How to use this Page

[…] 1. Carrie K. (Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself)2. Carrie (In Search of Eden)3. Anne (The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai)4. Joy (Oryx and Crake)5. Lynne (Main Street)6. Lynne (Last Days of Summer)7. Laura (The Book of Lamentations)8. Veronica Mitchell (Robin McKinley’s Dragonhaven)9. Veronica Mitchell (Carol O’Connell’s Mallory’s Oracle)10. 3m (Tears of the Giraffe)11. 3M (Gossamer)12. Just One More Book! Podcast (Iggy Peck, Architect)13. SmallWorld (Widow of the South)14. Stephanie(The Rest Falls Away)15. Staci (The God King)16. gautami tripathy (The Tenth Circle)17. gautami tripathy (Alice in Wonderland) […]

What a great diner and illustration, I always love your work.

I love it!!

this is my latest favorite. so cool and beautiful!

Wow I really like your work. Well done! I'll be back for sure.

Another one of your famous houses! This is wonderful. I would love to have visited.

I did see the SHOE on a PBS broadcast recently. You are making a great contribution to America's rich cultural past... and present.

very nice and fresh. love mother goose!

darling,have been sick and gotton a new hair cut!mailed out your overdew painting 3 weeks ago befor trip to hospital.Did you like it? How are things with y'all?Come visite as I just added some new mud art and photos of the turtle nest

very fun.... is this the front view or the back?

gosh! what a funny building...somewhere in Florida? mh...great illustration as usual, by the way tnx for sharing...

I always love your concepts! Your imagination is wonderful. I would love to go here!

Val, love this, one of my favorite shows on HGTV is "What's With That House" I've seen several of these unusual houses. I know I've seen a duck and a shoe (whether it was this one I don't know). This duck cafe is so cute.

I think this should be a place where artists meet for lunch! Wonderful Val!

How cool is that! Fun stuff.

So clever! You always amaze me. A goose in a rectangular form as a house! Brilliant and LURVE the colors!!

Neat place! I wanna go!!

it looks like one of those places that you can bloq up and kids can jump around in - fun perspective

what a great place and a wonderful illustration...do you think they serve coffee ??

Beautiful, Val!

This is a wonderful job!!.. The magic is right there!!..

I saw a show about these crazy houses.. there was one in Wisconsin that was a Pike. Lots of life to this painting... love the whimsy!

reminds me of the duck in ny. lov that ur able to find this places

I love your whimsical style. This is great!

I can only imagine what they may have served there! Too cute!

Hey we had the same idea to do a diner. But, your diner is much more fun. Love Mother Goose themes!

Did this really exist? I'd love to see the placemats and the menus, etc. Wouldn't that be fun to design?

this seems like a very interesting place...and you make it look so cute!

she's excellent! i love her bonnet and glasses, as a house! :))

wouldn't it be fun to live here! what a great drawing... beautiful in every way!

-k.b.

Ohhhh I want to go there and eat yummy stuff!!! :D

very cute!

Wonderfully creative! Love it!

that's just too adorable. great work as always.

I love the colors!!

hehehe. she's perfect!!

very cute and funny at the same time. excellent.

I love the fact that this image has such a strong feeling of being a safe place. Like life inside a cartoon, you know? ...where nothing bad happens. Really like the rendering and the colors...Lovely idea :o)

I always look forward to seeing one of these crazy buildings! I love this one! :)

Fantastical, wamr, delighful, well executed (as always) and just charming. Fabby work!!!

What a great place Val, great image!

Hey, Val! Lots of fun with this one. I love it! :)

Such fun!! Charming piece as usual.

This is so warm and inviting. What a wonderful place, and your soft style makes it even cozier feeling. :)

wow! cool place to be in! very nice your work!

Oh I would love to be in that cafe! And its a duck(almost a chicken)... :-) Love it.

Enchanting, indeed. I wanna go!

Thanks to author.

As a 5th and 6th grade teacher in Washington, D.C., I have been struggling with how to teach my students about recycling. My challenge is that it is common for my students to see older kids throwing trash wherever they roam. This book sounds like it could raise interesting discussions about what happens to trash and how what we think is trash could be reused. Giving them the idea that they can be creative may give them ownership over the trash they would otherwise throw away.

I am a second grade teacher in Washington, DC and I have had several conversations with my students about recycling. We looked out of the class room window and talked about several items that could be recycled. There is a pool just outside the window and we counted how much trash was inside and if it looked like a good place to swim. We also talked about what the trash could be used for. This book would be great for next year because we have a project where students could collect trash with their parents and make thing out of them.

Without reading the book, I found the references made to events that take place in the book clever. In my 5th grade class we discuss several “curent event” issues and I think this book would offer great discussion to the understanding of how to make better use of the items we consider trash. I appreciate how this story offers and encourages students to think outside of the box when it comes to trash- providing them with creative options. This book would also be a great segway to discuss other earth conscience topics such as global warming.

The Dumpster Diver sounds interesting and worth reading considering its approach to recycling. I am currently doing my practicum at an elementary school in Washington, DC. I am with 1st grade students and we recycle in our classroom. Everyone participates but I believe a book like this would bring insight to the issue of recycling. It sounds like with the creative language and illustrations used within this book, interesting discussions about recycling would surface. I definitely plan to look into this book. Thank You

Andy Spann :)

What a lovely conversation about my book! You really DO “get it”–thanks so much for your insightful and entertaining comments! (I didn’t fully realize the child-appeal of “Rule Number TWO!”)

I was just in Seattle where a bookstore called All for Kids sponsored a contest where kids submitted items crafted out of junk. Photos of the winning creations will be posted soon at www.allforkidsbooks.com. One of my favorites was a very simple project: a wind chime made out of miscellaneous metal items (I think I remember an old faucet, a spoon, etc.).

I really do hope that parents and teachers can use this book to inspire the children in their lives to be creative with “junk”–goodness knows, we all have so much of it!

[…] Our greatest challenge and responsibility is reaching the thousands of people who want to support literacy needs in their own communities - to inform and engage this massive universe of literacy change agents who then organize local literacy programs, and sponsor the needs of teachers and other literacy agents. We are able to achieve great success in magazine delivery by leveraging many advanced social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies. For example, in addition to our online content management systems, blogs, and online forms, we leverage the Flickr photo sharing site to spotlight wonderful literacy events. We have begun a MySpace page to broaden our audience. We are exploring the value of digital versions of print magazines in terms of increased access and literacy. We’ve been invited to speak on podcasts and will continue to reach out to these and other web media outlets to grow awareness and participation in our community based literacy efforts. We also leverage online, community fundraising tools, such as ChipIn, Fundable, and Network for Good, so that groups can join together to pool their support for literacy needs. Our Kids Magazine Airlift program is a first-ever program where consumers can purchase magazine gifts online at publisher web sites for at-risk children and families in their community or across the country. MagazineLiteracy.org supplies the mailing addresses of early learning and after-school mentoring programs, foster group homes, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and other literacy programs. All of this work is made possible by the volunteers who connect to MagazineLiteracy.org via VolunteerMatch, Craigslist, and other web tools. […]

[…] Mark speaks with Janet Wong about the concept behind her book The Dumpster Diver, how she incorporates her own life in her books, and her participating in the meet the author series of books. As a treat, Janet reads one of her poems. […]