Gallery Show: "Children's Book Illustrators"

This upcoming art exhibit is still several months away, but I'm really excited about it so I want to start spreading the word:


The Brush Art Gallery and Studios presents "Children's Book Illustrators", a group show featuring seven contemporary children's book illustrators:


Chris Van Allsburg, David Wisener, David Macaulay, Beth Krommes, Christopher Bing, Kelly Murphy, and Matt Tavares


Brush Art Gallery and Studios, 256 Market St., Lowell, MA 01852
Exhibit runs September 19 - October 24, 2010
Reception, book signing and artists' talk on Saturday, October 2


I'd be excited for this exhibit even if I wasn't one of the featured artists. It's an incredible honor, and somewhat surreal, to be included in this group of illustrators, alongside some of the true masters of children's book illustration. I just hope all the artists can come to the reception, so I can meet them in person.


Now I just need to decide which four illustrations to include in the exhibit...

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!

foreign editions

a couple cool things I got in the mail last week-

a new edition of Jack and the Beastalk, translated into Catalan, published by Vicens Vives Press, entitled, "En Jan i Les Mongetes Magiques". Strange to see my illustrations in a book that's designed so completely differently than the book I made with Candlewick:



and a special paperback UK edition of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, published by Walker Books:

Sneak Peek: Jack's Path of Courage: The Life of John F. Kennedy

I got the f & g's for my next book, Jack's Path of Courage: The Life of John F. Kennedy, written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by me. If you don't know what an "f & g" is- it stands for "folded and gathered". Before the real books are printed, all the pages and the jacket are folded and gathered together so the publisher can start showing it to booksellers and librarians, and so the editor, art director, author and illustrator can look it over for anything that needs to be changed. For example, the red needs to be toned down a bit on the jacket. He's supposed to have a tan, but it looks more like a sunburn.

The book comes out in October. Here's a sneak peek:

talking about Henry Aaron's Dream on '207'

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

I'm enjoying some delicious virtual breakfast this morning with one of the best children's book bloggers in the biz, Jules at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. How she manages to work full time, have a family, and keep up this amazing blog with such in-depth features packed with so many images, I do not know. Here's the link to the interview.

San Jose pictures

Candlewick Press put together a 5-city book tour to promote Henry Aaron's Dream, made up of 5 separate trips. I just went to San Jose, and I'll be going to San Antonio/Dallas, Orlando, Atlanta, and Cooperstown.

Here are a few pictures from my trip to San Jose.

My first night there, I did a presentation at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, as part of an exhibit called Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience. Here's a picture of part of the exhibit:


The next day I did a presentation for 400 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, then a signing at Hicklebee's, which is an awesome independent children's bookstore. Check out this great display they set up right inside the entrance:

After my signing, they asked me to find a spot anywhere on the walls or doors and sign it. Looking around thye room, I found signitures and drawings by pretty much every author and illustrator you can think of. Drawing a picture on a wall with a sharpie is a little tricky, and I messed up a bit on the face, but here's what I did:





Notice the door to the left of my picture. See anyone you recognize?




That night I had a delicious dinner with some Candlewick people and fellow Candlewick author Laura Amy Schlitz, then we all headed over to the author reception at the ABA Winter Institute, where Laura and I signed copies of our new books and met hundreds of booksellers. It was a pretty amazing event.







The next morning I tagged along with Lura Amy Schlitz and her editor (and my editor on Lady Liberty: A Biography) Mary Lee Donovan, for Laura's stock signing at Hicklebee's. It was such a fun place, I wanted to go back and wander around a bit. I was delighted to see that the display of my books was still there (I thought maybe they'd take it down as soon as my signing was over).



After Laura's signing, we had lunch with a group of librarians, then the three of us (Laura, Mary Lee and I) took a tour of the Winchester Mystery House, which was a very strange place. Long story, but basically the house's owner was instructed by ghosts that she needed to keep building the house and never stop, so that's what she did. Construction continued, 24 hours a day for 38 years, until she passed away. A sad story, really, but an interesting place.



Not sure if they always look like this, but the clouds in San Jose were amazing.


That evening, we had dinner with a great bunch of booksellers, then the next morning I headed back to Maine.

Next trip: Orlando.