I picked up “The Blue Whale” by Jenni Desmond because I was curious to read the story behind this beautiful and intriguing cover. And the book does begin as a story with “Once upon a time, a child took a book from a shelf and started to read.” This …
Big news! My new picture book, THE MUSIC IN GEORGE’S HEAD: GEORGE GERSHWIN CREATES RHAPSODY IN BLUE, releases from Calkins Creek today. George Gershwin’s birthday is also this month (Sept. 26), so I’m glad you stopped by to celebrate this incredible composer/pianist. You can also find out where the idea for this story came from, …
For my post today, I’m going back to a book that came out four years ago. It was a favorite back then and it seems appropriate today. As we get deeper and deeper into this campaign cycle, the volume for “contentiousness” keeps getting cranked up. The vitriol coming out of …
I loved Tammi’s recent interview with Minh Lê, and especially his reminder to picture book writers to keep things lean. As Minh put it so well: if you weigh down the manuscript with unnecessary words/details, the book might never take flight. One way to prune a manuscript is to tell …
When I wrote about Mary Petersen’s art for the book, DIG IN, by Cindy Jenson-Elliott, a commenter mentioned another book by Cindy, WEEDS FIND A WAY, illustrated by Carolyn Fisher. A picture book that celebrates weeds? How curious! I grew up with a mother and grandmothers with green thumbs, and so, probably like most …
As August comes to an close, I thought it would be fun to celebrate the last days of summer with a wonderful picture book, GIANT DANCE PARTY by Betsy Bird, illustrated by Brandon Dorman (Greenwillow Books, 2013.) This lovely title is filled with exciting elements children will enjoy such as …
Oh, picture book people, you know that moment when you have a new book in your hands, you are ready to dig in, then a bear walks out of his cave and says, “Have you gotten to the part where the puppy runs away? That’s so sad.” Well, that’s the …
Three authors have joined forces to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service. Janet Fox, Barb Rosenstock, and Liz Garton Scanlon are spearheading a month long (August) program to showcase our beautiful national parks. Their Page Through the Parks promotion is also filled with fantastic giveaways that are …
Full disclosure. Today’s post does not talk about a picture book. At least not one in the classical sense. I mean, I am blogging about a book, and it certainly has pictures, but it’s not a 32-page, full-color picture book. But this book is so beautiful, I had to give it some …
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 …