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With picture by Paul Schmid

Prevent Fines, Record Reading with This Handy Calendar
Happy New Year! If you’re looking to start the new year with fresh resolve to read, you won’t want to be without the Overdue Book Calendar.

New Envoy’s Old Advice for Children: Read More
Katherine Paterson was named the next National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature this week – and you won’t want to miss Motoko Rich’s article about the new Madam Ambassador.

Autographed Shirt Benefits First Book
Check out the cool t-shirt that Amy Krouse Rosenthal and other New York Times bestselling authors created to benefit First Book at our second annual Book Bash celebration.

Six-Word Memoir Book Trailer
Stop over to the Olive Reader blog to watch and enjoy the latest “book trailer” (like a movie trailer, but for books!) for It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, edited by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser.

10 Best Books That Are Years
To kick off a new year, check out this list of the best books whose titles are years.

Bookstore Night in Buenos Aires Encourages Reading
Check out NPR’s story about Buenos Aires’ annual Noche de las Librerias — Bookstore Night. The city closes a main avenue, and replaces cars and trucks with sofas and chairs for people to lounge in with books from nearby bookstores.

By Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Illustrated by Jen Corace

Recently I read and reviewed two books by Amy Couse Rosenthal. One was Little Oink, and one was Duck! Rabbit! I liked both books very much indeed, particularly the latter, which is deliciously funny and quite unique. I decided there and then that Amy must be an unusal person, and I asked her publisher if I could interview her for this blog. Here is what she had to say about her work:

If you don't already know Amy Krouse Rosenthal, let me introduce her to you. She's the author of surprising, unexpected books (Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, for example, which comes equipped with its own theme song and two-minute short, as well as the children's classics-as-soon-as-they-were-released Little Pea, Cookies, The OK Book). She's a New York Times Book Review critic, the host of a Chicago Public Radio show called "Writers' Block Party," a greeting card creator, and the inventor, always, of radically delightful ways of seeing.

A while ago Amy produced a short film called "17 things i made," which was followed by an experiment—a call to viewers to meet her in Millennium Park on 8/8/08. Something special would happen, she promised. Those who came simply had to trust.

What happened that night was crystallized in a short film titled "The Beckoning of Lovely," which did a funny little thing to my heart when I first saw it. I'm not going to try to explain it. I'm simply going to say that, in a very difficult time, Amy asked the world to make lovely things—any lovely thing—and to send those things to her so that they might be considered for inclusion in a feature film. Amy gathered around her some of the best in every business and waited to see what might happen.

Today I'm joining Amy's Next Phase Team as, in her words, a Supremely Excellent Judge (International Panel). I've judged many things in my life—chaired the National Book Awards panel for Young People's Literature, chaired the PEN First Nonfiction Prize jury, sifted applications for the National Endowment for the Arts, took on a Family Circle poetry competition, judged the feature stories of the nation's university magazines, selected the winner of a University of Pennsylvania student essay contest. But I've never been involved in a project like this—never been asked to go to the very heart of lovely—and I find the challenge exhilarating.

Stay tuned.

Back in September, crcook posted a truly lovely and cooler than cool 7-minute video called, "The Beckoning of Lovely." It totally caught me by surprise, chased my evil, cynical tendencies out the window, and made my heart flutter with hope.

Making things. Creativity. Coming together. Sharing. Good vibes all around.

The woman in the video arrived on the scene with her yellow umbrella, and in a few hours, changed the lives of everyone there. Strangers worked together to "make an 18th lovely thing." I admired the young woman's ingenuity and spontaneous, free-spirited social experiment.

But did I know? Did I know then, who this woman really was? The video said her name was Amy, but there are lots of Amys in the world, right?

The universe, it turns out, is a small place. But hugely generous and serendipitous, if you choose to interact with it in good faith and with honest intentions.

Awhile later, I was searching for a picture book author to interview for this blog. I wanted someone whose work had tickled me, excited me, made me stop and take note for its singular brilliance. Interviews are hard work, and I won't invest precious time working with someone unless I really really love what they do.



Then I remembered Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons. Of course -- Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She's way cool, and I'd been seeing her name all over the internet -- always associated with something innovative and life affirming, albeit quirky.

And I simply cannot resist quirky.

So I googled her and discovered that Amy Krouse Rosenthal and the yellow umbrella woman in the video are one and the same! Duh. Well, of course! Friends, Amy is someone who embraces the universe whole heartedly, resulting in creative efforts that boggle the mind -- children's books, memoirs, book reviews, humor columns, public radio talk show host, gift books, parenting books, and, of course, videos.

Now, "The Beckoning of Lovely" is moving into its next phase -- a feature length film! Amy has extended an Invitation to the Universe. If you have made a lovely thing, she wants you to submit it. It doesn't matter what you do, where you live, or how old you are. If it's lovely, it qualifies. She's also looking for a creative team consisting of 14 Key Positions, to help her implement the project.

No, this isn't a paying gig, not yet. But it's a chance to be part of something awesome, something larger than yourself, something that has never been done before. Things are tough all over the planet. This seems to be an earnest effort to celebrate the myriad talents of our fellow human beings -- a project of inclusion, a "making" of something positive. We need that, right?

Read more about the film on Amy's blog, whoisamy. Deadline for submissions is January 20, 2009, and the deadline to apply for the 14 Key Positions is January 16, 2009.

Submission categories include:     Music of all kinds / Bands/ Singer-Songwriters / Videos / Short films / Animation / Paintings / Drawings / Art / Illustration / True stories / Made-up stories / Poems/ Lists / Monologues / Plays / Dance / Inventions / Crafts / Photographs / Cell phone snapshots / Architecture / Design / Culinary creations / Journal pages / Collage / Sand castles /  Everything

CHRISTMAS COOKIES: BITE-SIZE HOLIDAY LESSONS , by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, pictures by Jane Dyer (HarperCollins, 2008), all ages, 32 pp., On shelves now.

Season's Greetings! (Please greet me with cookies.)

I squealed with delight when I saw Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons (HarperCollins, 2008), the scrumptious follow-up to her New York Times Bestseller, Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons (HarperCollins, 2006).

This time, we are treated to 23 more delectable cookie-centric definitions to inspire, enlighten and delight readers of all ages. Have you ever tried to explain such abstract terms as "Prosperity," "Charitable," or "Perseverance" to a child? Pretty tricky, huh?

That's where these cookies come in. "Prosperity means, My goodness, just look at all those cookies!" "Charitable means setting a big batch aside to give to people who maybe don't have any cookies at all." And "Preseverance means, We tried and tried and tried, and finally we made the perfect not-burned batch."


"GRACIOUS means putting out a plate for our special guest."

With cookies, everything becomes clear. Especially when the definitions feature charming, curly haired, multiethnic kids and their gentle animal friends working together in the kitchen.


''FRUSTRATED means, I can't believe we burned them again!"

If ever there was a perfect pairing of author and illustrator, these cookie books are it. Jane Dyer's winsome watercolors perfectly capture the candy-striped, multicolor-frosted, sugar-sprinkled celebration that is Christmas without being cloying or overly cute. Kids will love how humans and animals, equally enthusiastic about cookies, inhabit the same world. Since these crunchy chunks of wisdom can be nibbled on one tasty morsel at a time, or gobbled up in one fell swoop, it is suitable for picky eaters as well as established gastronomes. No holding back here. Open the book to any page, cozy up to the table, and help yourself to pure yummy-ness.


"SHARING means, Thanks for giving me a taste. Would you like a bite of mine?"

I am a huge fan of both Rosenthal's and Dyer's work, and highly recommend both of these Cookie books. Created from what seems like the perfect recipe, these gems satisfy to the very last crumb.

To browse inside Christmas Cookies, click here.

For the Christmas Cookie recipe included in the book, click here.

If, by some chance, you were visiting another planet and missed the first Cookie book, take a peek inside it here.


COOKIES: BITE-SIZE LIFE LESSONS, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal,
pictures by Jane Dyer (HarperCollins, 2006), all ages, 32 pp.

**This book inspired me to write my own Bite-Size Writing Lessons here!

Special thanks to R. Michelson Galleries for permission to post interior spreads from Christmas Cookies. All images included here are available for sale (watercolor on paper, 8.5" x 8.5"). Click here for more information on these and other illustrations from Jane Dyer's books.

*All interior images copyright © 2008 Jane Dyer, published by HarperCollins. All rights reserved.

The other day I came across an article about a woman named Amy Krouse Rosenthal who had the bright idea of leaving money for people to find and asking them to send a postcard to say how they'd spent it.

She writes:

I’d like to say that I set out to do this for purely altruistic reasons. But, more accurately, I did it because I’m easily bored/easily amused, and experiments such as this inject a morsel of suspense into the week.

That, and I really like getting mail.


Genius, I thought. But could this be the same Amy Krouse Rosenthal who wrote Little Hoot and Little Pea and that Cookie book I keep meaning to look for? Maybe America is full of Amy Krouse Rosenthals - all of them doing interesting things. Yet somehow, I suspect there there is only one Amy Krouse Rosenthal and by clicking that link you can find out about her children's books, her books for adults - including Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and The Book of Eleven: An Itemized Collection of Brain Lint. You can read articles about parenting and find out about her radio show and her gift collection. You can even listen to her kids slurping cereal!

Oddica has released a new issue of their free, online magazine featuring the above illustration of Otto, along with new work by Malota, Ray Frenden, and an awesome cover by Erik Abel. If that wasn't enough, Oddica is also having a big Holiday sale allowing you to stockup on fresh t-shirts for yourself or loved ones.