THE FOX AND THE STAR (in praise of heavenly design!)
Pleased to meet you, PLEASE PLEASE THE BEES!
Please Please the Bees, written and illustrated by Gerald Kelley Benedict the bear lives a very sweet life. Every morning the bees leave him three jars of honey on his porch. Benedict’s bear existence revolves around eating and enjoying his honey. It is everything to him. So, when one day …
Dance is for Everyone!
This post should probably be holiday themed… but it’s not… not really? Well, perhaps it is in the fact that Andrea Zuill’s wonderful picture book, Dance is for Everyone has a beautiful message of inclusion. And kindness. Acceptance and encouragement. Which are all messages I would like to see come …
Building a Beautiful Book— Interview with Sr. Art Director Christine Kettner
Here on Picture Book Builders we love to chat about how beautiful books are created. It’s my opinion that one of the under recognized contributors of the ‘team’ is the art director. I have been fortunate enough to work with Senior Art Director/Creative Director, Christine Kettner on three books. She …
How to Make Friends with a Ghost!!!!
Happy Halloween, everyone! I love Halloween. But I was not going to let the date of my post dictate the book I chose. I had two others in mind when I got my hands on How To Make Friends With A Ghost, by Rebecca Green. Right away I was drawn to …
BALDERDASH! by Michelle Markel, Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
This beautiful book had me smiling the whole way through with surprise after surprise. Of course a book about the man who loved books and children enough to change the publishing world forever would appeal to me from the get go. But this one went above and beyond with both …
Things To Do
Things To Do by Elaine Magliaro illustrated by Catia Chien. Open to absolutely beautiful, wallpaper-like end pages of a little girl and her dog in a pattern of flora. They are done in a soft Delft blue palette and instantly make me think, ‘old world’. Really, such a lovely introduction to …
Everywhere, Wonder
Everywhere, Wonder written by Matthew Swanson and illustrated by Robbi Behr surprised me in a wonderful way. The story begins by addressing the reader, “I have a story to share. It is a little gift from me to you.” We set off on our imaginative journey. At first we are …
Rain by Sam Usher
It’s raining, it’s pouring in Sam Usher’s glorious new picture book appropriately titled “Rain”. I had it in the back of my mind for a while to post about it just because I’m dying to scream out to all of you, “HOW DOES SOMEONE PAINT WATER LIKE THAT?????”, but I …
Welcome, Blue Ethel!!! BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!!!
Blue Ethel took almost ten years to become a book. Someone asked me if that’s because I put it away for a while to work on other things? No, not really. Ethel was just a little pokey in her journey to find the right ‘owner’. She finally found her person …