Woodpecker Girl, written by Chingyen Liu and I-Tsun Chiang, is gloriously illustrated by Heidi Doll. This is the true story of Yipei Huang. A girl born with cerebral palsy and destined to life in a wheel chair. The dream-like illustrations are magical. They portray Yipei often as quite small on …
There is a new picture book swimming about in the world— And it’s called Fishtastic!! The subtitle is, “A Tale of Magic and Friendship” which is extremely apropos. Because, you see, this book is written by my very dear friend, Tess Weaver, and I had the privilege to illustrate it. …
“Maria Gianferrari has climbed fig trees in Italy, stood under stately coastal redwoods and twisted Torrey pines, marveled at mitten-shaped sassafras leaves, colorful coral trees and sawtooth oak acorn nests. She lives with her family, including dog, Maple, in a house encircled by trees.” Jennifer: Maria, your book, Be a …
Always by My Side, A Stuffie Story is out in the world today ?. If any of you follow me on Social Media (thank you) you might be aware that my once-upon-a-time-little boy, Will, and his beloved stuffed dinosaur, Dina, were the inspiration for my story and the character of …
I’m taking a little break from talking about book-making in this post. I’m busy making heads. My studio is a bright and sunny upstairs bedroom. The walls are covered with eclectic art by friends, family, and people whose work I love. Antique furniture holds up my printer and scanner. Two large …
What a stunning and uplifting picture book by Apryl Stott. It’s her author and illustrator debut. Bear is sad. Because of his size the forest animals are afraid of him and think he must be mean. The front end pages echo this message and the second page of the book …
A Life Made by Hand, The Story of Ruth Asawa, written and illustrated by Andrea D’Aquino. I am extremely grateful for the recent publication of several non-fiction books about artists. Especially those books which highlight the work of lesser known visionaries, yet artists’ whose work has contributed and influenced the …
I have noticed a happy trend of many book makers teaming up with their local Independent Bookstores to offer signed books this holiday/pandemic season. It does take some extra effort on both people’s parts. It usually requires that the bookstore is close enough that the author/illustrator doesn’t mind stopping in …
Long ago, I read that adult human beings draw at a 10 year old drawing level. This is because sometime around that age the child realizes that they are not the best artist in the class. Because there is always one, right? And the kids who are not that One …
There are three books so far in this contemporary artist series by Fausto Gilberti and I hope that there will be more to come. The first in the series is Yves Klein, Painted Everything Blue and Wasn’t Sorry. That’s why I wanted this book. That title… that amusing illustration of …