loud in there!).

Here I am with Ruth McNally Barshaw, who is somehow able to continuously keep drawing in her sketchbook amidst noise, cab rides, lines, anywhere! It amazed me. Also here is the fabulous Barbara Johansen Newman. Follow that link and you can check out her post on the conference, too!

Now on to the speakers…wow!!

Very inspiring to hear these people talk. I think it’s the best part of the conference- hearing people you have heard about and whose books you’ve read. Articles and jacket flaps don’t do them justice- nothing can take the place of hearing authors and illustrators in their own voices.

Katherine Paterson has had an amazing life, and has worked differet aspects of that life into her books. She spoke about overcoming the fear of being “naked” in public- of allowing yourself to write from those parts that aren’t so easy to show. She also mentioned a prime fear of hers is of being mediocre- something that you can’t allow yourself to succumb to. Only YOU can write your stories. BTW, she approves of the movie version of Bridge to Terabithia, although not neccessarily the trailer!

Anne Brashares claims to not know what she’s doing…but oh, methinks she does! She says love your characters, don’t make it easy for them, but let them be sympathetic. In thinking about her characters, she tries to think of them not only as 15, but also as the 5-year-old they were, and the 45-year-old they will be.

Susan Cooper was just amazing to hear. “Subconscious haunting” is a theme that crops up in her work repeatedly, and where she writes from. As a child of war, she grew up with a very strong sense of good and evil, light and dark- but she also realized from an early age that just who was who is a blury picture! Writing relates to gardening in many ways for her (me, too!)- the idea of coming up with good stuff from your (mental) compost heap, of germinating ideas…and tending to growing ones!

By the way, poor Susan had to sign about a bazillion books that night, and I was just about LAST in that line. Look, she’s still smiling somehow! Susan was signing during the Art Display, which featured about 150 pieces of art (mine, too). A strong showing this year, in number and in quality!

Brian Selznick was a great speaker- and it was nice to hear from an illustrator who also writes. Turns out Brian went to RISD at the same time as me, but of course, neither of us were studying illustration too strongly at the time- so I don’t remember him being there (in college, I spent most of my time buried deep within the film building, working on animation projects). It was fascinating hearing about his process- he’s very interested in the forward motion created by the turn of the page- of one thing leading to the next, almost like a movie. Check out his latest: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which is freakin’ amazing, and the perfect “illustration” of how page-turning can bring you into and through a book!

Here I am with Brian, and his book, The Doll People. This book, and it’s follow-up, The Meanest Doll in the World, are current favorites of the dollhouse-owning Dubois twins!

Here’s a little idea of about how many people were at the conference- I heard there were about 1000, and I believe it!

Here is Tomie DePaola with Steve Mooser and Lin Oliver (the King and Queen of SCBWI!) at the moment of Tomie’s “retirement” from the board. Tomie was instrumental in getting illustrators to be part of the group and has since been a driving force within the organization. Even though he’s stepping down, he retains the right to party with the group- and was given a silver drink mixer as a Lovely Parting Gift!

There were plenty of other good speakers and sessions, but, well…I guess you’ll just have to come to NYC next year to get the full effect- it’s worth the trip!

For the first time I was able to stay in NYC after the conference and do some publisher visits. I joined up with Janee Trasler, a swell illustrator from Texas with similar artistic taste (meaning, we both like and make art for the very young- we have the same rep, too). It was great fun meeting up with the publishers we work with, and getting to put some faces to the names we have heard. Also fun seeing just what it looks like inside the publishing houses!

Here’s me, attempting to borrow some of Janee’s hair!

Our Excellent Adventure took us to Scholastic, where I snapped this picture of me and Harry Potter. Don’t even get me started about Book 7- speculation is rampant at Maison Dubois! While there we ran into Wilson Swain, who was one of the winners of the SCBWI Art Display. Very nice guy, and WOW- amazing art- check it out!

I REALLY need to get some work done…I also need to get ready for next weekend’s Whipering Pines Conference. This time, I’ll be doing the speaking- yikes!

I mean, no problem!