Beach Baby by Kate Merritt is now available for purchase. Beach Baby is part of the Indestructibles series which makes books designed so babies can chew on them, droll on them, or spill on them without the book being ruined. This latest addition tells the story of baby’s day at the beach, and is built to withstand the beach too! You can order this adorable book online here.

Fluffy Strikes Back, the first volume in Ashley Spires‘s new series, P.U.R.S.T. Adventures, is now out! This hilarious graphic novel tells the adventure of Sergeant Fluffy of P.U.R.S.T., a coalition of cats and pets working together to protect the planet from aliens, aka bugs. When Fluffy discovers that P.U.R.S.T. headquarters has been taken over by bugs, he leaps into action to protect his comrades and his planets. Fluffy Strikes Back is a spin-off of Ashley’s popular Binky Adventure Series and Kirkus Reviews calls it, “a must for Binky’s legions of faithful feline fans.” You can order a copy online here.

In more exciting news for Ashley, her picture book Small Saul was chosen as this year’s pick for the TD Grade One Book Giveaway. This charitable Canadian program gives one book to every grade one student in the country to help foster literacy, and this year Ashley’s book was chosen. As part of the program, Ashley will be going on a tour to visit students in schools and libraries across Canada. You can read more about the program here. Congratulations, Ashley!

Michael Slack will be making appearances at several events this April! On April 1st, he’ll be at Diesel, A Bookstore in Larkspur, California, doing a bedtime reading for a kid’s pajama party at 6 pm. There will be cookies and ice cream and a chance to get a book signed. You can find more details on Diesel’s website.

April 16th, Michael will be participating in Palo Alto’s Children’s Book Festival from 1-4 pm. He’ll talk about his books and how he comes up with his ideas and autograph books. For location and times, check out this link.

April 23rd, you can find Michael at the Children’s Fairyland Turn the Page Children’s Book Festival in Oakland, California. The festival runs from 10am-4pm. A schedule of events, including a list of other author/illustrators who will appear at the event, is at this link (scroll down to the 23rd for the Festival).

If you’re in the area and have time for any or all of these events, make sure to drop by and say hi!

Elise Gravel‘s latest book, I Want A Monster!, is now available for purchase! I Want A Monster! tells the story of a little girl who longs for a monster as a pet and her process of finding and learning to care for her monster. The School Library Journal calls it, “A fun, spirited read-aloud for storytime or classroom use.” A French version, Je Veux Un Monstre, has also been released.

You can order I Want A Monster! online here.

Bank Street has released their 2016 edition of the Best Children’s Books of the Year, and not one but five of our author/illustrators were included! These are children’s books published in 2015 that the Children’s Book Committee feels had excellent literary quality, emotional impact, and educational quality, as well as beautiful presentation.

Under Five:

Welcome Home, Bear by Il Sung Na

Five to Nine:

Frederick’s Journey, written by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by London Ladd

Sunday Shopping, written by Sally Derby and illustrated by Shadra Strickland

One Plastic Bag, written by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay, written by Cari Best and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton

Nine to Twelve:

Poems in the Attic, written by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

You can find the full list of winners here.

K. G. Campbell will be doing a book signing at the L.A. Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 9th. The Festival of Books is an event celebrating books and authors, dating back to 1994. It is located on the University of Southern California campus, April 9th to 10th. General admission is free.

K. G. Campbell will be one of this year’s featured authors.  Congrats, K.G.! He will be signing and doing a reading of his upcoming children’s book, Dylan the Villain, starting 2:30 pm at the Penguin Booth. If you’re in the area in early April, make sure to check him out!

You can find out more information about the Festival of Books here. Dylan The Villain doesn’t come out until March 8th, but you can pre-order it here.

Both Il Sung Na‘s new picture The Opposite Zoo and K.G. Campbell‘s recently released Dylan the Villain were named as best books of the month by Amazon! The Opposite Zoo was included on a list of best March books for babies to age 2, and Dylan was included on the list of best books for ages 3-5. Congratulations, Il Sung and K.G.

You can see all of Amazon’s best books of the month at this link, and you can order The Opposite Zoo here and Dylan the Villain here. 

As part of the 92nd St Y‘s Seven Days of Genius program, Gene Barretta has been invited to present his book Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci. The Seven Days of Genius is a program meant to honor historical geniuses throughout history, so Gene’s children book on the great inventor and artist, Leonardo da Vinci, is a perfect fit. Gene’s reading will be at the 92nd St Y in New York, April 4th at 10:30 am. Anyone in the area should definitely stop by! You can find more information at this link.

A live stream will also be available on the day of the event here.