Guest Post

Help Wanted: Seeking Picture Book Lovers

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Do you love picture books? Do you enjoy talking or writing about picture books? If so, I Need You!

 

 

 

 

I need quality PICTURE BOOK RELATED guest articles. Anything picture book related and of value to my blog readers is most welcome. My blog readers are parents, teachers, librarians, writers, picture book enthusiasts, artists, and, of course, kids.

The only compensation I can offer is publication on Frog On A Blog. If you’re a children’s picture book author or illustrator, you are welcome to mention your book(s). However, your article can’t be just an advertisement for your books, it must offer something more to my blog readers. (Authors/Illustrators: If you have a picture book coming out soon, I’m happy to spotlight its book birthday. Click here for more information.) 

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR OR ILLUSTRATOR TO WRITE A GUEST POST!

If you’re interested in writing a guest article for Frog On A Blog, please use the form on my Contact page and tell me what you have in mind. I look forward to hearing from you!

~Lauri F. 🙂

Zoo Ball Blog Tour

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Please welcome award-winning Australian children’s book author Aleesah Darlison to Frog on a Blog! Aleesah offers a unique perspective on how to perfect picture book stories. She’s also here to share her latest picture book Zoo Ball, which, as you’ll soon discover, was illustrated by some very special people. Read on! 

Tiny Grains of Sand – Perfecting Picture Book Stories

By Aleesah Darlison

Many people dream of publishing a picture book. This particular format, and genre, is my favorite of all the books I write.

But it’s not easy to write those few hundred words, which to some seems such a meagre amount!

Making a picture book is not simply a matter of writing those words, after all, it’s a matter of perfecting them and making them sing.

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I’m currently working on a picture book, toing and froing with my publisher, as we finalize layout and design and word choice to the nth degree.

Last night, as we were discussing what words to keep or perhaps delete from the manuscript, my publisher wrote in an email to me:

We probably are picking at tiny grains of sand here…but I am enjoying crafting this book to the best we can make it.

This struck me as a profoundly prophetic and true statement about picture books. This comparison is, in essence, the entire crux of what making picture books is about.

To write a picture book, a good picture book, you have to think of each word as a tiny grain of sand that requires intricate crafting, with correct usage and placement, which, when combined with all the other tiny grains of sand within the story, will create an overall beautiful result. Something memorable, inspiring, emotive and … lasting.

As I said before, it isn’t an easy process, but it is a joyous process.

Combined with the crafting of sand grain words, picture books must then have a layer (or several layers) of storytelling added through the illustrations.

One picture book I’ve had a lot of fun working on recently, and which will be released on 15 April 2016, is called Zoo Ball. It’s a very funny, rhyming story about a boy named Ned who takes his big, bouncy ball to the zoo. Almost the moment he arrives, Ned loses the ball and then the chase (and the pandemonium) begins as each animal at the zoo has a go playing with Ned’s ball.

The special thing about Zoo Ball is that it’s illustrated by children, twenty-three Australian school children, to be precise!

The publisher, Wombat Books, established an Illustration Challenge to provide aspiring young illustrators with the opportunity to be published in a professionally produced children’s book and gain an introduction into the world of illustrating. Once I’d written the text for Zoo Ball, it was then up to children to send in a drawing of one of the scenes from the book. 

From the illustrations children submitted, it was clear that they had as much fun drawing the pictures as I did writing the story.

And that’s the other key thing about making a picture book – it’s crucial that an illustrator falls in love with the story text as much as the author who has written it. Otherwise, they miss the subtle nuances of story and overlook possibilities to make the book even better than the words can achieve alone.

I was amazed at how talented these young artists were and what nuances of storytelling – and humor – they’ve added to Zoo Ball. It’s definitely worth the read and a perfect example of picture book making teamwork.

Happy Reading!

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Aleesah Darlison Headshot 2015 LOW RES (2)Aleesah Darlison is an award-winning Australian children’s author who writes picture books, chapter books and novels. Her much-loved stories promote courage, understanding, anti-bullying, self-belief, friendship, teamwork and environmental themes. In 2015, she won the Environment Award for Children’s Literature (Non-Fiction) for her picture book, Our Class Tiger. In 2012, she was shortlisted for the same award for her picture book, Warambi.

Since commencing her writing journey six years ago, Aleesah has written over thirty-five books including Zoo Ball, Stripes in the Forest: The Story of the Last Wild Thylacine, Awesome Animal Stories for Kids, the Netball Gems Series, the Unicorn Riders Series, the Totally Twins Series, Ash Rover: Keeper of the Phoenix, Little Good Wolf, Puggle’s Problem, Little Meerkat, Spidery Iggy, and Mama and Hug.

Travelling throughout Australia and overseas, Aleesah delivers talks and workshops to children and adults at preschools, schools, libraries, bookstores, literary festivals and writers’ centers. She is currently Director of the NSW Writers’ Centre Kids and YA Literary Festival. When Aleesah isn’t creating entertaining and enchanting stories, she’s usually looking after her four very energetic and imaginative children.

Connect With Aleesah

Website: www.aleesahdarlison.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AleesahDarlisonFanPage

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Aleesah Darlison visits with some young students in Hong Kong

 

Mawee Wawee by Phillip Maiwald

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I’m very pleased to welcome author/illustrator Phillip Maiwald to Frog on a Blog. I’ve invited him to tell you a bit about his new picture book Mawee Wawee. You will be charmed by this clever children’s picture book, as well as the story of how the extraordinary illustrations were created. 

First of all, I’d like to say thank you to Lauri Fortino for giving me
the opportunity to introduce to you my first picture book which is
called Mawee Wawee.

Just like an old and gnarled tree is growing very slowly, my first
picture book took some time to come along. Now it’s here, and I’m glad
to see it printed. When I started writing the story of Mawee Wawee and doing the first sketches and illustrations, I was living with my 3 year old daughter Liseli in a beautiful wild garden without running water. That’s why the pictures were made of gouache colors with rainwater, or during the wintertime with melted snow. It was a great time for five years-living in a small and peaceful cabin with a fireplace, nearly like Henry David Thoreau in his famous Walden cabin.

The story of Mawee Wawee is simple: it’s about a little twig named
Mawee, who broke himself off his branch with a snap-and ran away.
Unusual? Not for him!

During the day, Mawee wandered about, and when evening fell he began looking for a mouse hole or a bed of moss in which to spend the night. He explored the world by foot, on the water and through the air. He made lots of friendships and although he had no arms and short legs, for him there was no mountain high enough, no valley deep enough and no river wide enough. At last he found a beautiful woodmaid on a small island in the Pacific Ocean where he settled and put down roots; he started a curious, wooden family. So enjoy seeing the world through a little twig’s eyes-I’m sure you’ll like it!

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The book is financed by a Crowdfunding campaign and printed with eco colors on FSC paper. It’s also produced in a carbon neutral way in a
small edition of 300 German and 200 English books. Check it out on
www.phillipmaiwald.de and take a look here on Frog on a Blog!

More of Phillip’s beautiful artwork from Mawee Wawee:

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Portrait-Maiwald

Phillip Maiwald was born 1975. He lives and works in Braunschweig/Germany. 
He studied Art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste/ School of Fine Art, Braunschweig.
He has two children, Liseli and Lois.

For more information about Phillip Maiwald, his book Mawee Wawee, and his art, please click here.

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The “Crow Made A Friend” TLC Blog Tour

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I like rainbows and I like birds. Put the two together and you’re bound to get something just like author/illustrator Margaret Peot’s beautiful, vibrant-colored crow in her “I Like to Read” picture book Crow Made a Friend, published this year by Holiday House.

The story is sweet and simple. It’s about a lonely crow who literally tries to make a friend, first from leaves and sticks and then from snow. He soon learns that there’s nothing better than a real friend, except maybe a family.

The pen, ink and watercolor illustrations are charming and each one features our new rainbow-hued feathered friend. Margaret Peot stopped by Frog on a Blog to share with us the origin story of her lovely early reader picture book Crow Made a Friend along with a few other beautiful birds.

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The Origin Story of the Early Reader Picture Book CROW MADE A FRIEND

by Margaret Peot

Crows have fascinated me since I was a kid, and appear everywhere in my artwork. I have made drawings of them, paintings, woodcuts, stencils, even crow rubber stamps, so they can fly through whatever painted landscapes I make!

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I love stories about crows and their antics—how smart they are, the trouble they get into, the problems they can solve. There are Aesop’s fables of various Crow adventures, Native American stories of trickster Crows, beautiful Mughal miniatures where a Crow appears speaking at a Conference of the Birds. Crows make appearances in my woodcuts often:

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The ability of crows to sort out the solutions to various problems got me thinking about illustrating a picture book of a Crow making a friend—really MAKING a friend out of whatever materials were around. This was my first try, a woodcut crow making friends with shapes:

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Then I decided that I wanted Crow to make friends out of real things from his world, sticks, leaves, a crab apple, and snow. And that idea turned into the watercolor and ink paintings in Crow Made a Friend, an I Like to Read picture book from the wonderful publisher Holiday House.

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Thanks Frog on a Blog!

Thank you, Margaret, for sharing your fantastic art with us! You’re an incredibly talented and versatile artist.

Margaret Peot

Margaret Peot

To connect with Margaret and learn more about her art and her books, check out her terrific website:  http://www.margaretpeot.com/

You’ll find some fun free activity sheets there too!

You can connect with her here too:

http://www.theinkblotbook.com/

https://www.facebook.com/margaret.peot

https://twitter.com/MargaretPeot

http://tlcbooktours.com/2015/09/margaret-peot-author-of-crow-made-a-friend-on-tour-2015/

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Take some time to visit the other stops on the tour:

Monday, November 2nd: West Metro Mommy Reads

Tuesday, November 3rd: Books, Babies, and Bows

Wednesday, November 4th: Kid Lit Reviews

Thursday, November 5th: Randomly Reading

Monday, November 9th: Sara’s Organized Chaos

Tuesday, November 10th: Frog on a Blog 

Wednesday, November 11th: Here Wee Read

Friday, November 13th: Picture Books Help Kids Soar

Monday, November 16th: Under My Apple Tree

Tuesday, November 17th: TinkerLab

Wednesday, November 18th: Birdhouse Books

Thursday, November 19th: Sweet Southern Home

Sharing Is Caring With Bookroo

bookroo_board_books (2)Earlier this month, I introduced you to Bookroo, a new children’s book-of-the month club service with a bright future and a mission to promote literacy by providing an easy and affordable way for parents to build their children’s book collections. Read that post here. 

Now Bookroo is back with a Buy One, Give One! deal that’s too good not to share with you. In honor of John Newbery’s birthday, Bookroo is offering the next 250 new customers a coupon for a free one-month gift subscription. So if you sign up as a new Bookroo customer, you’ll be able to send a coupon to a friend who can get their own Bookroo box for free. The deal starts tomorrow, but I got special permission to share it with Frog on a Blog followers first! For more information, click here. Happy reading!Bookroo deal

Budding Reader eBooks and a Pop Quiz

Budding Reader

“For every eBook you buy, we donate one to a child in need.”

That’s the Budding Reader eBooks pledge.

Melinda Thompson, the visionary behind Budding Reader, a company that creates award-winning learn-to-read eBooks, has a question for you.

Get out your pencils. It’s time for a pop quiz:

If you read to your child 20 minutes a day for the first five years of life how much time will you have spent reading to your child?

A. More than 600 hours
B. More than 25 days
C. Approximately 1% of your child’s life
D. All of the above

The answer is D: All of the above! That’s a lot of time spent reading, isn’t it? And all that reading is likely to entail thousands (yes, thousands not hundreds) of picture books. (Thank goodness for libraries!) Is all that reading really worth the time? Research answers with a resounding YES! Time and again, research studies have demonstrated the importance of reading for wiring brains, building vocabulary, promoting empathy, and increasing knowledge of the world. So clearly, spending time reading to a child is time well spent and a commitment well worth making.

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Melinda Thompson of Budding Reader eBooks is on a mission to make learning to read easier and more fun for children, especially struggling readers. For tips on working with emergent readers, check out this free eBook from Budding Reader.

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To learn more about Budding Reader and it’s amazing line of eBooks, click here.

Bookroo Delivers Books (and smiles) To Your Child Each Month

I love the idea of a book-of-the-month club for young children. Books make awesome gifts! I’ve used a book-of-the-month club for my two little nephews for the past year and a half. Both the boys and their parents love to receive a brand new book every month, right on their doorstep. And it’s always wrapped, so it feels like each new book is truly a gift. And as an added benefit, I feel good having helped build my nephews’ book collection which I hope will help them both to become strong readers as they get older. 

When I researched book-of-the-month clubs for children a year and a half ago, there weren’t many to choose from, though I did, eventually, find one that suits my needs. But now there’s a new company I’ll be keeping in mind for the future with a mission I can really get behind. Bookroo‘s mission “is to enable and empower parents to build their children’s book collections in an affordable and exciting way through curated monthly book deliveries. We believe in the power and impact of the written word in the life of a child, and believe it’s never too early to start reading to children!”

I asked Jane Tanner, who co-founded Bookroo with her husband Kesler, Kesler’s two brothers, and their wives, to tell me a bit more about the passion and vision behind Bookroo.

There’s something magical about getting a package in the mail, addressed to you, and containing several wrapped presents. Especially when you’re a child. And especially when the wrapped presents contain books–new and exciting stories for you to read in your favorite nook or sprawled across the couch upside down.

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At Bookroo, our mission is to empower parents to build their children’s book collections easily and affordably in a way that enhances the excitement of reading for children. We believe, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did, that, “It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own,” and we want to help make that ideal a reality for children across the country and then the world.

Why? Because reading to children is powerful. It’s like magic or fairy dust, except actually accessible to us grown-ups. For example, did you know that for every year you read with your child from infancy to preschool, his average lifetime earnings increase by $50,000? [1] Or that reading to your baby increases not only her vocabulary, but also her math skills? [2] Reading to your children is a powerful force for good.  As Albert Einstein said: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

Rather than having the experience of individually wrapped books and a handwritten note to the parents and child come at a premium, in order to ensure that the maximum number of households can benefit from Bookroo, the retail value of the books in each box always exceeds the subscription price you pay. So it’s a win-win-win.

So what is Bookroo? It’s a monthly delivery of curated children’s books–either 3 board books or 2 picture books–individually wrapped and delivered to the child in your life. We invite you to help us on our mission to promote literacy from a young age, as a way to improve the future by increasing the abilities and potential of the children of the world!

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[1] http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Freadingfoundation.org%2Fthe-solution%2Fprograms%2Fread-with-a-child%2F%3Fgclid%3DCj0KEQjwv6WrBRD4gbngqe7mosYBEiQAIB5oTMViEjRuT6DqxxJwYPASEsmf83yyg0yGdnuAOXWBLFwaAmHl8P8HAQ&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEDEsY-TtR0jeNxvYcoXajUE6YVkw

[2] http://www.parents.com/baby/development/intellectual/benefits-of-reading-to-your-newborn/#page=3

Besides their dedication to literacy and children, the folks at Bookroo are doing even more to help make the world a better place by using recycled and recyclable packaging in their Bookroo boxes and they also donate books to children in need through Reach Out and Read, a non-profit organization that partners with medical providers “to promote early literacy and school readiness to young children and their families in all 50 states”. Bookroo is a company with a bright future. If you’ve ever considered using a book-of-the-month service, I encourage you to check out their site.

Finley Has a New Friend! Meet Irwin!

Irwin Publicity (3)As you can see, Irwin is a frog. But he’s no ordinary frog. He likes to travel. He likes to read. And he’s also an author. He writes (with the help of his human companion Elaine) children’s books about cool things like visiting Paris, caring for the environment, and life in the Old West. Irwin even has his own website called Irwin Quagmire Wart (also his full name), filled with lots of fun stuff such as frog facts and frog jokes. You can also meet his family, view photos of his home swamp, and learn all about the frog holidays he celebrates. 

Finley and I wanted to find out more about Irwin and his books, so we invited him to write a guest post for Frog on a Blog. Irwin’s a pretty cool little froggy dude. Take a look!

Hi everyone!

My name is Irwin Quagmire Wart and I’m an author of fun-cational books for kids. I also happen to be a frog, like my new friend Finley. It’s an honor to be a guest writer here on his blog, and to have the opportunity to share with you a little about myself and my books. 

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Land of Lily Pad is the place I call home.  I live with my mother, father, and baby brother. I have lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins, too. Family is important to me. If you visit my website, you can learn about researching the history of your family, like I did. You’ll also find photos of me and all my relatives. We’re a colorful bunch! 

My website also has fun and educational facts about water conservation (that’s important for everyone, especially us frogs), a page of silly frog jokes and games, as well as my mom’s rules on “How to Behave in the Swamp”. They might be for frogs and tadpoles, but they work for human kids, too. But the “My Books” page is my favorite. 

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So far, I’ve written four and I’m busy working on my fifth one. Green Is Good is a kid’s guide to environmental stewardship. It’s packed with lots of interesting facts and fun activities that you can do to help the environment. Irwin Quagmire Wart Travels to Paris, France is a kid’s guide to the City of Lights. I spent 10 days there and you’ll get a frog’s eye view of this magical city. There are even some basic French lessons to help you get started. Perfectly Perfect is a short, rhyming book on why we need to embrace who we are, no matter what size or shape we might be. Irwin Quagmire Wart Travels Back in Time is another travel book. My dad and I took a trip to Texas and learned about life in Pioneer America. It’s filled with cool facts about the Old West and lots of pictures taken in an authentic replica of a pioneer town. 

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I had lots of fun writing these books and I think you’ll have fun reading them, too!

My website is www.irwinquagmirewart.com. I’m also on FaceBook, if you want to connect there, at www.facebook.com/IrwinQuagmireWartauthor.  Follow me on Twitter @IrwinQWart. 

Thanks for reading.  I hope to connect with you again soon!

“Ask not what your swamp can do for you. Ask what you can do for your swamp.”….Irwin Quagmire Wart (and maybe John F. Kennedy said something similar many years ago)

So nice to meet you, Irwin! Hop on by Frog on a Blog anytime; Finley would love to see you!

Finley says, "Rib-yup, rib-yup!"

Finley says, “Rib-yup, rib-yup!”

Our Big, Beautiful World: The Importance of Diversity in Children’s Books by Karen Kilpatrick

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Two Books From…

Pumpkinheads - Danza's Message

…Karen Kilpatrick’s Pumpkinheads Series

Diversity in children’s books is a hot topic right now. But it’s certainly not a fad. I believe most in the children’s book industry (e.g. publishers, authors, illustrators, agents, librarians) agree that diversity in children’s books is important. Children need to see other children just like them, children they can relate to, in their books. Whether we’re referring to appearance, aspects of culture, or a disability they may have, children need to see how they fit into the world around them. Books can help them do that.

On the other hand, children need to see children who are different from them in their books, in order to foster awareness, understanding, and acceptance of other people in, as guest blogger, children’s book author, and mother of 3 multi-racial children, Karen Kilpatrick calls it, Our Big, Beautiful World.

  

Our Big, Beautiful World: The Importance of Diversity in Children’s Books 

By Karen Kilpatrick

 

“Mommy, why don’t any of the girls in my class have hair like me?” my young daughter came home from preschool asking one day.   

“Because everyone is different,” I answered.  “It’s hair that not a lot of people around here have. But there are a lot of little girls with hair just like yours.”  Then I asked, “Your hair is one way that you are different from the girls in your class, but what other ways are you the same?”  

We came up with a long list of traits that she shared with her classmates, and a shorter list of traits that she didn’t.  We talked about, in simple terms, how differences are what make people beautiful, and how boring the world would be if everyone looked exactly the same.  

From that day forward, we spent a lot of time noticing appearance.  I am mainly Italian and part German, my husband a mix of Bahamian, Native American, and African American.  My three children were born with caramel skin, curly hair, and brown eyes, quite different from my straight blond hair, blue eyes and freckles and my husband’s chocolate brown skin.  They didn’t start to notice how different we all look from each other, and how different they looked from most of their classmates, until they were about four or five years old.  And it wasn’t with concern, just curiosity, as to why they look the way they do, and why other people look they way they do.  If they had attended school in a different neighborhood, it may have been them who looked like the majority of people.  

Wherever we travel in life, I tell them, within the same city even, we will be surrounded by different groups of people.  Sometimes we will look like the majority, and sometimes, we will not. 

What has been so important to me in raising my children is that they feel comfortable around anyone.  That whether they are with brown people, peach people, caramel people, chocolate people (we have identified such a variety of skin tone shades – and there are many more!), and whether they are in the majority or minority, they know and understand that differences are to be celebrated and not feared.  

But the only way they would know not to fear difference is to experience difference.  My children can visit myriad relatives, of all different shades, who live in a wide variety of economic circumstances.  They can experience differences firsthand.  However, another way to expose children to the beauty of differences is through books, and the diverse characters found in those books.  

Children learn through storytelling.  Storytelling, through books, can introduce children to the wide, wonderful, beautiful world of differences that they may not otherwise experience.  Which is why, as an author, I am particularly careful that my books reflect a variety of characters.  It is important that children recognize and see themselves in characters but equally important that they are exposed to characters who do not look like them.  In order for this to occur, we have to have diverse characters in books, and not just in terms of skin color, but disabilities, ethnicity, culture and more.  

It’s a big, beautiful world out there, filled with a variety of people, and books are the perfect starting point in exploring and understanding that world.

Karen Kilpatrick

Author and entrepreneur Karen Kilpatrick, a mother of three multi-racial children, is a former attorney, who left her large law firm position in 2009 to start and grow two successful online legal services websites. Kilpatrick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctorate from NYU School of Law. She established her own publishing firm, Nina Charles Publishing, and launched the Pumpkinheads® series in 2013. She resides in Parkland, Florida, with her husband and three children.

For more information on Karen Kilpatrick or her award-winning Pumpkinheads® series, please visit: www.pumpkinheads.com.

The Pumpkinheads® series titles include Carmin Cares (ISBN 978-1938447068), Love Monster Lulu (ISBN 978-1938447037), Sage’s Song (ISBN 978-1938447013), Danza’s Message (ISBN 978-1938447020), and Ella’s Toys (ISBN 978-1938447006).