I missed seeing this book in 2021, so I'm here to give it some love right now. The end papers show the "before time." Illustration ©Harry Woodgate And then the first spread returns us to the present. Text/Illustration ©Harry Woodgate A child visits a grandparent who's lost his spouse. The child and grandparent play and … Continue reading Grandad’s Camper – Perfect Picture Book Friday
In this fun, heart-filled book, a child is missing a special person who lives very far away. Their missing isn't sappy or sentimental. No. No. No, it isn't. It's expressed in a childlike way. Text ©Pat Zietlow Miller Illustration ©Suzy Lee Someday soon,I'll see you.Even thoughyou are there. Text ©Pat Zietlow Miller Illustration ©Suzy Lee … Continue reading See You Someday Soon – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Taking a break for July. Will return refreshed and full of vim, vigor, and vitality in mid-August! Ready to talk about all kinds of new releases and maybe a few from the past as well. While you're waiting, here are a handful of random photos from a few of my favorite places. My apologies for … Continue reading Summer Hiatus Photos
Victor Hugo Green was tired of hearing no.Victor loved the freedom of driving on the open road,but too often the road was closed to him. It was like thisfor most Black people in the United States.When he and his wife, Alma, traveled from New York to Virginia to visit family, they riskedgetting turned away, yelled … Continue reading Opening the Road – Perfect Picture Book Friday
Amy Novesky has no interest in writing a standard biography. I'm thinking specifically of her books, Cloth Lullaby: the Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois; Mi, Frida; and Imogen: The Mother of Modernism and Three Boys. I imagine her focusing a wide angle lens on her subject, then combing through every wavelength of light until it … Continue reading Girl on a Motorcycle – Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF
Taking a little time off from posting until the fall. Thought I'd leave you all with a link to one of the most extraordinary places on earth, the Okavango Delta in Botswana. We camped on top of a truck throughout Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia in 1997 for a couple of months. One of … Continue reading Okavango Delta – Respite
Sometimes I fall in love with the strange beauty of a book. Its "je ne sais quoi." Such is the case for this lovely picture book created by Gus Gordon and edited by the legendary Neal Porter of Roaring Brook Press. Yes, the book is from 2017. Neal Porter is now making waves with his … Continue reading Somewhere Else – Perfect Picture Book Friday – #PPBF
So while I'm frantically revising picture book manuscripts to take to Highlights Summer Camp, Listen To Your Mother released the 2016 videos from shows in 41 cities. As promised, here's my piece in the San Francisco Show! It was a privilege and an honor to be on stage with such amazing women. Cheers! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s145rabK20
"Halloooooooo!" says Tigger! I've brought in a Caterpillar D-10 to move my email around after hiring a Caterpillar 797F off-road truck to haul it to my office. Each wheel, attached to the axle with 47 nuts torqued to 2300 lb.-ft. each, costs $250,000. Why, oh why, did I ever go on holiday?! Surely not just … Continue reading Not Just for Poets
Dear Presserheads (what do you think of this newly-coined term?), Thanks to friends who are taking care of our place and our living greenery, on Saturday morning our family is boldly going where thousands of tourists have gone before. We will be flying in to San Jose, Costa Rica, and then hopping a bus to … Continue reading I’m Off!
Jilanne Hoffmann 