Oh so many years ago… I dreamed of writing picture books.

I took many many classes at UCLA extension with wonderful writers: Ann Whitford Paul, Kristine O’Connell George, Sonia Levitin, Caroline Arnold, Madeline Comora, Alexis O’Neill, and Barbara Abercrombie.

I signed up for more classes – online, this time – with Anastasia Suen, Barbara Seuling, Dennis Foley and Lynn Hightower.

I completed an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts and worked with fabulous advisors: Phyllis Root, Marion Dane Bauer, Jane Resh Thomas, and Tim Wynne-Jones.

I went back to Vermont again (!) to finish a post-grad picture book semester with the amazing Kathi Appelt.

I met many wonderful people who supported my growth as a writer, including my Whirligig Vermont College classmates and my dear “Cookie” friends: Ann, Candy, Debbie, Nancy, Miriam, Texas Steph, and Stephanie G.

Then, after all those years, and all those classes, and all that writing, in January of 2009, I received a lovely phone message from picture book editor par excellence Allyn Johnston of Beach Lane Books re: a manuscript I had sent her after attending a weekend class she and Ann Whitford Paul had taught at UCLA.  Allyn wanted to buy my book!!

In June of 2009, I received the official offer for BLUE ON BLUE.  I was at the movies with friends (“Away We Go”).  My good friend, Cheryl, was there when I heard the news.  We celebrated!!

Many months passed.  I waited.  I worked.  I took more classes.  I revised other stories.  And then, a contract!  (Which I promptly signed!)

Soon, an officially official “signed-by-both-parties” contract found its way back to my doorstep. HOORAY!!

Time to celebrate again.  This time, with my dear husband, the one person who has been there all along, encouraging me to pursue my dreams.

THANKS!

Today, Jules of 7-Imp has posted a terrific interview with Tao Nyeu, complete with loads of illustrations, sketches, and a peek at what’s up next for Tao!

Enjoy!

I have a new favorite picture book – BUNNY DAYS by Tao Nyeu. 

Here’s why.  Exquisite Illustrations. Gorgeous design. Frameable dust jacket (!). Surprising Text.

I’m not an artist and while I *wish* I had the language/vocabulary to talk about BUNNY DAYS in a way that does it justice, I don’t.

BUT, what I do have is a deep appreciation for spare lines and meaningful use of color, and a general intuitive sense of “what works” from a design standpoint.

BUNNY DAYS has all this in spades.

Suffice it to say, that I think this book is absolutely Caldecott worthy.  (Perhaps Jules over at Seven Imp will do an interview with Tao???  Check here (scroll to the bottom) for a snippet by Jules about BUNNY DAYS.)

In the first chapter, “Muddy Bunnies,” curved lines abound.  In the hills, in the repeating shapes of flowers, in the arch of tree trunks.  The pallete is soft: “retro” blues, oranges, greens and browns.  White is used with intention.

The composition varies – double page spreads, spot illustrations on a sea of white set off by a few carefully placed clouds, and so on.

The are bunnies aplenty, each with a personality of its own. One sleeps by a tree, another basks in the sun, arms spread wide, another leans in to study a small green frog.

I could go on about how the “feel” of each chapter is different because each has its own color palette - distinct from the others and yet complementary -  so that one chapter seems to lead easily to the next.

I could talk about the quality of the paper, the whimsy of end papers filled with tumbling bunnies, the dust jacket that is an actual POSTER (!) and the full-color casewrapped (I think that’s the term) illustrated hardcover.

Besides the stellar illustration and overall design, there’s the humorous and original story line.

• Muddy Bunnies swish swashing in the (delicate cycle) washer. Bunnies that dry on the line all day, all night, then hop off, happy and ready for a brand-new adventure.
• Dusty Bunnies dozing deep underground while Mrs. Goat vacuums up… grass, leaves, bunnies. “WHIRRRRR goes the fan”  A few quick fixes by Bear and all is well again.
• Bunnies without tails and tails without bunnies.  Poor Mr. Goat turns to Bear again. Of course, Bear knows what to do!  In the end, “everyone is happy.”

Want to know more? Drop in here – Tao Nyeu’s website.

Somehow being reminded of how “tricky” they are, both to write and to sell makes me glad I’m a picture book writer.

Stearns writes, “A really great picture book is a difficult art to pull off… It is about grace and the right words in the right place—much more akin to poetry than mere storytelling.”

Reminds me of the quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “…poetry: the best words in the best order.”

Yes. Poetry and picture books. I love them both.

Though I’d skimmed through Strong Man: The Story of Charles Atlas (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007) in the book store soon after it was published, only recently did I pick up a copy to share with my third grade class.

Here’s what we loved:

* First off – the illustrations.  Aren’t they amazing?  The eyes on each of the characters, the placement and line of the mouths, the angular noses.  There’s something unique and genuinely fun about McCarthy’s bold – almost cartoon-like-but-only-in-the-best-way - art.  Her use of muted and bright colors, frames, speech bubbles, and more appealed to both me and my students.

* Secondly – one of the difficult tasks an author must face when writing a nonfiction picture book is the necessity to carefully choose which events to include in a story. Some need only a brief mention in order to provide the necessary context for what follows. Some events can be entirely omitted.

I thought this line from the very first page was genius: “Although Angelo didn’t know it yet, he would go on to do great things.” That line alone is but one indication of McCarthy’s skill.  From this point, the story smoothly transitions from Charles Atlas’s arrival to Ellis Island as a small boy to the events that led to his decision to “do something to stop the bullies.”

*Also – the book contains two end notes: “Try It Yourself” – four exercises for kids (One of my students immediately recognized the ‘Downward Dog’) and an “Author’s Note” in which McCarthy provides further information about her research findings, including the observation that Charles Atlas, “a man of many firsts” had become, over time, a “real-life Paul Bunyan” who “lived a very private life, so private that all that remains are the idealized stories.”

All in all, I am inspired to search out more of Megan McCarthy’s work.  And I know my students will be pleased that I did!

In the meantime, I’ve been working on a revision of another story, and I think it might finally finally (!) be getting closer to being finished. (Notice I did not say it is finished!)

Revision is a tricky thing.  Even - or I might say, especially - with picture books.  I’ve been going round and round with this one particular story and because it’s been on my mind for over a month now,  it’s especially important to me to get it right.

While it’s true I can’t hurry the process, I also know that revision requires my undivided attention. Since I tend to spread myself thin, uninterrupted time is often hard to come by.  *Sigh*

It’s a problem of my own making.  I know that…  Why I spend so much time working “around” a particular story rather than attending exclusively to that one story until it’s finished to my satisfaction is anyone’s guess.  But the bigger point is that unless I make myself sit down and wait and think and brainstorm until I’m onto something, I’m almost guaranteed no progress.

I suppose it might be argued that all of my fits and starts are part of the whole revision process.  But, however it works, I’m happy for a bit of uninterrupted BIC (butt in chair) time this evening.

Jane Yolen in her poem, “Revision Takes Wings,” likens revision to a bird that “wings himself right off the printed page.”  I will be glad when my current revision does just that.
photo credit: *L*u*z*a* return to nature

Too many projects, never enough time… but I’m not throwing in the towel yet! It seems Paula isn’t too much further along than I am, so… I’m encouraged and  have the (probably false) notion that – by some miracle – I’ll make up for lost time before Friday.  Ha!  We’ll see…photo credit: kwerfeldein

Yes, it *is* going to be hard.  Staff meeting tomorrow after school.  School board meeting later tomorrow night.  Meetings Wednesday and Thursday.  Appointment Friday.   NO TIME!  But… I’m still hopeful.

*****

At a picture book retreat I went to earlier in the year, we were each given a quote, selected at random, to take home with us.  Mine was:

“The universe is energy that responds to expectations.”

I’ll hold onto the belief that if I keep plugging away this week, I might actually reach that “light at the end of the tunnel” – 7  (rough) drafts.

Check out Paula Yoo‘s blog and her newly established NATIONAL PICTURE BOOK WRITING WEEK (NaPiBoWriWee) : 7 PICTURE BOOKS IN 7 DAYS.

Answers to questions can be found here and here.

I’m hoping to surprise myself and generate some new drafts.  Care to give it a try, too?

In spite of the huge number of picture books filling my home and school book shelves, there are some books that I pick up while browsing in the bookstore that I know I simply must buy.

That Book Woman by Heather Henson, pictures by David Small, is one such book.

This lyrical and deeply moving story centers on Cal, the oldest boy in a large family who describes himself as “not the first one nor the last one neither.”

From the very first page, I love this boy who seems to know himself well enough to declare that he “was not born to sit so stoney-still a-staring at some chicken scratch.”

Mildly curious about the strange Book Woman who rides alone delivering books to homes high up in the Appalachian mountains, Cal takes it all in, insisting “… it would not bother me at all if she forgot the way to our back door.”

But when the Book Woman arrives in the middle of big snow storm, Cal recognizes something miraculous and strange is at work.  Why would anyone risk their life to share a book?  Suddenly, Cal longs to read.

It is younger sister, Lark, who teaches Cal how to make sense of it all. The book’s subsequent pages, beautifully illustrated by David Small in ink, watercolor, and pastel chalks, reveal Cal’s softening demeanor, the edge of his initial anger gone.

By the final two-page spread, a wide smile has emerged on Cal’s face.   No longer chicken scratch, the words in books have meaning.  Finally, Cal knows “what’s truly there.”

I love the rhythm of this story, the dialect, the way in which a small piece of our country’s history – the pack horse librarians – is revealed in the particulars of Cal’s journey from non-reader to reader.

When I read a book which uses language so richly, I immediately want to know more about the author. What is it about the author and/or her background that brought her to tell this particular story?  Has she written anything else?

Not surprisingly, yes, she has.  Among other things, she’s written another lovely picture book I read a while back: Angel Coming.

Check out here for information on That Book Woman’s recent Christopher Award win.

Learn more about Henson on her website.

I’ve added a new page: PICTURE BOOKS:  ART AND CRAFT.  Click here or on the GREEN tab in the banner above and take a look!