I love rhyming stories that employ brevity. I love colorful artwork. I love stories that provide talking points between reader and listener(s). Leslie Helakoski’s Hoot & Honk Just Can’t Sleep delivers all three. And look at this beeee-yootiful cover! A storm upsets two nests, a goose’s and an owl’s. Each …
Johnny Mathis crooning The Christmas Song My mom’s Russian Tea Cake cookies The lumpy Santa’s face pillow that’s been propped atop my parents’ sofa every December as far back as I can remember. Those things are guaranteed to put me into a mellow Christmas mood. This year, I’m excited to add …
When my kids were little, one of the picture books they particularly loved was Nancy Carson’s Loud-Mouth George & the Sixth-Grade Bully. As I turned pages, getting closer and closer to the moment the bully got his comeuppance, they’d be leaning into me, practically clapping, gleefully anticipating that page turn. …
For days, I’ve been putting off writing this post…only because I’ve had a hard time finding the “just right’ words to describe the gorgeousness that is Barb Rosenstock’s and Mary GrandPré’s new Van Gogh biography, Vincent Can’t Sleep, coming October 3rd from Knopf. So I give up. I’m going to …
Hello, all! We have a BIG treat for you today – a talented picture book builder, in the truest sense of the word. My former Sterling editor, Alli Brydon, left that position a few years ago to work closely with illustrators as an agent for Bright USA. Now she’s stepping …
Penny Parker Klostermann hit it big with her sparkling debut, 2015’s There Was An Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight (Random House, illus by Ben Mantle). Now she’s tackled an original and funny mash-up story that stirs together fairytales and a guy whose fondest desire is to be a chef. …
A friend recently introduced me to Phyllis Root’s new book, ANYWHERE FARM (Candlewick, illustrated by G. Brian Karas). The farming/gardening side of me rejoiced to see another book of the “plant a seed” variety, and, from the very first page, the writer side of me happily absorbed Ms. Root’s cheerful, …
What kiddo doesn’t love a silly story once in awhile? Good thing they’re so easy to write. Hahahaha! We wish. Silly stories are often the toughest to get right. But Jason Gallaher does exactly that in his quirky, exuberant debut, WHOBERT WHOVER, OWL DETECTIVE (Margaret K. McElderry Books) I was …
Some of my favorite summer memories revolve around the carnival’s annual visit to my little Iowa town. Why? -Freedom! My best buddy Teresa and I headed to the park in a euphoric frenzy, saved quarters burning holes in our pockets. Ride tickets in hand, we’d run flat out between the Octopus, …
I appreciate a good metaphor. I really appreciate an entire book full of them. But I lurrrrve a quirkily illustrated book full of them that makes me smile as I page through AND makes my heart go all melty at the end. Oh, and it rhymes, too! No wonder …