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My bound advance copy of POLAR POLKA arrived in yesterday's mail! It really looks great, so thank you to everyone at Sasquatch for taking my pictures and putting them in their best light. I'll be very excited to start sharing this book when it hits the shelves in February.

Author: Jon Scieszka
Illustrator: Lane Smith
Published: 2004 Penguin Young Reader (on JOMB)
ISBN: 0670062693 Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Mother Goose, Longfellow and Edgar Allen Poe get a jolt of unshakable Scieszkan nonsense in this addictive collection of twisted belt-it-out classics.

Other books mentioned:

• Math Curse
• The Frog Prince, Continued
• The True Story of The Three Little Pigs

Check out 7-Imp’s interview with the amazing Jon Scieszka here.

The POLAR POLKA cover art showed up on amazon.com today. I haven't even seen a proof yet... but I guess the book is moving right along!

There is a special pre-order discount of an extra %5 for those that act soon :) Count those bears while you still can...

Lots going on of late, but here are few recent happenings that I would like to bring to yours attention:

• Slow Days, Fast Friends (Albert Whitman, 2005) is officially an Accelerated Reader title -- It joins both of my other author-illustrated books in this program and is Quiz No. 104937 EN for all of the curious students and teachers out there :)

• Polar Polka by Chérie Stihler (Sasquatch) is starting to show up on amazon.com and gives a release date of February 28, 2008. Just a little too late for Valentines day...In any case, Yahoo! After spending the better part of 2007 painting this book (at least that's the way it felt) I am super happy to see it come to fruition. Prepare yourselves for some mad polka fun!

• After at least a couple of hardcover print runs and an audio book release, Boo's Dinosaur by Betsy Byars (Henry Holt, 2006) will be coming to paperback in Spring 2008 as well. This is another first for me (confoundit Winslow Press...) and is thusly very exciting.

• And finally, some presentation news: I had a blast this past Saturday as a presenter for SCBWI's Eastern Washington/Northern Idaho SCBWI Regional Conference in Spokane, WA. A big thanks to Deby Fredericks for inviting me back, and to fellow presenters Chris Crutcher, Kenn Nesbitt, Kelly Milner Halls, and Chronicle Books Editor Traci Todd, for making me feel welcome and inspired. It was great to meet all of the Conference attendees as well and I sincerely urge you to keep up the good work. Many of you are just that close!

In October, I fly south to the Author Festival in Humbolt County California. This long-running author-illustrator gala event will be tons of fun and I am very excited to make the trip. In conjunction with the Oct. 17-20 festival, I also have 5 pieces of original art from various books on display at the Morris Graves Museum of Art. I'll give a full report upon return.

Write on!

I've posted studio pictures before, but not since we moved into our new place about 18 months ago. It is very much an organized mess -- especially in the midst of a project like this -- but the following 3 pictures give a pretty fine idea of where I work!

The panoramic view, as taken from the lofty heights of our guest/dog futon. Writing, email, financeering happen on the left. More colorful pursuits on stage right... Lots of things hanging on the walls, tucked into/onto shelves etc. etc..

A tighter shot on "stage right". The table is quickly consumed by pencils, paints etc. and my attempts at good posture fly out the window. I hunch over the boards/paintings craddled in my lap. It is bright, however. No squinting in the dark.

Hopped-up on caffine and altogether distanced from REM cycle no. 2, I am sinking fast but nearing completetion on the POLAR POLKA project. Stay tuned for a virtual whoop it up when I put both the project AND myself to bed, but the light is glowing faintly at the end of the tunnel. A short vacation awaits!

For those playing along, here are just a few additional cover sketches in the mix. Compare at your leisure and I'll reveal the final art when it has achieved such status...

Work ensues at a soon to be feverish pace for POLAR POLKA (Sasquatch, Spring 2008). There are other books to draw as well, but the PP deadline is fast approaching. Here is a cover mock-up that will not likely make the cut. I like it very much, but it's hard to know how these things will go...

Sasquatch has gone completely freelance with it's design staff of late, so no one aside from little old me will really "design" anything until they have all of the final art? I like having mucho influence in such a process, but then again it's also VERY nice to have some help. I'd love to hear what some opinions on this particular option. Cheers!

PS It's kind of a count down book for the pre-k set, thus option No. 2 with the screened-in numbers.