What makes a good picture book? Remember what it’s like to see spring for the first time? To get your first grown-up bed? To run in the park, on the beach, along the Brooklyn Promenade, and never want to slow down? To find sneezes hilarious and wrapping paper the best toy in the world? wrote…
Tag: illustration
The poems in NASTY BUGS Lee Bennett Hopkins are itchingly great
Crossposted on Daily Kos Gross! … Boys will love this collection … a book of poetry with a decided ick factor. The bugs are delightfully nasty and include magots, chiggers, wasps, lice and bed bugs. Nasty Bugs by Lee Bennett Hopkins is a collection of creepy, crawly poems by some of today’s most beloved children’s…
BEAN DOG & NUGGET: Charise Mericle Harper Cooks Up Another Great Book Idea (plus three giveaways!)
This is an excerpt from an excellent blog entry by Charise Mericle Harper. The other day I was at my son’s book fair, talking with his teacher. A few of my books were included in the event, and she picked one up and flipped through it. All of a sudden she asked, “Where do you…
Artists Create Stunning Tribute To Maurice Sendak
“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim:…
Jane Yolen and J. Patrick Lewis provide LAST LAUGHS: ANIMAL EPITAPHS, illustrated by Jeffrey Stewart Timmins
“Last Laughs” Here at Amen Creature Corners, beasties weep like misty mourners, but when they read an epitaph, it always brings them one last laugh. Forget the hankies. Read the words of bugs and fishes, beasts and birds. They know it’s not all gloom and doom that’s written once upon a tomb. –from LAST LAUGHS:…
Steven Kellogg’s Illustrations in Jack and the Beanstalk Possess Extraordinary Texture and Dimension
Though his text remains true to the popular version of this English fairy tale, Kellogg’s ( Paul Bunyan ; Pecos Bill ) typically antic art gives this rendition a visual dimension that is uniquely his. Created with colored inks, watercolors and acrylics, the full-page illustrations have extraordinary texture and dimension. With a mouthful of pointy…
Floyd Cooper’s stirring pictures celebrate the historic civil rights and union protests
“For all the many titles that appear on segregation and protest for younger readers,” wrote the Kirkus review, “this one stands tall not just for delving into a piece of labor history not previously covered, but for its ability to relate history with heart and resonance.” Publishers Weekly called it “a moving study of multigenerational…
Puffling Patrol: Written and illustrated by Ted Lewin and Betsy Lewin
Every April, the Westman Islands off the coast of Iceland become home to hundreds of thousands of puffins, small black-and-white seabirds with colorful bills. They spend the summer on the rocky cliffs of the islands, caring for their newly hatched chicks. By the middle of August, it is time for the young puffins, called pufflings,…
Illustrator Ralph Masiello reveals a spritely world of fluttering fairies
In Ralph Masiello’s Fairy Drawing Book, the illustrator and author reveals a spritely world of fluttering fairies in his popular drawing series. Step-by-step diagrams show young artists how to draw tiny fairies, a fairy godmother, a fairy princess, a garden fairy, and more. Challenge steps encourage kids to add fairy accessories and details. A fairy-fete…