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I found another lost post this morning. Since I’m too tired to walk, I will just pretend that this was today!!

This morning I went for a nice walk. I almost always end up in a coffee shop sometime during my walks. Coffee shops draw me in. They are full of people and people are interesting! Everyone of them has a story. While sitting in Ziggies this morning I see mostly men. Sitting across from me is a man with shining white hair. He is bent over the newspaper and chasing down his seeded bagel with warm coffee. His newspaper is spread out before him. I wonder what he did for a living when he was working. Is he married? Is he widowed? What did he look like when he was a little boy? Where did he live? What is his story?

The man in front of me is graying, but not retired. He has his work papers spread out before him and he looks entirely too serious for this time of the morning. He has a real coffee cup, not a paper one. He has on a nice dress shirt, Dockers, matching socks and black dress shoes. He could be a lawyer or even a teacher. I try to guess.

As I sip my coffee I watch the two girls behind the counter making a tall whip creamy chocolate drink for a young girl who looks to be a track star. Miss track star leaves and more customers pour in. None of them stay, all leave for work or play.

There is one more man sitting on the couch. His white curly beard is out of control. He has a vacant stare as he drinks his coffee slowly. I wonder about him. Has he anyone to love him? Another man sits down on the couch across from him and Mr. Vacant begins talking about the fire that has been on the news and then he chats about the hot summer forecast in the newspaper. The other man barely listens to him. Mr. Vacant goes back to his vacant stare. I feel sorry for him. Does he have family? Does anyone care about him?

And so that is my coffee shop morning. I am off to finish my day. It will be full with drawing chickens and preparing for my visit to NY. Still, I will remember my morning walk and those people who crossed my path.

There is nothing like a nice cup of steamy hot coffee with cream and conversation with friends.  Since all my friends are working or busy, I am having coffee with my other friends.  Today it is Toola.  … and no,  she is not sharing that second cup with me.  She likes two cups of coffee at one time.  It’s kind of hard to get her to sit down (obviously), but we must love our friends no matter what!!  It takes a lot of interesting people to make a world.    Enjoy your day!

~ Leslie Ann

Two Little Pirates by Ruth Paul

I must preface this review by saying that this is a book from New Zealand, so it’s not available in the US.  I received it from the author and publisher, Scholastic New Zealand.  Ruth Paul’s books are available in Canada as well as Australia and New Zealand.

In rhyming couplets, this book follows two little pirates who attack the King and the Queen.  They are actually two little boys who pounce on their sleeping parents dressed as pirates.  After a brief battle, the parents prevail and the two pirates are hung over the edge of the ship to become shark bait.  When they beg to be released, the King and Queen agree on one condition: that they tidy up the mess they made.  When that is accomplished, they have a nice snack in bed and then everyone cuddles up and dozes as the bed sails off.

Paul keeps a wonderful balance between imaginary play and reality in this title.  At all times, the ship which is the bed is surrounded by water, until the children have finally given up their pirate roles and become children again.  Additionally, the parents respond with great delight to their young pirates and the attack.  The battle is merrily fought, the capture and punishment is doled out in character, and the snack and cuddles conclude.  What a great way to spend a lazy morning together!

Paul’s art is bright and friendly.  She revels in the play along with the family, enjoying the different angles that the bed can be viewed in throughout.  Done in watercolor and colored pencil, the art has a great clarity of line and depth of color.

This is one pirate bed that is definitely worth sailing on.  Children will revel in the story though parents should be braced for a morning invasion after reading it.  Parents should also be open to snacks in bed, crumbs and all.  But who could resist if it ends with cuddles and a snooze?  Appropriate for ages 2-5.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

The world awakens after a long winter's night.

You can see more of my art at www.klbaileyart.com

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It may or may not be morning where you are. If it is, I'm jealous.

7:07 a.m. The view through my office window, right now. It is post storm, and pink, still a yellow moon in the sky.

READY SET REVIEWS just gave me my present for the day. Actually it comes via the publisher who submitted the book for review.

Here is a link to the review of MY AFRICAN BEDTIME RHYMES by Brettell Hone and illustrated by me.
I was treated to a rare and wonderful experience working with the South African publisher, SHAMWARI and with Brettell.
My African Bedtime Rhymes.

One of the benefits of a good review is good sales... and good sales mean another book will be forthcoming *:)

I put the kibosh on this piece at around 1AM while sitting in my darkened home office watching MST3K on DVD, and listening to my wife snore loudly in the next room.

Life is a wondrous and splendid thing, is it not?

Some good news is that after a bit of a hiatus from my novel, I dove back into it yesterday. I think the time away from it did me good. Recharged the batteries. I'm on the homestretch now, and hopefully I'll be finished with my first draft of this thing in a month or so!

Steve!

Holy toledo things have been busy lately!

Lots of work and lots of family stuff has made it a wee bit difficult to get around to posting on the ol' illustration blog. Add all of that to the fact that I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping and you've got a recipe for disaster more annoying than a weekend long marathon of Ben Affleck movies.

Anyway, hopefully I'm entering a bit of a downspell and hopefully that'll mean throwing something up on here more often.

Hopefully.

I don't like making promises, so we'll just stick with hopefully.

Anyway, my wife has been snapping some pictures of me early in the morning and we think that we've discovered the reason I'm not getting any sleep.

The stupid cats seem to think my head is their bed.

(Don't give me any guff on the black and white stripped quilt. I've had it since I was a kid, it's ugly as sin, it needs to be thrown away, I've heard it all from my wife more than once. I'll tell you the same thing I tell her...it's not going anywhere. That's right, I'm a thirty year old Linus. Deal with it.)

Steve~