Today, I am very pleased to be interviewing not simply one creator but a whole group at once. The Sowing Circle is a sisterhood of Southern Black writers. And, in their own words, the group mission is to “sow affirming words and images in the hearts of children in order to reap a generation that is inquisitive, empathetic and enlightened”.
Angela Johnson has more than forty books to her name and she can write the gamut from board books to YA. This year, she’s giving us a poem-turned-book called A Girl Like Me, with illustrated photography by Nina Crews. Naturally I’d like to show you the cover, but first I had some questions for the creators.
The starry-eyed montane tree frog. The mutable rain frog that goes from smooth to spiny. The pebble toad that has a unique method of escaping predators. All this and more I discuss with my special guests, even as I reveal their latest book jacket.
I’ve become very curious about the release of another Mister Rogers picture book biography. In fact, I had lots of questions for both the author and the illustrator. So before we get to the business of the cover reveal, let’s ask those two some questions about what really is going on here
Ho ho ho! They complain that Christmas arrives in stores earlier and earlier every year. Well I’m about to make such stores look like late lucys because today we’re celebrating my holiday-themed picture book collaboration with Dan Santat, coming out (interestingly enough) in September! Enjoy our goofy interview with one another.
It is my supreme pleasure to introduce you to a charming picture book slated for 2020. Too early, you say? Nonsense. It is never too early to get excited by a book. Particularly when it’s coming from a recent Caldecott Honor winner . . . .
“It’s almost as if he grew a tree in a garden and didn’t allow any of the leaves to grow on it at all, it’s just the bare bones of a tree, and asked me to come in and decorate the tree. But without that strength of that tree, nothing would hold up on it.” LeUyen Pham and Victoria Stapleton talk about the fabulous picture book Bear Came Along.
“The pee is simply the warm, wet catalyst that exposes the characters personalities.” Zach and Bob discuss unicorn pee, the difficulties of painting wet pants, and how kindness is king.
Interviews? They’re cool. But interviews between authors and illustrators in the form of a comic? Much much cooler. To that end, I bring you the marvelous Andrea Tsurumi (of my beloved Accident) and her partner-in-crime Gideon Sterer as they discuss their book NOT YOUR NEST.
One of my favorite picture biographies of last year, this book captures with seeming effortlessness the life and times of one of the world’s greatest painters. His art seems tailor-made for children, and the story itself stands as a marvelous example of how to make a picture book biography at all. I got to ask Barb and Mary some questions and, in the process, get a little schooled on my own assumptions.
When I am a good little blogger, and I mind my Ps and Qs, and catch all my spelling errors, and rein in my less than charitable attitudes for at least a good four hours, then once in the while the Blogging Gods will smile down upon me and I will be granted a boon. […]
Okay. So I kinda sorta intensely love this. First off, remember Cheryl Klein? A.k.a. the continuity editor of Harry Potter? A.k.a. one of the best editors of our age who not too long ago left Scholastic to work for Lee & Low Books? I’ve known Cheryl for years. We used to do Kidlit Drink Nights […]
I’ve heard you. I’ve heard you when you slip into bed at night and stare with wide insomniac-laden eyes at the ceiling thinking, thinking, thinking to yourself, “Why hasn’t Molly Idle ever done a mermaid book?” I hear you, man. I understand where you’re coming from. You figure that since she knocks it out of […]
Morning folks. I’ll start today with a video that contains some classy tunes. It’s my recent interview with Eric Rohmann about his new book GIANT SQUID. Delicious delicious giant squids. Sorry. This interview occurred on a day when I was half hoping the staff recording the interview would have a big steaming plate of calamari […]
I have a two-year-old son. He is very cute. He is also the most stereotypical boy reader I’ve ever encountered in my life. Trucks, trains, construction equipment, you name it. Unsurprisingly he’s also keen on community workers so every other day we read through Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. Or, when […]
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