Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer is breathtakingly beautiful and deceptively simple. “Daniel knows all the rocks, trees, and animals in the park.” So when he sees a poster advertising “Poetry in the Park” he sets out to ask his park friends, ‘what is poetry’? He soon learns that …
I found two picture books that I really like. And the funny thing is, they are both wordless and both use a limited color palette. First up is SPOT, THE CAT, by Henry Cole. This book has utterly delightful, very detailed, black and white line illustrations with all the charm and …
I picked up “The Blue Whale” by Jenni Desmond because I was curious to read the story behind this beautiful and intriguing cover. And the book does begin as a story with “Once upon a time, a child took a book from a shelf and started to read.” This …
Three authors have joined forces to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service. Janet Fox, Barb Rosenstock, and Liz Garton Scanlon are spearheading a month long (August) program to showcase our beautiful national parks. Their Page Through the Parks promotion is also filled with fantastic giveaways that are …
When we’re little, there’s an awful lot of stuff that’s bigger than we are. And it makes for a very scary world for a little boy named Toby. Toby is quite afraid of heights, and carries a parachute which “was most useful for getting out of bed in the morning, for …
This book just looks magical. The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield looks and reads like a classic fairy tale and I find that really refreshing and appealing. I want to dive into David Litchfield’s gorgeous, light emitting paintings. This beautiful book reminds me of many of the classic picture books of yore ( …
“My Two Blankets”, written by Irena Kobald and illustrated by Freya Blackwood is a rewarding blend of a lovely story and brilliant illustrations. I picked this book to chat about because I wanted to point out Freya Blackwood’s super smart illustration decisions. In this book, published in this country by Houghton …
I’ve spent the last few weeks preparing presentations for the SCBWI Wild Wild Midwest conference this past weekend (which was fantastic, thank you to everyone involved!). I’ve been focussing and dissecting my own work, learning and appreciating what Linda Sue Park went through to write the sparsely worded, but thoroughly well-conceived, YAKS …
Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine written by Gloria Whelan (in hilarious rhyming text) and illustrated (fantastically) by Nancy Carpenter. Look at this cover??? Absolutely LOVED it! So much so that I was almost afraid to open it and be disappointed. And then, the end pages…
Here’s something to crow about— Yaks Yak, Animal Word Pairs by Linda Sue Park and illustrated by me hits the bookshelves today! In this fun and funny picture book “Bugs bug bugs”, ” Flounders flounder”, and “Steers steer”! I asked Linda Sue where her idea came from for the book, and …