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From Net Galley: 16 Top Covers for 2016

From Homemade: 12 spectacular gingerbread houses

From Brightly: 5 Books That Teach Kids What It Means to Be a Kind Person

From Giuseppe Castellano: 10 Mistakes Illustrators Make

From Zetta Elliott.com: 2016 MG & YA Titles by African Americans

From The Scottish Book Trust: The Writer's Guide to Staying Sane Over Christmas

From The Washington Post: 19 Books to help children find hope and strength in stressful times: A librarian's list

From PW: "Pinch Me, I'm Dreaming" More than a dozen children's book editors describe what it's like to work with writers whose books they loved as children.

From Muddy Colors: An Illustrated Ghost-Story of Christmas (some of the best-illustrated versions of A Christmas Carol!)

From Muddy Colors - a great gift idea for artists: Making [Home-made] Walnut Ink - Groovy!

Pantone's Color of the Year has been announced: GREENERY

For the students and teachers among us, check out McSweeney's Post-Election College Paper Grading Rubric - hilarious!

From Brightly: Books Like Harry Potter: 10 Series to Read Next

From Muddy Colors: Things I Learned From Creating 122 Paintings in 11 Months - Greg Manchess on Above the Timberline

From 100 ScopeNotes: 2016 Librarian Lump of Coal Gift Guide

At Authors.me: Little Pickle Press is rebranding to March 4th

From Picture Book Builders: Four Part Series: Editors at the Top! (Begins with Neal Porter - read them all!)

From The Times: Books of the year: children's by Nicolette Jones

From Sotheby's: Icons of Children's Illustration (on auction!)

From EMUs Debuts and Debbi Michiko Florence: Great Gifts for Writers - good list!

From Bookshelf: Read Din bookcase and f Bodoni light - Oh! I want me one of these!!!

From Bookshelf: 1,285 nails: Rocking chair bookcase - I want one of these!

From the New York Times: Notable Children's Books of 2016

At Fuse #8 - a new Walking and Talking Interview with Grace Lin - FABULOUS!

At Muddy Colors - Anita Kunz! Including a great video of her newest work

From The Federation of Children's Book Groups: NNFN: Illustrating innovative Non-Fiction - a guest post by Petr Horacek

From The Art Room Plant: Printing With Tissue Paper!

From 100 Scope Notes: The Ultimate Children's Literature Illustrator Gift Guide

From The Federation of Children's Book Groups: NNFN: On illustrating non-fiction - a guest post by Anna Wright

Also from The Federation: The power of stories - A Guest post from Isabel Thomas

From the American Booksellers Association: Post-Election, Bookstores Offer Safe Spaces for Communities to Come Together

From Houzz: How to Help Others on #GiveingTuesday

From Kirkus: Their "Best Picture Books of 2016" list - click the logo to go see!

From PW: PRH Starts Student Loan Repayment Program

From BBC News: Top authors call for school libraries to be protected

From The Brown Bookshelf: A Declaration in Support of Children

From SLJ, Betsy Bird's Fuse #8: The Slush Pile Myth

From James Gurney: 72 Tips for Sharing Art on Social Media

From NPR: Colson Whitehead, Representative John Lewis Among National Book Award Winners

From The Guardian: Hundreds of US children's authors sign pledge to tackle racism and xenophobia

From Custom-Writing.org: 200 Powerful Words to Use Instead of "Good" (Infographic)

From BoingBoing: Noir and horror for your kindergartner (Chronicle's Melissa Manlove on Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back and This is Not My Hat.)

From The Toast: Children's Stories Made Horrific (a carryover from Halloween)

From 99U: Essential Steps to Making a Killer Portfolio

From Brightly: 10 of the Best Dragon Books for Kids :)

From The New York Times: The New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2016

At a loss - Make Good Art (Zenpencils.com)

From The Federation of Children's Book Groups: Michael Morpurgo receives the prestigious Action For Children’s Arts J M Barrie Award

From SLJ's 100 Scope Notes, Travis Jonker brings us The Children’s Literature Community Responds to the 2016 Presidential Election

From The Hollywood Reporter: 'Tuck Everlasting' Author Natalie Babbitt Dies at 84

From the Chronicle Books Blog: The Surprisingly Complex Principles of a Successful Picture Book

From Chris Riddell: How Do You Close a Library?

From Nathan Bransford: 4 tips for extroverted writers

From Muddy Colors: Subconscious Inspiration - THIS is why I wanted to get my MFA in Europe!

From Read Brightly: Rad Women Your Girls (and Boys!) Should Read About

Also from Read Brightly: Don't Forget to Vote! 7 Picture Books About Elections and Voting

From Tracy Marchini (via Nathan Bransford): How can you tell if you're using picture book language?

From Treehugger.com: The beautiful Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve: Book lovers will want to adopt this lovely holiday tradition, which melds literary and holiday pleasures into a single event.

An interesting Kickstarter: The Artist Within Vol 2, Artists Portraits in Their Studios

From Bright Group: Children's Book Awards and Why They Matter...

From Great!storybook: Frankfurt Book Fair 2016: why people come

From Bored Panda: 15+ of the Most Creative Halloween Costumes - I like Peter and his shadow best!

Via Nathan Bransford: A fantastic diagram that breaks down The Big Five US Trade Book Publishers and their imprints. WOW!

From Nine Kinds of Pie: How to Read Harold (and the Purple Crayon)

From The Federation of Children's Book Groups - and idea to celebrate NATIONAL NON-FICTION NOVEMBER 2016

Nathan Bransford is blogging again and shared some awesome links:
From shouldiworkforfree.com - a handy dandy hilarious diagram mapping whether you should work for free or not
From bookends (a literary agency): Never Will You Just Write

From The New Yorker: The Fantastic Ursula K. Le Guin

At HuffPost: The Latest Trend: Beautifully Illustrated Non-Fiction Picture Books

From 99U: Career-Propelling Money Advice for Creatives

From Digg: Paper Sculptures Made From Old Books Might Be The Best Way To Enjoy Literature

From PW: We Need Diverse Books Launches Curated Books App

From HuffPost: Dragons, Fairies And Greek Gods - Why Should You Bother Sharing Old Stories With Your Kids?

From 99U: 5 Questions to Weigh When at a Career Crossroads

From 99U: The 5 Types of Personal Projects (And How You Can Justify Pursuing Them)

From The Bright Group: Tips for Illustrators: Make Your Online Illustration Portfolio Stand Out

From Picture Book Builders: Four Part Series: Editors at the Top! (Starting with Neal Porter)

At SLJ: D.I.Y. Censorship: An Infographic. Woah

From Cynsations - In Memory, Barbara Seuling

At Houzz: The Science of Color: New Purple, Orange and Green Pigments Discovered (COOL!)

From Cynsations: Guest Post: Joy Preble on Life as an Author-Bookseller...or Bookseller-Author? VERY interesting! Wish it was longer!

From 100 Scope Notes: Name that Lego book cover - this is pretty cool. I wonder if this would be a philosophy for good design?

From The New Yorker: What Makes a Children's Book Good?

From FastCompany (via Cynsations): 7 Surprising Facts About Creativity, According To Science

From Fuse #8: The Sibling Reality: When Picture Books Stop Being Nice and Start Getting Real

From Brightly: Remembering Anna Dewdney, Her Llamas, and the Love She Shared

From Brightly: Do You Know How Much I Love You? One Mom's Journey Raising a Child with Bipolar Disorder by Donna Gephart

From Salisbury University - RIP Dr. Ernie Bond - a true children's book advocate.

From Mr. Schu Reads: Library Magic | A Guest Post by Adam Shaughnessy

I love this Norse Crisis Flow Chart from the DC and Marvel Comics Fan Page:

From GalleyCat: All About Roald Dahl: INFOGRAPHIC

From Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Chris Raschka (and Vera B. Williams') HOME AT LAST. I met Vera when she spoke at Kindling Words. By the end, I gave her a big hug and rubbed her back. I told her I was checking for wings. She truly was an angel.

From Writer unboxed: The Power of Myth in Fiction - about the false stories we believe - really interesting!

From The New Yorker: Cartoons about children's books - like this one:

From Mother Jones: The Uncomfortable Truth About Children's Books: Attempts to diversify lily-white kid ilt have been, well, complicated.

From James Clear: Forget About Setting Goals. Focus on This Instead.

From The Guardian: Top 10 Scottish Picture Books

From 99U: Andrea Tsurumi: You’ll Never Have “Enough Time”: The prolific illustrator on how to keep a lid on it to avoid burnout.

From the booking biz: 21 Ways to Fund Author Visits

From PW: Pew Report: Overall Book Readership Holding Steady, but E-Books Have Stalled

From The Bookseller: Frith wins inaugural Klaus Flugge Prize for illustration

From Open Culture: 3,000 Illustrations of Shakespeare's Complete Works from Victorian England, Neatly Presented in a New Digital Archive

From Muddy Colors: Painting Short Hair, Fur, and Velvet

From Electric Lit: Infographic: How Long Did Famous Novels take to Write?

From Brightly: 13 Picture Books That Celebrate Hispanic Heritage
And don't forget my books - click the covers to learn more!

From PW: We have lost children's author, illustrator and educator Anna Dewdney of Llama, llama fame

From GrammarCheck: 5 Bad Writing Habits You Can Break Today

From CBC/Diversity: Daniel Nayeri: How I Got Into Publishing

From SLJs 100 Scope Notes: The Most Astonishingly Unconventional Children's Books of 2016

From NoFilmSchool: Martin Scorsese Breaks Down the Difference Between Story & Plot

From WritingMad: 10 Tips to Nail your First Chapter #writing

From Slate: Books Your Kids Will Actually Like, Chosen by the People Who Know

From The Scottish Book Trust: 13 picture books that use pages creatively

From The Children's Book Review: Best New Picture Books | September 2016

James Mayhew: A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS: THE TRUE COST OF BARGAIN BOOKS

From SLJ's Fuse #8: When Celebrity Picture Books Go Kuh-kuh-kuh-KRAZY!

From TES: The YA fan hits back: 'Sorry, Mr Nutt, you clearly don't understand the value of teen literature'

From 99U: Why Every Artist Should Be a Great Storyteller

From SCBWI British Isles: To Share or Not to Share

From Muddy Colors: Painting Progression - Yuki (WOW)

From Inkygirl: Want to support an author's or illustrator's new book but can't afford to buy it? Here's what you can do.

From Tech Insider: The 13 Most Innovative Schools In The World

From Open Culture: Enter an Archive of 6,000 Historical Children's Books, All Digitized and Free to Read Online (!!!)

From Nightlight: How Did Children's Literature Evolve From Prim Morality Tales to the Likes of Captain Underpants?

From Muddy Colors: 2016 Sketchbook Preview: The Gryphon Hunters and Other Adventures by Justin Gerard and Fairy Tales and Folklore by Annie Stegg Gerard

From K.D. Rausin (via Emma Dryden): The Importance of Getting Up and Trying Again

From The City of Lost Books: W.W. Tarn, The Treasure of the Isle of Mist

From The Sydney Morning Herald: The Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year Awards: the winners your kids must read

From Brain Pickings: Neil Gaiman on Why We Read and What Books Do for the Human Experience

From The Scottish Book Trust: Michael Morpungo on Finding The Right Place to Write

From The Guardian: Terry Pratchett's 'artist of choice' on illustrating Discworld: As the Discworld Colouring Book is published, Paul Kidby, who illustrated the hugely popular novels for more than 20 years, recalls how attending a book signing changed his life

From Julia Donaldson at Kirkus on Going Graphic

From the Society of Visual Storytelling: 3rd Thursday Critiques (via Will Terry)

From The New Yorker: (Children's) Books Just for Grown-Ups (retitled classics)

From PW: Holiday House Changes Hands

From There's a Book for That: Big Questions: Picture Books That Inspire Philosophical Discussion #pb10fro10 2016

From CNN Style: This lab is capturing pollution and turning it into paint - very cool!

From SLJ: How Canada Publishes So Many Diverse Children's Books

From The Scottish Book Trust: How Picture Books Can Help Us Make Sense of the World

From The Society of Illustrators: The Original Art 2016 36th Annual Exhibition

From Noblemania (via Fuse #8): Guess the kidlit desks contest - fascinating peek at people's creative work places!

From Slate: Welcome to Slate's Children's Book Blog, Nightlight!

From Steve McEllistrem: Why Don't We Read Anymore?

Mojomaca (a.k.a. Maurie Manning) shares a quick digital watercolor demo using the amazing Rebell software by Escape Motions on YouTube

From Thought Catalog: 21 Harsh But Eye-Opening Writing Tips From Great Authors

Rethinking The Future: Amazing Cardboard House Exhibition

From NN/g: Design Thinking 101

From Muddy Colors: Artist of the Month: Phillip Glass

From the Directory of ILlustration: World ILlustration Awards 2016 Winners Announced

From The Huff Post: First Half Recap of 2016 Picture Books

At Muddy Colors: Jack Davis (1924-2016) with an interview with Stan Lee

From 99U: The Future of Design (and how to prepare for it)

From 99U: You're Never Too Young (or Old) to Mentor

From Studio With a View: Storytime in the Dome

From emu's debuts: Pat Zietlow Miller (Sophie's Squash) on It takes a village ... to write a book

From The Telegraph: The strange life of Beatrix Potter - how rabbits (and mushrooms) set her free

From 99U: The Braggart's Dilemma: How to Promote Yourself Without Being a Jerk

From Muddy Colors: Kinetic Sculpture - Gads, these are beautiful!

From Bottom Shelf Books: Willems Shakespeare presents: Hamlet (starring the Pigeon) (Mo Willem's Pigeon plays Hamlet)

From Minh Le Books: Hamilton: Now starring Elephant and Piggie

From Ursula K. Le Guin's Book View Café: The Big Book of Earthsea - reveal of the upcoming book illustrated by Charles Vess

From The Atlantci: Where Books Are All But Nonexistent (book deserts)

From Wheeler Studio: Tell Me a Tattoo Story

From Nevada Today: Books in the home as important as parents' education level

From The Telegraph: Lauren Child's 14 favourite children's books

From GalleyCat: The Fascinating Work Habits of 18 Famous Writers

From Muddy Colors: Textures and Hands

From DesignContest: 5 Must Watch TED Talks for Designers

From Publishing Perspectives: 30,000-Euro Global Illustration Award Debuts at Frankfurt Book Fair

From Illusalon: Global Illustration Award

From The Federation of Children's Book Groups: Guest post from Steven Lenton: Becoming a picture book illustrator

From 99U: Why Every Creative Needs to Be a Great Storyteller

From Muddy Colors: Why All Storytellers Should Tell Children's Stories

From The Itch of Writing: Filtering: HD For Your Writing (On show vs. tell)

From Muddy Colors: ICON Illustration Convention - GREAT article!

From 99U: Do You Have to Be a Jerk to Be Successful?

From BrainPickings.org: A Short Guide to a Happy Life: Anna Quindlen on Work, Joy, and How to Live Rather Than Exist

From Will Terry: How To Break Into Children's Book Illustration - click the image to go watch on Youtube.