WOW, WOW, WOW!!! The students at Hunters Bend Elementary in Franklin, TN, chose The Scrambled States of America Talent Show as the 2009 winner of their “Houndicott” Award! THANK YOU SO MUCH, HOUND DOGS!!! I could not be more honored and Uncle Sam is just busting at his stripey seams with happiness. Thank you again and again!!!! And again!
Travis Jonker, one of the librarians at Baker Elementary in Wayland, MI (he has a great book blog, 100 Scope Notes) invited me to spend the day there talking to the K-2nd Graders. We had a lot of fun! The kids had the halls decorated with otters and donuts that they had drawn. And one teacher, Mrs. Donaldson, had pictures of her students reading my books to her dog, Marley (a labradoodle). He read Open Wide: Tooth School Inside, The Scrambled States of America, The Scrambled States of America Talent Show and Arnie the Doughnut.
He really seemed to enjoy Do Unto Otters.
But wait…what’s this?
Is that?….
it IS!….it’s a CHEEZ-IT! Marley wasn’t interested in my books at all — he
was just eye-ing the CHEEZ-ITS the kids were holding! Welllll, I guess I
can’t blame him…I respond the same way to peanut M&M’s.
Recently at a school visit a little boy asked me if I’d ever gotten “writer’s block”. I told him YES and I thought I’d share my experience here because I really struggled with it and the way I got past it was very unexpected.
I could NOT love this more! My editor, Christy Ottaviano, sent me a link to a blog that shows a talented, young artist’s rendition of The Scrambled States of America (I attached 2 sets of his and my versions below). His name is Nathan and I was very honored that he took the time to draw his very own version of the states book. I see that he just did his own version of Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, too! I think he’s got a career ahead of him, illustrating (or RE-illustrating) books! I’m planning on doing one more book about the states so maybe I’ll contact Nathan when it comes time to do the illustrations and we can just cut out the middle man (me). Keep up the good work, Nathan!
This is such a great website! The super smart and talented, Hope Vestergaard and my friend, Deb Pilutti, an extremely talented artist/designer/writer (she created my website), started a blog called Happiness On Tap. Just as the name suggests, it’s all HAPPY stuff! It’s the perfect place to go when you need a little pick-me-up. They asked me to be a contributing “beezer”, as they call themselves, so I’ll be posting things from time to time, as well (I’m Beezer 5). Oh, and Deb created another fun site (as if she weren’t already busy enough) called The Postcard Project. Thanks for even more HAPPINESS, Deb!
After my next book is finished this Spring, I’m going to get to the ‘interactive games’ portion of my website. I’m trying to come up with some game ideas based on my books, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know! In the meantime, someone sent me this link to STATE-TRIS, a very cool game based on TETRIS (which I used to be addicted to!). It’s the same concept only it’s with states instead of blocks. There are even 3 different levels of difficulty. It’s a great way to learn the locations of the states and it’s fun, too!
Hi everyone…Arnie the Doughnut, here. On behalf of Laurie Keller and myself, I would like to thank the kids of Colorado for choosing, Arnie the Doughnut (that’s ME!), as the 2008 Colorado Children’s Book Award winner! We both thank you so much, kids!
On a side note, I can’t help but wonder if it was a subliminal thing that prompted Colorado kids to vote for me. I mean, look at the word, ‘COLORADO’. It has 3 O’s in it…they look just like DOUGHNUTS! Nonethess, thanks again for this great award!
There are a lot of things I have to add to my website — one of which is a section on how I came up with the ideas for my books since kids always ask me. Until I get that posted, here is an interview with Publishers Weekly that tells all about the making of The Scrambled States Talent Show.
Someone sent me this video awhile back of otters holding hands because of my Do Unto Otters book. It’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen!
I did a Seven-Questions-Over-Breakfast Illustrator Interview with Jules of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast this month. It was fun emailing back and forth with her, answering her questions AND after discovering that she loves Christopher Guest movies as much as I do, swapping favorite lines from Waiting For Guffman and This Is Spinal Tap !
