Illustration Huzzahs

Huzzah! Huzzah! The brilliant Melissa Sweet has been feted as such this morning in the New York Times Book Review.

Her stunner of a many-layered tribute to the poetic mind of William Carlos Williams, River of Words (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers) has been named "Best Illustrated."

You must get your dear paws on this book to savor the collage of fonts, old book covers, watercolors, and bits of this-and-that that mirror Williams' creativity. Read a brief interview with Melissa about the book.

Also honored for her collage work is Carin Berger, the final guest in the sorely missed Lunch Box Series. Her book The Little Yellow Leaf is stark and startling. A beautiful treatise on patience and the passing of seasons. Lovely, lovely work.

The other "well met" choice is genius, Kadir Nelson. His book We Are the Ship collects his breathtaking portraits of the Negro Leagues. You have not seen light until you have see light reflected off his figures and faces.

View a slide show of the 2008 Best Illustrated from the NYTBR.

Talk Like a Pirate

Ahoy, Mateys! Your ship has come in!

Plunder awaits at Sarah L. Thomson's website. To launch her picture book, Pirates, Ho!, Sarah and I joined audio book narrator, William Dufris in his studio to record an uproarious reading of the piratical picture book.

Listen to the reading and see pictures of the madcap recording session.

We shout, "Avast!" We cry, "Ahoy!"
The deadliest danger's our greatest joy.
From the first mate down to the cabin boy,
we are pirates, pirates, ho!

I Walk the Line

Story Walk, a project Curious City is helping Let's Go! design and launch, walked again this month.

Story Walk allows families to follow the pages of a picture book along a path to encourage both literacy and movement.

This time we used the ever madcap tale, Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen (Chronicle Books).

Alice Design helped us redesign the concept by photographing an actual open book. Seeing the edges of the pages, the cover, and the shadow of the gutter made the signage look all the more BOOK.

I love this pic of a Frisbee put on hold for a spot of reading. More pictures here.

Thanks to Chris for letting us use this fab picture book! Thanks to Banacom Sign for the speedy and brilliant print job.

We Are Pirates, Pirates, Ho!

Some picture books simply require you to make silly voices. To promote Sarah L. Thomson's piratical picture book, Pirates, Ho! we went to the king of silly voices --William Dufris.

Sarah Thomson and I giggled (until we snorted-I am embarrassed to say) as we sat in Dufris' studio hearing him give voice to Sarah's characters Peg-Leg Tom, Angus Black, Dreadful Nell and One-Eyed Jack. He even dived into the crystal clear waters voicing characters pictured, but not named like the pelican "brwak" and the cabin boy.

We pick up the recording today, will sync it with Stephen Gilpin's illustrations, and hope to share it as an audio and video perfect for Talk Like a Pirate Day.

I, myself, have been Talking Like William Dufris for more than a Day!

More Pictures of the recording session.

Every Dog Deserves A...

Bone, certainly, but a Home most definitely.

Finally had the chance to photograph the Every Dog Deserves a Home game that I developed to promote Tupelo Rides the Rails by Melissa Sweet and the supporting website that raises funds for dog shelters, www.MyDogisaBonehead.com.

The game pairs illustration matching with canine wish fulfillment (both visual and written) to model dog adoption for kids. Basically, kids give each dog character in the book a home. You can view the whole game and game path here.

Thanks once again to Alice Design for laying out the game cards and the houses. And to my brilliant partner who built the perfect little back doors for the houses.