Monday, March 31, 2008
What Makes a Best-Selling Children’s Book?
Jean Feiwel, Senior Vice President and publisher of Fiewel and Friends and Square Fish Books, Diane Roback, Senior Editor of the children's section of Publisher’s Weekly, and Micha Hershman, a manager of Borders Group children's department, discuss what makes a best-selling children’s book.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Mo Willems announces the title of his brand new Pigeon book, The Pigeon Wants ____
From Mo's blog: "Opening the event will be special guest and National Ambassador for Children’s Books and Other Cool Stuff: Jon Scieszka"
Now, look at all this terrific paper art on Mo's blog.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Eschew: No one actually says this word in real life.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
(Thank you to Debbie Reese for the jpeg of George and Martha)
("I am an American Indian, Not a Native American!" statement by Russell Means)
Hey Kids,
(The Children's Choice Book Awards --finalists "determined by the IRA-CBC Children's Choices program." -- "Watch out for the passive voice..." )
great opening sentences
185 first lines posted and counting!
(Thank you to Jennifer Thermes for this link)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Viviane Schwarz
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
SCBWI Announces 2007 Golden Kite Awards
Golden Kite Award Winners:
Picture Book Text: Pierre in Love by Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Petra Mathers (Orchard).
Picture Book Illustration: Little Night by Yuyi Morales (Roaring Brook)(illustrator interview).
Note: Yuyi also illustrated Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez.
Golden Kite Honor Recipients:
Picture Book Text: The End by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Richard Egielski (Arthur A. Levine Books)(author interview).
Note: David won the 2005 Sid Fleischman Humor Award for Absolutely Positively Not.
Picture Book Illustration: Who Put the B in Ballyhoo? by Carlyn Beccia (Houghton Mifflin)(author-illustrator interview)
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Cover illustration by Petra Mathers
Friday, March 07, 2008
Thanks to Art, Words, Life:
A Creature_Comforts film from Aardman Studios. Here's another where politicians debate the war in Iraq.
“duel of historical guilts” in the Democratic primary
(And while I'm here, posting about politics, here's Nora Ephron's take on the latest scandal.)
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
a Simon James interview
...........................................thanks to
Monday, March 03, 2008
THE AGE OF ENCHANTMENT
(Watercolor by Edmund Dulac, from Cinderella in The Sleeping Beauty and other Tales, 1910)
In Nov. of 2007, the Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibited a survey of the Golden Age of Book Illustration. THE AGE OF ENCHANTMENT is also a gorgeous book by the curator of this exhibition, Rodney Engen. Beginning with work of Aubrey Beardsley, it includes 165 color illustrations by Beardsley, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Kay Nielsen, and the Detmold Twins, to name just a few. Examining a time when the "beautiful decadence" of Beardsley "softened to delight rather than to shock," Mr. Engen supplies the details. He describes a time when trade with Japan and China influenced Western artists, and he provides a context for understanding a cultural shift of spirit and style.
This is the kind of luxurious book that should be read slowly. The historical perspective can be sampled a little at a time. (The biographical information is fascinating and often sad.) And the pictures, without any words at all, can pull you into their fantastic stories.