Sunday, August 30, 2015

I will draw your social media avatar—It's Tough to Lose Your Balloon contest!

It's Tough to Lose Your Balloon will soon be on bookshelves everywhere!

To celebrate, I am running a little contest. What can you win? I will draw your social media avatar in the style of the illustrations from my new book! Three winners will get digital art of their likeness—they'll be reading and holding a balloon of their favorite color!




How do you enter? Sign in to Rafflecopter below and follow the prompts for how you can rack up virtual raffle tickets!



Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Animated Peanut Butter and Jellyfish!


Look for the animated Peanut Butter and Jellyfish in the Speakaboos storybook app! And say hello to Fly Guy and Pete's a Pizza while you're there!

Weston Woods did such a fantastic job with the animated adaptation of my book!


National Dog Day

Happy #‎NationalDogDay from these two knucklehead pugs. I'll be celebrating by walking them, playing with them and picking up their poop.

Family


Had a family dinner out, and our three-year-old kid brought a purse filled with books. Love her!

Book Bus

I'll be at the The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art on September 12th! And with WRSI - 93.9 The River, we hope to fill a bus with books for Reader to Reader!
Help us help this incredible organization get books into the hands of kids who need them!
Free admission to the museum for every kid who brings a book to donate!
I'll take the stage at 11 AM, the donation drive runs from 10 AM-12 PM!

Comic Squad

I received an Advance Readers Copy of Comics Squad: Lunch!, and man oh man—the book looks incredible! Learn about Lunch Lady's origins when the final book published on January 26th! (Or earlier if you score an ARC ...)
High fives to Jenni, Matt and the entire Comics Squad team! Every contributor put together such a superlative entry.

And oh yeah...SNOOPY!!!

Family Fun


Thank you to the team at FamilyFun for recommending Lunch Lady comics in their September issue! It's on news stands now—lots of great back-to-school everything in this issue!

Traveling Exhibit


Attention Orlando! Matt Holm has just informed me that our art has now traveled to your fair city. Check out the original art from Babymouse, Smile, Big Nate, Lunch Lady and many other comics in this traveling exhibit!


The exhibition, "Bam! It's a picture book!"—originally at the NCCIL—is now at the Orlando Museum of Art through November 1. It includes my original art from Babymouse and SQUISH, plus art from graphic novels by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Raina Telgemeier's Comics, Lincoln Peirce, and Mark Crilley. Check it out! http://omart.org/…/bam_its_a_picture_book_the_art_behind_gr…

Thank You Librarians!

While my kids were at day camps throughout the summer, I wrote at various public libraries. I left behind drawings for the librarians to find at each spot...

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Chalk Fish Attack

Terrible news. A giant fish ate my friends' baby.

And it should be noted that my daughter (on the right) is drawing the fish pooping.

Woof Woof

Would-be robbers BEWARE! We have a pug and a three-year-old kid guarding the house. They are barking at each passerby.

Throwback Thursday

To all of the 9th graders out there who will be getting their student ID photos taken over the next few weeks—stay strong!
‪#‎throwbackthursday‬ to my freshman ID photo...

Sand Drawings



 We spent time this afternoon drawing in the sand.



Giant Sized Butterflies


Gets me every time. Every. Time. Such a calculated move, Justin Robertswink emoticon
Or do we point the finger at Mindy and her cronies at SiriusXM Kids Place Live?!

Throwback Thursday

‪#‎TBT‬ to this 2003 article in Print's 20 under 30 issue. My 3rd book had just published. I was 25.
And yes, that photo. And that hair...

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Late Summer

I'm not quite ready for pumpkin-spice everything.
It's late August in New England—the kind of weather we live through these winters for. So many parts of the country are already back to school, but we are holding on for some final moments of salty sea air.

P.S.

sandy, salty pug


The Library of Congress's National Book Festival

It's hard not to get really, really excited about The Library of Congress's National Book Festival when you glance at the schedule: 
Hope to see you there!

Thursday, August 06, 2015

Snoopy

It's not every day that you get to sit at your hero's desk in the very space that he made the comics you grew up reading. Getting a tour of Charles Schultz's Studio and his museum was truly a bucket-list moment!

Here is a painting of Snoopy that I made when I was in the fourth grade. I remember making this in Mrs. Beatty's art class, which was located in the attic of Gates Lane School in Worcester. I spilled paint and was very upset that I had "messed up" the picture. Mrs. Beatty encourage me to use that spilled paint as an opportunity to make something I wouldn't have otherwise. She ended up putting this piece in an exhibit of student work at the Worcester Art Museum. I still remember the excitement of seeing it presented on the wall!

And here are photos of me as a kid with my Snoopy dolls.

Whoops!

I swear, I thought I was paying attention when I packed for this work trip. Clearly I've been inspired by my creative kids... On the bright side, these shoes are for opposite feet...

Relative Age


"Daddy, how old is Lunch Lady?"
"Um...I dunno. Late 30s, early 40s?"
"No, the books! How long have the books been around?" 
"Oh! They were published six months after you were born. So six years."