I wanted to give you a sneak peek at a new book I'm illustrating for Sylvan Dell Publishing - my third book for them. The Author is Michelle Lord and I wasn't familiar with her work until now. I can tell you she's a wonderful writer and I'm so happy to be working on this book. It's scheduled for a Spring 2013 release, sounds far away but it'll be here before you know it.

Hard to believe this year is almost over, but I've been busy and it's flown by. Here's one of the reasons I've been spending a lot of time working instead of blogging this past year - it's my first book as writer/illustrator!

Tiger Tales Books is the publisher and I really do feel honored to work with them. They cater to kiddos seven and under and in my humble opinion are the best.

So here's the cover artwork (looks strange to me not to be sharing the credit with an author) and a few of the spreads. Look for it spring 2012.

I get the most fun jobs from Square One Publishers. This time it's illustrating the interior of The Ultimate Allergy-Free Snack Cookbook by Judi and Shari Zucker.

There's lots of great snack ideas for happy healthy kids here. Now there's no reason to have to say "no" when your child asks for a snack. These are all healthy as well as easy to make and delicious. And while it's mainly for people with food allergies, the recipes are also sugar-free and meat-free. Vegans, diabetics and cancer survivors will enjoy these yummy snacks as well.

The only problem about illustrating this book was that I was hungry the whole time I worked on it. So I did try a few of these and they taste as good as they sound.

I just received copies of Cat Calls by Jeanne Adlon and Susan Logan and couldn't be happier with how it came out. It's one thing to read through copy while illustrating a book but quite another to sit down after it's printed and really enjoy it.

There's lots of great cat-care tips but my favorite parts are Jeanne's wonderful stories about the various cats she's cared for and the famous people she's worked with and befriended over the years... who knew John Lennon and Yoko Ono were cat lovers? Here's a great review from Kirkus' Review with a lot more fun details.

Here's some interior illustration spreads from The Three Beavers by Jean Heilprin Diehl.

Beatrix the beaver can't get a break. Her brother Bevan is an expert at building. Her sister Beverly is an amazing swimmer. Isn't there anything that Beatrix is good at?

Kids will love reading about the adventures of the three little beavers. They'll be able to relate to the beavers while learning a lot about them.

Sylvan Dell Publishing also includes a creative minds section and teaching activities in the back of each of their books.

The land was bought for a Denver County Fair in the 1800s. Suddenly that plan was interrupted by a little thing called the "Civil War" and no fair was ever launched... until this summer! It was a mixture of old fashioned fair goodness - think homemade goods, arts and crafts, carnival rides, pie eating competitons - with a twist of 21st Century sensibilities - fashion, green technology, drag queen competition, robotics, rocket building and launching, music and lots more.

So I was honored to win a First Place Blue Ribbon for Animalogy by Marianne Berkes in the illustration competition. Of course, I couldn't have done it without the help of my grandson, Konnor who posed for one of the illustrations in the book.

We're already looking forward to next year's fair.

Hopefully you like beavers because you'll be seeing them off and on for the rest of this year. Here's a preview for you, the working cover for The Three Little Beavers, for Sylvan Dell Publishing. The type will change - I just like playing around with type placement, mainly to see if I'm leaving enough room - otherwise I tend to fill in every inch possible.

This book is by Jean Heilprin Diehl and it's a very cute, fun story about guess what? Yes, the adventures of Beverly, Bevan and Beatrix, the three little beavers. Look for it spring of 2012!

I was honored to be teamed up with Marianne Berkes, one of my favorite picture book authors today. She's a retired teacher and librarian who has turned her love of nature and teaching into writing. Marianne uses rhyming analogies about animals to give kids a different way to see how animals are related. . . bat is to flit as eagle is to soar; dog is to bark as lion is to roar. Comparisons include sounds, physical adaptations, behaviors, animals classes and are so fun, readers learn without even realizing it. Animals are to nature, as Animalogy is to fun!

Please watch our book trailer for Animalogy, coming out this August. My daughter, Andrea Brown produced it and did a great job.

I'm going to miss drawing cats, but on to the next project. Currently everything I'm working on is about animals. One picture book I'm illustrating is titled The Three Little Beavers, another fun project for Sylvan Dell Publishing. The other one is my first book as writer and illustrator. I'll have details and images coming shortly. All in all it's a nice way to spend my summer non-vacation.

Mainly I work in the world of children's publishing so when I get a call from Square One Publishers to illustrate one of their books, it's always a new and exciting challenge for me. They don't do children's books but do publish wonderful books on food and cooking, parenting, health, the list goes on and on.

This time it's Cat Calls, Wonderful Stories and Practical Advice from a Veteran Cat Sitter, by Jeanne Adlon and Susan Logan. Here's a sneak peek of the art that will be used for Chapter Headings. I see it as a sort of Sex in the City tell-all about the extraordinary life of a well known cat sitter in NYC. But it's also full of valuable information and advice for cat owners. The coauthor is Susan Logan, editor of Cat Fancy Magazine and will have a foreword by Jim Davis, creator of Garfield. It's going to be such a great, fun book and I'm honored to be apart of it.

Look for it this fall!

The very talented Simon Rose, based in Calgary, Alberta in Western Canada is the author of science fiction and fantasy novels for young readers. Some of his titles include The Alchemist's Portrait, The Sorcerer's Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Doomsday Mask among others. He's also known for his dynamic author visits, workshops and presentations.

Simon celebrates all genres of children's literacy with weekly children's book author and illustrator interviews on Face Book. This week he's interviewing me.

Thanks Simon for including me in your interviews. See the entire list at Children's Authors and Illustrators on Facebook and please visit Simon Rose's website to find out more about the writing community.

Here's a behind-the-scenes-look at the development of a book cover. The first cover was considered too hard to read from a distance by the marketing folks at the publisher. So we took one of the interior spreads and made a few adjustments and now it's our new cover for Animalogy. It actually wraps around the back which you don't see here. I think it's a stronger cover and hopefully easier to read. Most people still judge a book by it's cover, don't you?

The original cover art is now moved to the title page so I'm glad that artwork will still see the light of day.

Thanksgiving week I received copies of "The Three Little Pigs", illustrated by me. Odyssey Books is the publisher and I'm really happy with the reproduction of the illustrations. You just don't know how it's going to look until it's an actual printed book.

My dedication reads, "To Gracie and Konnor. Love you forever. C.M." Here's my daughter Andrea reading the book to Gracie and Konnor for the first time on Thanksgivng. This is one of the perks of being a children's book illustrator.

If you scroll back through earlier posts you can see the illustrations as I was working on them. Or better yet, go buy the book. Either way, hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It's back to the drawing board for me. I'm still working on my first endeavor as writer/illustrator and have gotten some very helpful critics. So I'm tweaking the illustrations at this point after a lot of editing.

Please let me know if you like this version as opposed to the earlier one posted. Or not.

Just wanted to post a new image, going back to my whimsical kid look after several realistic book projects.

This is my first project as writer/illustrator so I'll keep you posted as I stumble along in new territory.

Animalogy's illustrations are winding down as a couple of new projects are gearing up - both totally different from this one.

So look for "Animalogy" August 2011 and I'll be posting a book trailer promo for it at some point too - hopefully sooner than later.

Here's more illustrations for "Animalogy" by Marianne Berkes. I'm not posting these in order, nor do I draw them in order. I skip around while illustrating, doing a harder illustration, then an easier one, maybe revising another rough before going to the next color spread, all the while trying to keep the momentum going.

All in all this is a fun project to work on. It's the only picture book I've illustrated where I haven't had to worry about continuity because it's a different animal for each page.

Here's artwork for a cover wrap for a new middle grade novel by Elaine Pease. The publisher, Filter Press is right here in Colorado and they produce some of the best stories for young readers as well as old readers like me. When I received this manuscript I just couldn't put it down - it's an amazing story! It's stories like this that turn kids into readers.

Here's an endorsement from Cheyenne Chief Gordon Yellowman about the book... "Elaine Pease has written an excellent novel full of ghostly spirits of the past, filled with mystery and Cheyenne trails."

Here's the cover art for a fun new picture book I'm illustrating for Sylvan Dell Publishing. The author is Marianne Berkes and I'm a huge fan of her writing. This book of analogies is for very young kiddos and the way that it's written is so fun and lively, I think they'll love it.

It's a Fall 2011 release and will keep me busy for awhile. I'll post interior illustrations as I go along.

This is the third book I've illustrated for Square One Publishing. I'm not known for clean, simple illustrations so appreciate them trusting me on this project. Working with Michele D'Altorio, the editor of the cook book made it all go very smoothly.

There are lots of yummy and unique recipes in Lisa Mann's illustrated cook book - from "Chilled Avocado Tomato Soup" to "Banana Dream with Orange Cashew Cream". I'm looking forward to trying these recipes myself.

I'm starting a new project, a historical fiction picture book and trying to decide how best to capture the sights and sounds of growing up in this era.

The late 1930s was an interesting period. Newspaper headlines range from stories about the Dust Bowl to "Golden Gate Bridge Opened!", to "World War 2 Begins!" Most people were just beginning to recover from the depression only to get involved in a major war.

It's a time when houses were highly stylized and city parks were flourishing. People wanted to create a good life to compensate for all the chaos, not so different from today.

Congratulations to Odyssey Books! This is their first year to exhibit at Toy Fair at the Javits Center in NYC. They kicked off their new book imprint, StoryTime Cafe by having Carlos Bakery, better known as TLC's "Cake Boss" make a custom-built cake, depicting Christina, Barb's daughter in bed reading a book surrounded by many of the characters featured in their childrens' picture books.

That's Mauro Castano, Buddy Valastro's right hand man personally setting up the cake display and supervising the cutting of the sheet cake served to all the reporters and retailers at the show. Leave it to Barb Ciletti to do a first rate job introducing their new book imprint!

Photos by Nancy Stadler

You don't see illustrated endpapers much these days, probably due to budget constraints. But I think it adds some fun and whimsy plus has an old fashioned storybook feeling to it. I'm not one hundred percent finished with the artwork yet but thought I'd take a break and give you a sneak peek.

Definition of endpapers: The plain white, decorated, or printed paper that is at the front and end of a book, one half of which is pasted down to the binding. The endpapers are used to give a finished look to the binding.

Just found out that Patria Press's historical fiction chapter book about the childhood of Frederick Douglass was chosen by KidCity as one of their top ten picks for MLK Day and Black History Month!

Below are more details from the KidCity website:

African-Americans suffered disproportionately (and still do) by racist attitudes and actions. But the civil rights movement is no more owned by African-Americans than Holocaust resistance was owned by Jews or suffrage was owned by women. Injustice, suffered anywhere, affects all those who touch it, fight it, comply with it, or blatantly promote it.

Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month give parents a chance to break the cycle of history repeating by looking through the window of how African-Americans suffered, fought and eventually broke through barriers.

"Of all the biographies received, the Young Patriot Series was the most engaging and well-told for single digit kids. Through anecdotes and everyday actions, kids can see how Frederick Douglass lived and eventually paved the way for the civil rights movement."

Douglass's childhood is an amazing story, and it was a lot of fun to research and illustrate his life. Here's the poster from our book signing at Book Expo America in NYC.

Good bye to 2009 and hello to 2010.

I've been remiss in posting to my blog so wanted to put up a closeup that will be part of the front cover flap for The Three Little Pigs.

Finally I'm finishing a couple of illustrated books, due out soon, Spring 2010 and am excited to start some fun new projects.