Category: Conferences, Shows, Appearances

The Lunch Lady Guy!

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I had the chance to go see Jarrett Krosoczka today, who was at Friendly Neighborhood Comics in Bellingham, Mass. signing books. Jarrett’s been making books for ten years now, and I remember going to his first big signing waaay back then! It was fun to see him dress patrons up as Lunch Lady characters and do quick gesture drawings of them. He has always been a great, dynamic presenter.

You can see some of Jarrett’s original art behind us, as won by the comic store owner in the Joe and Shirl Scholarship auction. It should be noted that this is a FABULOUS comic shop with a lot of attention paid to carrying a diverse selection of books: the usual faves, but also well-chosen children’s books, European comics, classic volumes, and the best selection of graphic novels I’ve seen in a while. Plus, they have author/illustrators come to visit! Well worth the trip.

Library of the Early Mind

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I finally got to see Library of the Early Mind, which was shown at The Rhode Island School of Design auditorium this week. It was made by Edward J. Delaney and produced by my friend Steven Withrow, and it did not disappoint! Whether you are endlessly interested in children’s books and their makers like I am, or someone who hasn’t given a thought to how and why they are made, you will find this an interesting show.

Robert Brinkerhoff, the Head of Illustration at RISD, opened the screening.

The movie itself was a montage of creators talking about the many facets of creating children’s books- from audience, motivation, and the current state of affairs in the publishing industry. It had a sort of meandering, dreamy feel as it featured different authors and illustrators talking about what led them to pursue books, what books mean in the greater sense, and where publishing is heading. I enjoyed the tone of the film and getting to personally hear from such a great array of creators.

Some of the author/illustrators in the film were on hand for a panel discussion afterwards.


Robert Brinkerhoff, Edward Delaney, Chris Van Allsburg, Steven Withrow, Natalie Babbitt, Mary Jane Begin.

We are lucky here in RI to have these local creators available and willing to be involved in an event like this!


Natalie Babbitt speaks about her experiences of having a book turned into a movie. (No, she wasn’t thrilled with the results!)


Chris Van Allsburg fields a question about one of his lesser-known books, The Wretched Stone.

Follow the link above and see if the film is coming to a screen near you- it’s well worth checking out!

RISD Alumni + Student Art Sale, Oct. 9th

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They’re not selling alumni or students, silly. But alumni from all over the country come to RISD on Alumni Weekend, and join up with some of the current students to set up on Benefit Street and sell their cool stuff. I will be there with an array of my hand-made goods as well as a couple of my books. Come on over for a grand day in the city, and visit me while you’re at it!

Here’s the official postcard. By the way, those are my birds in the middle!

Details:
RISD Alumni + Student Art Sale
Saturday, October 9th, 10-4pm
Benefit Street, between Waterman and Hopkins Streets in Providence, RI

Hope to see you there!

Book Signing at Barrington Books

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It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Here are a few scenes from my recent book signing at Barrington Books on May 15th.

The amazing Mary Jane Begin was signing at the same time as me:


Her Willow Buds books are adorable!

Also signing later that day were Karen Dugan and Richard Evan Schwartz.


Karen has created some gorgeous books! Richard is a math guy who found a cool way to integrate math concepts into a colorful monster book.

Bonus! Lesley and Marin were there, too!

Many thanks to the staff of Barrington Books and to Anika Denise for arranging this fun day!

Book News!

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Oh, Mr. Blog, you have been ignored long enough.
There are many fine things going on here in the studio, but for now, here are three, count ’em, THREE, book-related snippets!

Thing One:

It’s official! I have a new book coming out in March 2011, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s called “What Does a Seed Need?” and will be published by Grosset/Penguin. I wrote and illustrated it myself, and it will have fun-o-rama flaps and interactive bits. I will show pictures of it when I can!

Thing Two:

Last year, I illustrated a biography about Christopher Columbus, written by the delightful Marion Dane Bauer, that was designed for preschoolers. It was available only through the Scholastic Book Clubs (you know, those brochures that the kids bring home). Well, THIS year starting in August, you will be able to find the trade version at Regular Bookstores Near You! That makes me happy.

Thing Three:

I’m signing copies of my book What Kind of Rabbit Are You? at the Barrington Books Children’s Book Week Event. Barrington Books is a fabulous bookstore located (surprise!) in Barrington, RI. Signing with me at the same time (10 am-12pm) is the amazing Mary Jane Begin. There will be authors there from 10-4, so that would be a good day to come, right? Crafts and other fun stuff will be going on during the day. Come on down and say “hi”!

There you go… book news x 3!

Whispering Pines 2010

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Arrival at sunset.

Once again, the marvelously beautiful acreage of the Alton Jones campus welcomed us to the Whispering Pines Writer’s Retreat! It is always such a treat to head into the woods and live amongst authors, illustrators, and book lovers of all kinds for a few days.

We were swept into the experience right away with good food, drinks, and a First Pages panel. Folks had anonymously submitted first pages of their works in progress and were able to get first impressions from the panel.


All ears on the first pages.


The panel: Agent Rebecca Sherman, Assistant Editor Connie Hsu, Associate Editor Alexandra Penfold, Author Cynthia Lord. Continue reading “Whispering Pines 2010” →

New York City in January

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I just got back from a few days in New York, both setting up the FRED booth at The NY International Gift Fair and visiting my agent and publisher. Those meetings went well… more on that stuff *soon* !

Upon arriving in The Big City, we checked into the W Hotel, waaaayyy way up on the 30th floor.

The first thing I saw when I looked out the window was this:

What!?! Billy Elliot is playing right there in the back yard?? This is the one play I really wanted to see. We tried to get tickets the last time we were in town. This time, GOT ‘EM! It’s one of my favorite movies, so I was really curious about how they would make it a musical, of all things. So after walking around in the -20 weather to my meetings, Eric and I went to a Belgian restaurant (carbonnade flamande!) and then to the show:

It was fabulous! They did a great job of integrating ballet/dance/singing and miners striking and swearing. One would think that couldn’t be done, but they did it. Now that I am involved in community theater here at home, I couldn’t help but look at all the technical stuff involved. How did they keep the smoke machine smoke so even along the ground? How did they fling that kid on a wire from one end of the stage to the other without him dying? And just how deep do those hydraulic stage mechanisms go into the earth? And wow, dancing pants. I didn’t expect that! See it if you get the chance!

Never been to a big trade show before? You don’t know what you’re missing! Here’s me at the Fred booth (set up the day before, you can’t imagine how hellish the show looks the day before the show!):

All nice and clean, see? All the products looking their spiffy best!

We have a big TV now that scrolls through images. Cool. Here’s me with a WineStein:

My pal Barb was set up in a different section of the show devoted to licensing artists. This is a booth that’s hard to ignore! Check out the new fabrics and lamps!

Look who was overseeing The Javits Center!

Wait a minute. What did that taxi say? Let’s try that again.

Ah, irony. You’ve got to love irony!
It really was frigidly cold while we were there, so we didn’t stay outside too much. Here’s Eric freezing in Times Square!

Here’s George M. Cohan freezing in Times Square, too. He’s always cool. Yeah.

You know what we DIDN’T see in New York?

No KISS-guys with baseball bats. No mercenary mimes. No Riffs, no subway-stalking rollerskating guys. No Warriors at all!
And only one Lizzie. Hehehe.

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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2009 Surtex, Stationery Show, ICFF, and Giant Rotating Lobsters

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Where else but New York City! I just got back from a whirlwind 4-day stay in the Large Apple with some of my most excellent illustrating gal pals. Two of the aforementioned pals had their own booths at Surtex for the first time, and the rest of us went to cheer them on, help out, and walk the shows. Barb’s booth was bursting with licensing goodness:

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And Monica’s was all a-flutter with fun freshness:

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Barb and Monica did an AMAZING job of putting these booths together, they truly looked excellent! Surtex (or any show like this) can be grueling in terms of setup/breakdown, and manning the booth for the whole time. Way to go, girls, for managing this. We also got to see a bunch of other blog buddies and other illustrators, like Jannie Ho and Holli Conger. Very fun to see everyone converging in one place!

Laura and I also got to check out the ICFF/International Contemporary Furniture Fair.
Despite the name, there is no cotton candy or pig racing at this fair. You will, instead find things like this:

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Lots of furniture, lighting concepts, and home fixtures of all kinds. I always like to check this show out since some of my Fred work falls into this genre of design. Speaking of design, here’s Laura in the fabulous Japanese pavillion:

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Here’s one of Mary Beth’s two Louie-nominated greeting cards at the Stationery Show:

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And OH! Look! Here’s Mary Beth with the actual Louie Award that she won! WooHoo! The Louies are given to the the best greeting cards of the previous year. MB’s cards were designed for the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

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Our hotel had excellent views of about a hundred water tanks!

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And look at this ridiculously green rooftop garden amongst the grey. I never once saw anyone up there enjoying it!

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As usual, you can never predict what you’ll see in New York.
Maybe you’ll see:
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A ginormous button and needle. We couldn’t figure out the weird configuration of button holes on that button. Then we decided it was “art”.

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I love this homage to the city’s immigrant garment workers!

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Weeniemobiles…times three!

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Giant rotating lobsta! And a chick in a bathing suit looking on. Weird.

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Serious M&Ming going on at the 3-level M&M store…

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Or, if you prefer your chocolate to be Hershey’s, just go across the street.

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My hero George M. Cohan will gladly show you the way to any of the freaky sights in Times Square. Just be glad I didn’t take a picture of The Naked Cowboy.

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One of my must-go-to-places in NYC…the giant Toys R Us, complete with Ferris wheel inside!

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Life-size functional Tyrannosaurus? This is always amusing no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

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Likewise insanely large things made out of Legos.

Speaking of which, look at these cool Harry Potter Lego guys in the FAO Schwarz:

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To cap off the Surtex/NY experience, we went to Angelo’s in Little Italy for an amazing dinner. It was sort of like Federal Hill, but, um…more so!

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We’ll be back next year to do it all again!

2009 NESCBWI Conference

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That’s right! I just came back from this year’s New England SCBWI conference. This year’s theme was “Many Voices,” and that turned out to be very fitting! On Friday night, there were many voices at the Muse Jazz Club Meet & Greet:

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Very fun to catch up with a lot of friends, and of course, to have that experience of saying,”Hmmm.I know I know you…where have we met before?” It happens a lot at this conference!

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Here’s Barb Johansen Newman, Carlyn Beccia, Moi, and Maryann Cocca-Leffler. And a basket of snacks.

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There a was a big wall to draw on. Here’s John Bell adding something to the wall near one of Barb’s famous kitties.

This year was different for me. I was a member of the “faculty,” and I had two presentations of my own to present on Saturday. So I did get to hear the keynoters, but mostly missed the other sessions! The morning keynote speaker was the fabulous Cynthia Lord:

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What a way to start the day. She was very inspiring, talking about the power there is in personal stories. She gave excellent pointers on finding the emotions in your own experiences and integrating them into your work, even if your book is pure fantasy. The emotions involved in recalling real people and experiences can add the needed depth to your characters and stories. Everyone came away from this talk feeling inspired. Everyone.

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I was able to catch most of Kirsten Cappy’s session on creating marketing plans for your books that tap into each story’s unique theme. The idea of creating an individualized marketing plan for each of your books is great, and she showed some very cool examples of others who had done this.

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Here’s me becoming one with my first-ever Power Point presentation. My first session was called “Books and Beyond: The Many Markets for Children’s Illustration.” I was nervous. But then, I got to talk about all the stuff I love and have been doing for a long time: magazines, toys, fabric, stationery, licensing, and everything else that requires an illustrator with a knack for children’s art. It’s a big, big, world out there, and there was not really enough time to get into it all…but I did my best!

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Barb, Janet Montecalvo, and me at lunch.

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Let’s see, I think I can rememeber everyone at the table! Alice (A.C.E.) Bauer, Nicole Tadgell, Charlene Willing McManis (who had the best Native American jewelry ever), Alisa Libby (who has a book that actually bleeds!), Greg Fishbone (webmaster!), Barb, the unseen Janet Montecalvo (as seen above), and me.

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The lunchtime keynote speaker was Floyd Cooper. Wow. Just wow. His work is luminous and stunning, and even though he did a piece right in front of us with a kneaded eraser, I can’t fathom how he does it. Check out his website. I appreciated that he has worked in many other genres, too.

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My second session was called Fun Reads: Board Books and Other Novelty Formats. As you can see, my board book session was in the Board Room (very Donald Trump!). You can picture the chairs actually filled with people, right? Mildly intimidating! But again, I got to talk about that which I love, and I brought a lot of examples of books (both my own and others) to play around with. I pretty much ignored my Power Point presentation. Oops. I sort of forgot it was there. Oh, well, no matter!

diversity-panel

Here’s the Diversity Panel: Louise May from Lee and Low, Bobbie Combs from Two Lives Publishing, Jennifer Laughran from Andrea Brown Literary, and Floyd Cooper. Moderated by Padma Venkatraman.What an excellent, topical discussion. It was good to hear “many voices” speaking up about the challenges and necessity of getting diverse books into kids’ hands.

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Here’s the adorable Kathy Weller, with her prize-winning poster! I just adore this piece she did…a favorite of mine, and obviously a crowd favorite, too! Kathy also did a great rundown of the sessions she went to on her blog, WellerWishes. She also happen to go to one of my sessions, so you can read about it from the other side…thanks, Kathy!

book-signing

I wrapped up Saturday at the booksigning…here’s me and Barb and our adoring throngs of fans…LOL!
I had a blast seeing everyone there, and I hope everyone had a great time on Sunday, too!
Next year’s conference will be at The Courtyard Marriott in Fitchburg, from May 14-16. Mark those calendars!