Let's Get Busy Podcast

I'm honored to be today's guest on Matthew Winner's excellent Let's Get Busy Podcast. We talk about Growing Up Pedro, Candlewick Press, kickball, and more.

I often listen to Matthew Winner's podcast while I'm painting, and really enjoy it. If you like children's books and have never listened to this awesome podcast, you're in for a treat. I hope episode #166 lives up to the awesomeness of the other 165. Enjoy!

Behind the Scenes- Lady Liberty: A Biography

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Lady Liberty: A Biography, where I talk about collaborating with Doreen Rappaport. This was originally part of a DVD Candlewick Press put together a few years ago called "Open Studios", which also featured my friends, fellow Candlewick author-illustrators Timothy Basil Ering and Peter H. Reynolds. Enjoy!

Award News

Susan Stevens Crummel and Janet Stevens accepting the Bluebonnet Award at the Texas Library Association conference in San Antonio last week

I just got home from my trip to Texas, where I attended the Texas Library Association conference and visited 4 schools. Lady Liberty: A Biography (written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by me) was on the Bluebonnet Award list, and it was amazing to see how many of the librarians I met (pretty much every single one of them) knew about Lady Liberty because it was a Bluebonnet book.


One of the highlights of my trip was attending the Bluebonnet Award luncheon, where Susan Stevens Crummel and Janet Stevens did a fantastic stand-up routine as they accepted the Bluebonnet Award for their book, Help Me, Mr. Mutt.

And now I found out that Lady Liberty is a finalist for a couple other state book awards-the Buckeye Children's Book Award in Ohio, and the South Carolina Book Award. And on top of that, Mudball is a finalist for the 2011 Monarch Award in Illinois. All three of these awards are chosen by kids, so it's very cool to know that a whole bunch of kids in Illinois, Ohio, and South Carolina will be reading (and hopefully voting for) my books!

Monhegan Library

Here are some photos from one of my favorite library events of 2007- the reading/signing I did at Monhegan Library on Monhegan Island, in Maine.

note: I brought the illustration I was working on to the library that day, to show people an illustration in progress. If you look closely, you can see the partially-painted picture from Lady Liberty displayed on the easel. The final illustration is now on my web site.