Monday, March 27, 2017

Meltdown 2017!


These are some of my favorite pictures from Meltdown!


Our friend Quin is a huge Wimpy Kid fan. He's also a DJ. ‪Here he is as DJ Quintessential warming up the crowd for Jeff Kinney's appearance at Meltdown! ‬


A HUGE thank you to Jeff Kinney for signing all of those books, thank you to all of those awesome readers for waiting in line so patiently and thank you to our incredible volunteers for making it all work! 



"I never thought I'd ever get the chance to meet Jeff Kinney!"—our friend Jaiden, a young cartoonist at Meltdown who we gave the title of Personal Assistant to Mr. Kinney.


The Star Wars Drawing Party with Tony DiTerlizzi was a ridiculous amount of fun! 

Tony and I have friends near and far, far away....‬ ‪Thank you for coming to Meltdown, 501st New England Garrison.


Thank you Kevin Sherry for bringing your incredible spirit to Meltdown 2017!



‪We are so grateful to Selina Alko and Sean Qualls for bringing their talents to our community! ‬



And thank you to Lisa Yee and her personal assistant, Supergirl, for coming to Meltdown 2017!




Lunch Lady Paper Chandelier!


My friend Michelle makes these beautiful paper chandeliers out of her studio here in Western Mass. She just came by the house with this beautiful gift—a paper chandelier made out of an old Lunch Lady book!
I absolutely love it.


Check out Michelle's work on Etsy and on Facebook at Z Paper Studio.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

The Naptastrophe! Book Trailer


The book trailer for Naptastrophe! features the voice of the namesake and inspiration for the main character.

Lunch with Grace Lin

‪Brainstorming over lunch with Grace Lin. ‬

Pug Naptime

‪Surely my pug isn't the only pug out there that sleeps on the couch like he's a cat.... ‬

Green Day Concert


Let me tell you about this kid named Grant.

Gina and I went to the Green Day show in Worcester. We've seen them several times, and I've seen just about every tour since 1994's Dookie. Anyhow, we were on the floor and we were enamored by this little kid with green hair who was going berserk and knew every word to every song. We got to talking to his dad. He said that his kid could also play every song on the guitar. I asked him if he'd ever been to a Green Day show before. He said he hadn't. I told him that at every show, Billie Joe Armstrong chooses somebody from the audience to come on stage and play his guitar. The dad looked at me in disbelief. Gina and I looked at each other and we were determined to make this happen for this little guy. So when the moment came and Billie Joe asked if anyone knew how to play the guitar, we all lifted that green-haired kid up as high as we could and we rushed the stage.

And then this happened...

Grant is an incredibly talented kid and Billie Joe Armstrong is an incredibly kind rock star!

A Visit to Camelot Elementary

The students at Camelot Elementary in Orlando were SO enthusiastic to volunteer to draw with me that I told them I would choose whoever was the quietest and most still.

Meltdown Interviews with Monte Belmonte

Monte Belmonte, morning host and manager for WRSI - 93.9 The River and Summertime Funtime Bailiff for Judge John Hodgman, interviewed me to talk books and why Gina and I volunteer to make the author side of Meltdown happen. (Spoiler alert: We love connecting our community to authors and authors to our community.) 

Please listen here: https://soundcloud.com/939theriver-1/the-wimpy-kid-himself-jeff-kinney-meltdown-2017
Minor spoilers for Jedi Academy: The Force Oversleeps.



Also, don't forget to check out Monte's interviews with some of the other authors who will be at Meltdown on Saturday:
Interview with Lisa Yee: https://soundcloud.com/939theriver-1/meltdown-2017-lisa-yee
Interview with Jeff Kinney: https://soundcloud.com/939theriver-1/the-wimpy-kid-himself-jeff-kinney-meltdown-2017
Interview with Kevin Sherry: https://m.soundcloud.com/939ther…/meltdown-2017-kevin-sherry
Interview with Sean Qualls and Selina Alko: https://soundcloud.com/939theriver-1/meltdown-2017-sean-qualls-and-selina-alko




A Trip to Hogwarts!

I visited Hogwarts and I didn't have a magic wand. However, I did have this Sharpie on me. 
DRAWIS CARTOONUS!

Sunday, March 19, 2017

spring and summer book events





From Central Massachusetts to the West Coast—this is where you'll find me over the next few months. I'm excited to get out there and spend some time with my readers!

March 25
Northampton, MA — Meltdown
9:30-4 
rivermeltdown.com

April 7

Washington, D.C. — Library of Congress**
Symposium on Trauma and Resilience in Young People’s Literature

April 19

New York, NY — Jumpstart Scribbles to Novels Gala**
https://www.jstart.org/event/2017-scribbles-to-novels-new-york-city/

April 22

Los Angeles, CA — LA Times Book Festival
http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/

May 13

Seneca Falls, NY — Seneca Falls Library
senecafallslibrary.org

June 7

Whitensville, MA
Whitinsville Social Library at the Northbridge Middle School

June 17

Ann Arbor, MI — Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival
a2caf.com

July 13

Houston, TX — Scholastic Reading Summit**
http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/reading-summit

July 21

San Diego, CA — San Diego Comic-Con
More info to come

August 13

Santa Rosa, CA — Charles Schulz Museum 15th Anniversary Celebration
http://schulzmuseum.org/

**These events are geared towards grown-ups and require registration.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Will Eisner Centennial Celebration


 It's not every day that your friend co-curates an Eisner exhibit on the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth. Congratulations, John Lind!


 Whether you can get to the exhibit or not, if you are a fan of Eisner's work, you should get the catalogue. Pen included for scale. Eisner's art with John Lind's signature design genius. 




We owe Eisner quite a bit!

Sketchbook Shenanigans







Monday, March 06, 2017

Celebrate School Lunch Hero Day!

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School Lunch Hero Day is happening on May 5th! This will be the fifth annual celebration, and I hope that you will consider doing something special for your school's hard-working lunch staff. This initiative is also a great way to empower students to show their gratitude through creative efforts.

You can find ideas, downloads and videos at schoollunchheroday.com.

Jedi Academy: The Force Oversleeps Cover!




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Star Wars has the official unveiling of the cover for THE FORCE OVERSLEEPS over on their website. Check it out to see the full cover and read a Q&A!

Jedi Academy: The Force Oversleeps will hit bookshelves on July 25th!


Image may contain: text 
© & ™ Lucasfilm LTD
 


Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

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Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

The Springfield Museums will host a slew of activities this Saturday in honor of Dr. Seuss. There will be a dozen or so authors on hand to sign books in celebration of the Cats in Hats exhibit. I'll be stopping by, but I'll be wearing my dad hat, not my author hat. But please do say hello if we run into each other at the event! And look for my Cat in the Hat tribute piece in the exhibit.

A Sleepy Saturday...


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 Saturday morning drawing with snoozing pugs.