Category: Children’s Art

2009 RI Festival of Children’s Books and Authors

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Also known as one of THE BEST book festivals you can go to, and lucky, us, it’s right here in RI!

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Every year, the Lincoln School in Providence opens up and we get treated to the best writers and illustrators currently working. That is no exaggeration! To wit:

Here’s Brian Selznick explaining some of the windy journey that led him to create The Invention of Hugo Cabret. What’s fun about this festival is that the speakers have to be ready to talk to a mixed audience of kids and adults. I find that a lot more engaging, and it seems like they feel that way too! Brian is at the top of his game- a wonderful author/illustrator, and a contemporary of ours from RISD (he graduated in ’88, Eric and I in ’89). Go Brian!

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Here’s the amazing Lois Lowry, signing our festival poster. Our kids have read a bunch of her books, so it was a treat to see her in person.

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Jerry Pinkney. What can you say about him? I’d say he’s in the Liz Top Ten of Living Illustrators. Oh, yeah- and add to that he’s a totally genuine guy who really cares about people. You can see this in person for sure, but I think it comes out in his art, too.

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That’s his childhood home in the slide.

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Look- there’s betty Brown getting her book signed!

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Here’s Mary Ann Hoberman:

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With a few fans!

Chris Van Allsburg: My old teacher from RISD!

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A very popular presenter at the festival each year!

Christopher Paul Curtis gave a great talk, also geared for the mixed kid/adult audience, that had the place in stitches. Here he is coercing a boy to declare his love of reading, after which he gave him a cash “bookmark.” Ha! Hearing him describe his ascent from Detroit auto worker to Newbery and Coretta Scott King Award winner was purely inspirational.

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Paul O. Zelinsky was there too…add another name to the Top Illustrator List! He’s prolific, and also seems to be able to bend his style to match a story, sometimes in very surprising ways. What an array of work…very inspiring. And very dapper to boot!

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AS IF that weren’t enough, The Very Hungry Caterpillar was there, too!

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I simply had to add to my signed book collection. Wouldn’t you? My only regrets are that we couldn’t see everyone there and hear all the talks. It’s pretty much impossible to do…but for however long you are there, it’s a top-notch treat and a wonderful experience. If you’re anywhere near RI next year, be sure you come to the Festival!

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Socially Accepted Rabbits

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I thought this was interesting/funny.
My bunny book, What Kind of Rabbit Are You? came up in a title search at the Chicago Public Library. I’m happy to know it’s there!

What’s interesting are the many subjects under which it falls, all of which are searchable in their database:

Rabbits Juvenile fiction.
Social acceptance Juvenile fiction.
Conduct of life Juvenile fiction.
Perception Juvenile fiction.
Toy and movable books Specimens.
Rabbits Fiction.
Social acceptance Fiction.
Conduct of life Fiction.
Perception Fiction.
Stories in rhyme.
Pop-up books.
Toy and movable books.

I wonder what else is in the “conduct of life” section!

New Book! Christopher Columbus

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I have a new book coming out juuuussst about now, in time for Columbus Day 2009. It’s Christopher Columbus, written by Marion Dane Bauer and illustrated by me!
It’s published by Scholastic and will appear in their school book club mailings.

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There’s nothing more fun than seeing a book in print and receiving a box of ’em!

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This is a new line for Scholastic: biographies for the very young/preschoolers. The text takes you from Christopher as a young boy through his many attempts at securing ships for exploration, to when he finally lands in San Salvador.

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Let me know if you see it in on your book order form!

New Press This Month

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Some interesting stuff has shown up recently…international-type stuff!
Here’s my Half Pint item written up in a Korean Magazine called DesignNet:

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Aaaaand here’s Pizza Boss 3000 written up in a French Magazine called FHM:

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Back here in the ol’ US of A, Salt and Playtime is in May’s issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray:

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And here is this month’s Highlights High Five recipe illustrated by me…Pink Lemonade!

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Magazine Mayhem!

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Here are a few new items currently on the shelves:

April’s Highlights High Five has Deviled Eggs!

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And after you’ve made yourself some nice deviled eggs, sit back with April’s Rachael Ray magazine and check out this:

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There’s “Calf and Half” again!
I have to hand it to Rach and her “people”…they do find fun stuff for the magazine. Look at the knitted fruit! And the adorable Mary Jane wellies! On the same page is a product by my friend Christy, too…”Pound,” a set of nails for driving into your finger food (not your fingers). How constructive!

I have a bunch of fun new items starting to pop up here and there-
I’ll show you some of them soon.
I’ve had A LOT of work lately, so sometimes the blog gets the cold shoulder!
And by the way, Happy St. Pat’s Day!

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New Stuff in Highlights High Five

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Here’s a new spread illustrated by me that appears in the November 2008 issue of High Five:

Don’t you want to go make some soup now? Tis the season!
I am definitely trying this one out!

Here’s a new feature just out in the December issue:

It’s my first Hidden Pictures feature!
I remember looking for Hidden Pictures when I was a kid… so it makes me happy to have done one of my own.

Something new

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Here’s a piece from a new project I am working on. This is a book for very young kids (which I am sure you could have guessed)!

I use real (digitally scanned) fabrics in my illustrations, and I have about 50 more new fabrics waiting to be scanned so I’ll have more texture/pattern options to work with. Before I can do that, though, I have to re-iron them, because my REAL cat Georgia keeps crumpling them up. She has decided that my previously very neat stack of fabric squares makes an ideal bed. I had to throw away about 10 fabric swatches the other day- you don’t even want to know what she did to those!