The Pineapple Diary

Dummy, getting serious

It might be hard to tell from that photo - but I've got myself a book dummy! I did finish it enough to send off for a critique at the NESCBWI Spring Conference. I feel like it's at the point of just polishing details and actually painting 2 final spreads.

This idea started in late 2009. I went through several drastically different drafts, many iterations of sketches, stops, starts, long breaks, etc. I'm very proud of having a little folded booklet to leaf through, but also that I have several other manuscripts in various stages of progress. I'm taking lots of time to write which is frightening but quite rewarding.

I loaned out my tablet so my color study progress hit a major roadblock. I used to 'mouse' quite well with my right hand but I've retrained myself to just draw left enough that I just couldn't be bothered until I can do it with a stylus in my southpaw. I'm not sure how much I'll be sharing here, but hopefully details of finished work if nothing else.

Who else is going to the NESCBWI conference? What are you most looking forward to? Will you be showing your portfolio? I skipped last year's conference for the first time in many years so I'm doubly excited for 2012. Can't you tell?

Monday Reads (on Wednesday)

Last week, the reading train got detoured by my toddler's attachment to photos of his cousin. They trumped most books, but this week we're getting back to more attentive reading. He seems really enamored with Pancakes for Breakfast and will read it solo. I'll have to try more wordless stories with him. And maybe less pancake-themed books. I'm SHOCKED he hasn't asked to eat them (we're a waffle house) but might whip up potato pancakes (or latkes, which appear in Hanukkah Lights!) tonight.

1.Pancakes for Breakfast: Tomi DePaola

2.Hanukkah Lights: David Martin / Melissa Sweet

3.Mostly Monsterly: Tammi Sauer / Scott Magoon - My favorite of the week!

4.If you give a Pig a Pancake: Laura Numeroff / Felicia Bond - I like this MUCH better than Moose-Muffin. Maybe it's because the pig is soooo cute. And her games seem to include the girl better than that ego-filled Moose. That, and I feel the writing is just better.

5.Curious George goes to the Chocolate Factory: Margaret & H.A. Ray.

Monday Reads

 

3 quick words to describe this week's top 5 books. It IS Labor Day after all!!!

Wow! School!: Simple, lush, timely.

Below: Unique, mysterious, suspenseful

Curious George Makes Pancakes: Pancakes, Blueberries, Monkey

At the Supermarket: Shopping, Birthday, Real

Here are My Hands: Textural, Self-awareness, Body

Monday Reads

This week was a little Thomas heavy. For my own sanity, I'm going to limit us to one Thomas book from the library at a time.

1. Hurry Hurry: The language is a little simple for the boy, but the pictures are beautiful and such a sweet farm story. Farm animals are very en vogue.

2. The Foot Book: Sing-songy and catchy. A smart and easy way to learn a few opposites.

3 & 4. Thomas gets a Snowplow and The Special Delivery: What's the deal with the 'Really Useful Engines'. I need to look into this before my child joins some sort of junior engineer group - it's a little creepy, right?

5. Amelia Bedelia: Ah, a blast from my past. He calls her 'Melia Delia' - I'm sure he'll tire of her before we run out of these books from my own collection!

Monday Reads

I thought I'd start each Monday off with a post of our top 5 books from the previous week. Miles is nearly 19 months old, and still LOVES books. He reads the first book I read to him, all by himself! He surprises my husband and I with how well he recalls (and speaks) titles, refrains, passages, etc. He has turned out to be an extremely verbal child, and I feel like he's a bottomless pit with new books. It's a good thing his mommy loves the library!

1. John F. Kennedy and the Stormy Sea: A hand-me-down from my nephew: clearly I didn't pick a level 2 reader for my toddler! Miles follows this story all the way through, and we'll read it several times each day. It's had me reconsidering what types of books I should try with him, actually.

2. Thomas and the Naughty Diesel: What do you do with a Thomas-addicted toddler? Hope that he enjoys the books more than the TV show. Thankfully, there seems to be a lot of these at the Portsmouth Library. Phew!!!

3. Matthew's Truck: I adore the illustrations in this. So soft and simple. A fun fantasy book, and it's added donuts to Miles' vocab (without eating them yet!), so hooray!

4. If You Give a Moose a Muffin: This is my copy, from my first BFF, circa 1991. It took awhile before Miles could get straight through this one. The wandering nature of the story bothered his logical muffin-obsessed mind. Mine too, quite frankly! With this, we added puppet-show to his vocab.

5. Bebe goes to the Beach: *I'm reviewing this later in the week over at the Picture Book Junkies blog.

10 Things about what we're reading now.

1.Books. They've overflowed our shelves, baskets, cubbies, hands, chairs, and home.

2.We go to 2 different libraries, at least 1 trip a week.

3.Board books have been our staple for a few months, for their durability. Picture books are creeping back in for the long, quiet bedtime reading.

4.You can't go wrong with Leslie Patricelli, Simms Taback, or Sandra Boynton in our house.

5.Mommy grabs a handful of picture books, just for her, on our way out of the library.

6.Books about babies are a hit - their bodies, their routines, their actions.

7.I'm afraid to return certain books to the library because they are so loved at nap/bedtimes, but our next trip always gets a few new winners to replace them.

8.You can't predict what will be a success. I thought Baby Bear's Chairs (Jane Yolan, Melissa Sweet) would have been a huge hit, and we can only get 6 pages in each time.

9.When there are several copies of a title on the library shelf, it's a good sign.

10.Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb is the catchiest, most enjoyable read-aloud book about monkeys. And it's from 1969. Read (and see) why, here.

Peachtree Week @ Picture Book Junkies: Reviews & Giveaway!

For the first time, Picture Book Junkies is doing a week-long review and giveaway from a single book publisher - Peachtree.

The above books are the giveaway. You can enter by commenting on the posts throughout the week. It's going to be fun to share my review on Thursday! Check out Kathy's review today.

Where do books come from?

Before becoming a mother, I had a very different picture of where books come from, and what families were reading. Now that I have a 1 year old, I feel like I was under a rock sometimes about the industry. Not that I ever claimed to be an expert, but there's nothing like motherhood to give you a new perspective.

Our books come from: My own collection from childhood through present day, the independent bookstore, the library, friends, family, book parties, toy stores, Old Navy, BJs, Marshalls, yardsales, and sooner than I can imagine - the scholastic book club.

I've grown to appreciate all kinds of books - reaching way past picture books. Novelty books are especially fun for a toddler. Last week we saw a whole shelf of "That's not my ..." Usborne books at the library, with multiple copies of most. I eagerly grabbed "That's not my Penguin" and it's been a hit all week. That fuzzy penguin belly on the cover is well loved by the local kids, it's evident in it's grimy, worn down appearance.

Have I missed any other places where books come from?

What We're Reading...

I've re-discovered my town's library this month. I had been trekking up to Portsmouth because I pay for a membership there and just adore it's big, new, shiny wealth of books, magazines and media of all kinds.

But that town library is so much closer. And with an infant it's nice to have a 3 minute drive rather than a 15+ one.

And that little library is quite nice. They have book bags full of infant/toddler books, ready to sling over your shoulder and check out - a very nice assortment too.

This week I think we're both enjoying this book:

The babies are beautifully drawn and my 8 month old son was drawn to it instantly. I can see why. It's all about babies and the things they do. Nothing like knowing your audience!

And who doesn't love a little girl who makes the old man of the sea look like a couch potato:

Also, since we're both fans of Leslie Patricelli, Higher and Higher. Which is fun but a VERY quick read. I do that she put her 'baby' character in the plane window...

And I can't say enough about Ba Ba Ha Ha. This was Miles' first book, and it still makes him smile and giggle.

 

 

Reading...

Miles and I have this book in heavy rotation:

Lots of little windows for little hands to explore. Big foldout. Fun popup. He's really fascinated and I love finding the little sub-plots throughout. It's holding my attention really well considering we've read this at least 20 times in a week. And of course I'm a huge fan of Delphine Durand which doesn't hurt. *I just discovered this book is only available used, so maybe I shouldn't be so casual about Miles' tugging on windows, haha.

I just got Kathy Griffin's memoir today so I plan on diving into that when I find a free moment. Not sure when I'll have one of those since I'm spinning a few too many plates right now. All fun stuff, but why do opportunities present themselves in avalanches rather than trickles? Hmpph.