The apartment is quiet, the tea bag is steeping, and you’ve just opened the cover of a shiny new book, or maybe a tattered old favorite. Ahhhh. You curl up with your book and your tea and disappear into the pages. Or you don’t. The intercom buzzes, the phone rings, …
As soon as I saw Janet Nolan’s new book, Get Ready For School (Albert Whitman), I knew it would be the perfect book to feature in a late-July post. This is an ideal book to share with kiddos on the cusp of that all-important (and more than a little intimidating) …
Hi Everyone! I can’t tell you how thrilled am to be here sharing my very first blog post as the newest member of Picture Book Builders! I have been a fan of this blog (not to mention a fan of ALL its members and their incredible books) for YEARS so …
Hello, Picture Book Builders people! If you have ever attended one of my presentations at a school or conference, you have probably heard me say, “Celebrate the weird stuff in life. It’s good material for stories.” Sometimes I even post about it online. Evidence. Imagine my joy when Abi Cushman …
“But hate has a way of bringing out heroes.” That is my favorite quote from Hidden Hope: How a Toy and a Hero Saved Lives During the Holocaust, written by Elisa Boxer and beautifully illustrated by Amy June Bates. I love non-fiction picture books and appreciate how difficult they are …
Something different today, audience participation required. (Well, not required. But very sincerely appreciated.) Each summer, as we’ve been doing for many years, my friend Linda Skeers and I co-host a summer picture book writing retreat/workshop. Each summer, we raid our personal bookshelves and lug hundreds of picture books to the …
Under the Blanket Sky is the debut picture book of Tim Fischer, a self-taught portrait and landscape artist. It is a quiet and simple book. It is filled with huge, fully-executed illustrations (which made me pick it up initially.) The text is spare. The story is simple. A boy makes …
Well, hello again, PBB readers! And thank you, Jill, for the opportunity to share a new book and visit with Aparna Varma, the terrifically talented illustrator of Champion Chompers, Super Stinkers and Other Poems by Extraordinary Creatures, published this month by Kids Can Press. First, a quick summary: Designed as …
Tumble, written and illustrated by Adriana Hernández Bergstrom follows the journey of a tumbleweed as it rolls across a vast desert. The short rhyming lines explain the tumbleweed’s movements in simple terms, and are fun to read aloud. The sky, landscape, and weather shift with each page turn, suggesting the …
Hello, Picture Book Builders people! Today, my friend (and superstar critique buddy) Dianne White is taking over this post. I had asked Dianne if there was a picture book that she would like to feature and right away she said, “COOLER THAN LEMONADE!” Isn’t this the perfect book for a …