Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Happy Birthday, Sesame Street!




‪Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, and me in 1979. Happy 50th, Sesame Street!

Art with X




‪Home sick from daycare, but X is drawing away while I wrap up an art deadline for my next book. ‬


‪Collaborating on Halloween art. ‬

"Now & Then" Exhibit Opening Soon!

‪“From refrigerator doors to museum walls—Now & Then celebrates a child's potential.”‬
‪Grace Lin and I can’t wait to unveil what we’ve put together at The Eric Carle Museum!‬ And hope to see you on December 14th for the opening events.


Thank you, Chappaqua!

Some photos from last week’s visit to Chappaqua schools. Thank you for sharing these on Twitter, ‪@7BLibrary ‬and ‪@biblioteqie!







AASL 2019 Keynotes

So proud to have been one of these keynotes. Only wish I could have been in the audience for Ellen Oh and Dr. Brown as well. Read More about the Conference Keynotes at AASL this year.

If you are a school librarian who wasn’t able to make it to the AASL conference, here are some of the messages that I wanted to convey, as filtered through tweets from audience members. Thank you ALL for what you do for our readers.








Saturday, November 09, 2019

Star Wars Music

Plugging away on the art or a Jedi Academy deadline and as I often do in these times, I listen to the John Williams score of the Star Wars movies. It gets me amped. And then...I notice that the playbar is a lightsaber. Well done, Spotify. WELL. DONE!


Translating Graphic Memoir to Audio


https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/81671-hey-kiddo-comes-to-audio.html?fbclid=IwAR12uT_E4NWfIuAfKW8InpRsHJfcgpUlIB3UdB-JnenldhjEgcxn9CxYpDc

‪So how does one adapt a graphic memoir for audio? This is how Scholastic and I did it...‬



SO psyched that teens across Iowa will be reading Hey, Kiddo as a part of the All Iowa Reads! Just astounding to think about. ‬


AASL 2019


I am preparing my slides for my keynote address to the American Association of School Librarians conference in a few weeks and waxing nostalgic on my visits to the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD days of 2003 and 2004. And you better believe I am including a photo of AASL National Conference Committee Chair, Heather Jankowski, on her first-ever author visit!

And to give you a scope of how long ago this was, I presented using legit slides in a slide carousel, and the initial invitation came via telephone.

Sunday, November 03, 2019

Happy Halloween!


Happy Halloweeeeeeen! Blink and you’ll miss it...



‪The voice actor who read as Middle School Jarrett in the Hey, Kiddo audiobook went trick-or-treating as Dwight Schrute from The Office. ‬
‪But everyone seemed to think he was dressed as Middle School Jarrett from Hey, Kiddo... ‬


EXT: Downtown Halloween celebration. Steady stream of rain and drizzle.
RANDOM PERSON: What are all those gadgets for?
ME: Catching ghosts!
RANDO: ....so...you herd goats?
ME: *considers explaining*...Uh...yeah. Yes, I’m a goat herder.




Here are a bunch of the pumpkins that I painted for Halloween 2019!


‪Shout out to all of the teachers on the morning after Halloween...‬

More Hey, Kiddo Audiobook Samples!


Did you know that you can get audiobooks from your public library directly to your device?! If your local library doesn't have the Hey, Kiddo audiobook, consider putting in an ask to your librarians.
While I use the Libby app with my local library, I'm wondering what other apps your public library might use in your neck of the woods...


Here is another clip from the upcoming Hey, Kiddo audiobook. In this scene, young Pat is played by Pat’s kid, opposite my kid playing young me. And Pat’s mom is played by...PAT’S MOM!
How amazing to have these connections, and what a beautifully surreal way to relive life in my childhood neighborhood.




How utterly amazing for me to have my teachers and mentors from high school come on into the recording booth to play themselves in this production...


Having a parent who is dealing with addictions can be unpredictable, heartbreaking, and deflating. This scene depicts one of the many times I thought my mother was back on her feet...‬

Fayetteville



I had such a wonderful day with all of my new friends in Fayetteville, Arkansas! When I’m speaking to a giant group of a thousand students, I take questions starting in the very back of the room—“Phil Donahueing” it.