Chappaqua Children's Book Festival, Sat., 9/28

One of my favorite days of the year is coming up next Saturday, September 28th—the annual Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. Running from 10am–4pm, at the Chappaqua Train Station, the event brings together an impressive array of kidlit authors and illustrators from all around the northeast. The most hard-working crew of librarians, educators, and volunteers make the day well worth it for those of us who have to travel a distance. Best of all, we kidlit creators get to connect directly with readers.

I’ll be signing copies of my latest picture book collaboration with author Sharon G. Flake, YOU MAKE ME SNEEZE!, along with my other books—including as always, a few science picture books. I hope to see you there!

For more information on all the amazing events of the day, visit the festival website, or Instagram page.

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It's a Book! Two New Books!

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My advance copies of YOU MAKE ME SNEEZE! and the paperback edition of YOU ARE NOT A CAT! arrived this week. Both books will officially be released on February 20th by Astra Young Readers.

Unboxing a year’s worth of hard work, seeing it glued and bound together as a book never gets old. I had the pleasure of sharing a sneak peek of YOU MAKE ME SNEEZE with some classrooms this week for World Read Aloud Day, and I’m happy to report: the jokes landed!

The lovely folks at Astra also created a very fun promotion for SNEEZE at this year’s ALA conference: tissue packs! They’ve sent me a bunch that I am looking forward to sharing with readers at some upcoming children’s book festivals this Spring and Fall. For more information on my appearance, scroll down this page to the Events section.

I also collaborated with Astra to create coloring pages based on a few of our favorite images from SNEEZE. Those are free for download here and on Astra’s website.

If you’d like to order a copy of one (or both) books, click here. ACHOO!

What's News with Me…

What's news with me? I guess, a lot, since it's been a while since I updated this page. The late summer and early fall have kept me plenty busy.

It's that time of year again! As with past Octobers, I'm participating in #Inktober—the month of ink drawings shared on social media—with my own spin in the form of #Oinktober. If you'd like to follow my pigs' progress, check out my Instagram for a new pig drawing each day.

Fall is book festival season, and a few weekends ago, I was at the Princeton Children's Book Festival along with a stellar roster of kidlit authors and illustrators. Creating children's books is a somewhat solitary art, so festivals are a great way to connect directly with teachers, librarians, parents, and especially kids. If you find yourself near Westchester County, NY on Saturday, October 14th, come visit me at the Chappaqua Children's Book Festival from 10–4PM. I'll be signing books and giving away bookmarks, stickers and more. For further information, click here.

September 15th was International Dot Day, and I was invited to celebrate with a few author-illustrator colleagues down at the KidLitTV studio in Lower Manhattan. Now a worldwide celebration inspired by Peter Reynolds' book The Dot (about a little girl who is reticent about drawing/making her mark, only to discover the true artist within her), this Dot Day connected classrooms across the globe through a live stream to create a celebration of creativity, courage, and collaboration. As you can see, we created our own jumbo dot, deemed, the "collabradot." Thanks to my fellow "celebridotters" Lori Richmond, David Ezra Stein, Joyce Wan, Michael Arndt and the great folks at KidLitTV for a fabulously fun day!

Last, but not least, Zora's Zucchini is now out in paperback, sporting a newly-earned award—the Growing Good Kids Book Award, from Junior Master Gardeners and The American Horticultural Society. If you'd like to get a copy for the kid gardener you know, click here.

That's all from here—have a great fall, and hope to see you soon!