Happy New Year!

Hope I didn't scare ya! I had fun making my New Year's hat. Actually, my daughter and I made ours on Thanksgiving day. Unfortunately we didn't take pictures. So, I took this photo of myself on my iMac and then did the background in Photoshop. Fun!

An early New Year celebration in Newburyport!

Thank you to the kids and parents who made New Year hats with me at the Newburyport Public Libray! To see more photos of kids with hats click here. I did a reading of Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas and then the kids dove in and made their own New Year hats! This was followed by a signing at the Child at Heart Gallery owned by Paul and Mary McDonough. Thanks to Paul and Mary for their help in arranging this event and for taking the great photos! To see more of the hat making in progress click here and scroll!

Child at Heart Gallery

I am very pleased to announce that two of my favorite images will be available as Giclee prints at the Child at Heart Gallery in Newburyport, MA. Above is a detail from one of those images. This piece was originally published in The Sparrow's Easter Song, written by Michelle Medlock Adams, published by Ideals Children's Books.

Alex on the Almanac

Look where Alex turned up! He's on the cover of the The Almanac, a wonderful newspaper with a fabulous design and production department! (Can you tell how much I love what they did?) Alex is from the book, Mommy and Daddy Are Always Supposed to Say Yes.... Aren't They? This book was written by Dr. Annye Rothenberg, a child-parent psychologist. It's a picture book aimed at pre-schoolers combined with a parent's guide that is filled with practical suggestions. Dr. Rothenberg lives on the west coast. I live on the east coast. And here's a review from The Midwest Book Review. Scroll down under "Reviewer's Choice."
Hey! Alex gets around!

Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure

This is my 2007 snowflake for Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure. This event, founded by Robert Mercer and his wife Grace Lin, began in 2004. Grace, who is a children's book illustrator, gathered artists from all over the children's book illustrating community to create special snowflakes to be auctioned off, with the proceeds benefiting sarcoma research at Dana-Farber. These snowflake auctions became known as the event "Robert's Snow." Since that time, the event has raised more than $200,000 for Dana-Farber. This year's auction will begin in November. Read more about Robert Snow.

The little girl on my snowflake is Shante Keys. She is from the book Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas written by Gail Piernas Davenport, published by Albert Whitman. Like the snowflakes, this book will be available in November.