Linda Bleck‘s newest picture book, What’s in My Train?, has been released and is now available for purchase! This follow up to What’s in My Truck? is a lift-the-flap board book showing all the various surprises contained in a train, from cargo to sleeping passengers. With over thirty flaps to lift and bright, simple illustrations, children are sure to love this book. You can order What’s in My Train? online here.
Over in the Grasslands, the latest in the Over in the… series, is now available for purchase. This non-fiction picture book, written by Marianne Berkes and illustrated by Jill Dubin, educates children about the animals living in a grassland habitat, all set to the tune of “Over in the Meadow.” It also helps to teach the numbers one through ten. Kirkus wrote a review of the new picture book. They praised the detailed information filling the book and complimented Jill’s paper cut illustrations, writing, “Some brilliant and unusual color choices, along with marvelously textured and patterned papers, make the cut-paper collage illustrations pop.” You can read Kirkus’s full review here. Over in the Grasslands can be ordered online here.
This upcoming weekend will is the Brooklyn Book Festival in NYC. Two of our illustrators, Liz Zunon (The Legendary Miss Lena Horne) and Il Sung Na (The Opposite Zoo) will be participating in events on Children’s Day, Saturday the 17th. Il Sung Na will be one of the illustrators featured in the Illustrator Smackdown. Il Sung and several other children’s illustrators will participate in “the year’s most dynamic live action drawing competition.” The event will begin at 3 pm in the New York University Tandon School of Engineering Auditorium, 5 MetroTech Commons. Liz Zunon will be featured in two events. At 1:30 pm you can find her at the Picture Book Stage at the MetroTech Commons. At 2:30 pm you can join her for Mural Making at the Art Spot, MetroTech Commons. The Brooklyn Book Festival is sure to be a great event for any book lover. Il Sung and Liz would be happy to see any fans at their events. If you’re in NYC this weekend, be sure to check it out! You can find out more about the Brooklyn Book Festival here. The full schedule of events for Children’s Day is here.
The picture book Bird, written by Zetta Elliot and illustrated by Shadra Strickland, tells the story of a young African American boy coping with the loss of his grandfather and brother through his art. It was originally published as a hardcover book in 2008, but now it will be reissued as a paperback. It will be available for purchase in March of 2017. Even more excitingly, Bird’s publisher, Lee and Low, will join forces with the NEA foundation and First Book to help with the Stories for All project. Bird has been selected as one of the titles that will included in this project. The Stories for All Project is a program that seeks to encourage reading in children in need by making diverse books available to educators and schools at little to no cost. A special edition of Bird will also be published for this project. You can find out more about the Stories for All Project at their site.
The recently released picture book Mary Had a Little Glam, has been receiving tons of praise. This rhyming picture book, written by Tammi Sauer and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton, retells the story of Mary and her lamb with Mary as a fashionable little girl who shares her glamour with her classmates and friends. Check out some of the praise below! “Illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton adds diversity not just in the styles of dress, but also in the makeup of Mary’s class.” –The St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Mary Had a Little Glam is wonderful book that has a beautiful carefree black girl as the main character. This is a book that promotes having positive self-esteem…Mary Had a Little Glam will make a great addition to any little girl’s library.” –Brown Mamas blog “I love how the author, Tammi Sauer, and the illustrator, Vanessa Brantley-Newton, tied in bits and pieces of the original story. But Mary was FAB-U-LOUS in this book! Outside of being incredibly cute and glam, I loved how secure with herself she was and how she loved making her friends feel good about themselves as well.” –The Crunchy Mommy blog You can order Mary Had a Little Glam online here.
In their September issue, the School Library Journal reviewed the recently released picture book, Pirasaurs!, written by Josh Funk and illustrated by Michael Slack. Pirasaurs! is the story of the youngest recruit on a pirate ship that is, of course, run by dinosaurs. The School Library Journal praised the rhyming prose and wrote that Michael Slack’s “Angular and toothily aggressive depictions of the pirasaur crew bring the digital cartoons to life.” All together, they call it, “A rip-roaring read-aloud for storytime or small group sharing.” You can order Pirasaurs! online here.
