Captain Cookie...

...is hanging on my Christmas tree. Arrr!!

And I was very happy to see that he's on the big wall at Barnes & Noble again this year! Pretty cool to see The Gingerbread Pirates up there with Dr. Suess, David Shannon, and Charlie Brown (and Harry Connick, Jr... and Mike Huckabee...?) Go Captain Cookie!

artwork from kids

One of the fun parts of being a children's book author-illustrator is getting mail from kids. Usually it comes in big batches, from an elementary school class that just read one of my books, or from a school I visited. It's always so cool to look at art made by kids, and it's very inspiring to know that the books I'm working on here in my studio will (hopefully) inspire kids to make art of their own.

Here are a few pieces of artwork I've gotten in the mail recently:

Over the River and Through the Wood, by Grace

Over the River and Through the Wood, by Celia

Captain Cookie, by Marissa

Captain Cookie with the sleigh from Over the River, by Anonymous

Mudball, by a different Anonymous

A picture of me doing a drawing demonstration, by Kaeden