What first drew me to My Busy Green Garden (Tilbury House Publishers), by author Terry Pierce and illustrator Carol Schwartz, was its colorful cover. On it were some of my favorite flowers – daisies, lilies, a purple coneflower. Oh, wait. There were insects, too? A praying mantis, a honeybee, a …
My friend Sue Lowell Gallion’s first book, the warm and adorable PUG MEETS PIG (Beach Lane Books), entered the world last fall, and I thought it might be fun to talk about the book and interview Sue. What better time than Valentine’s Day to highlight a story in which two …
Okay, everybody, repeat after me: She sells sea shells at the seashore. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Tongue warmed up? Then you’re ready for Emily Jenkins’ newest book, A Greyhound, A Groundhog, illustrated by …
A few weeks back, while giving a talk at Austin’s Writing Barn, Chronicle’s Ariel Richardson held up this little charmer by author/illustrator Claudia Rueda: Ariel didn’t have to show many pages before I was hooked. By the time I got my hands on the book an hour later, my expectations were awfully …
A new book from Lisa Wheeler is always a treat. But when I saw the cover of The Christmas Boot, I knew it was something special. I asked Dial for a preview, and they were kind enough to send an f&g. Oh, people. Besides feeling like a folktale we should …
Ahhh, October. My favorite month, wrapped in the cozy blankie of my favorite season. Crisp air, blue skies, fire-shaded leaves, harvest, apple pies. Lots to love. One new thing I love is – surprise – a picture book, one I discovered in a Wisconsin bookstore while between presentations this past …
Last spring I got a sneak peek of a book that bowled me over, Candy Fleming and Eric Rohmann’s Giant Squid. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. Take a look at this opening page. That glimpse of tentacles waving in a vast full spread of undersea darkness? Gives me the shivers. The …
A few years ago, I read that late author George Stanley sometimes made lists of random characters and situations, then cut them into strips, picked two, and played around with how he might match them up for a story. Why not? I thought. So I made a long list of …
Last month I posted about Elise Gravel’s I Want a Monster, and I loved her work so much I had to visit her website (which, by the way, is available in both English and French. Cool, eh?) to see what other books she had in the pipeline. When I saw that …
Sometimes I get so focused on analyzing a picture book’s story and art – what I love about each, what doesn’t work for me, etc. – that I forget the ultimate readers. Kids! Not all littles love every book out there, naturally, but I think there are some stories with more …