How to use this Page

Carson Ellis is an award-winning illustrator who has provided art for bestsellers such as "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket, and the "Wildwood Chronicles" by her husband, Colin Meloy.

Not that any of you lack for holiday craft ideas, I’m sure, but I was recently introduced to the wide and wonderful world of a product that somehow I missed entirely in my childhood.  In all my treasure troves of useless information, how is it that I’ve missed a product going by the name of Shrinky Dinks until now?  Observe then a great wrong righted.

My education comes at the hand of Alison Morris, former ShelfTalker blogger and bookseller.  Back in December of 2008 Alison wrote a post called Shrinky Dinks Advance Science, Adorn Trees.  The title refers in part to the research being done with Shrinky Dinks and stem cell research, but you’ll have to see the link in Alison’s post yourself to get the true gist of it.  In any case, Alison and her husband Gareth along with our friends Lori and Josh stopped over yesterday for a little good old-fashioned tree trimming.  While here, Ms. Morris managed to produce Shrinky Dinks AND colored pencils for our amusement.

If you are as clueless about this product as I was here’s what they consist of.

#1: You take the see-through plastic and place it over an image.

#2: You trace that image onto the plastic.

#3: You then fill it in with colored pencils.

#4: You cut out your image (remembering to punch a hole in the top).

#5: You throw the image into your stove for a minute or so, watch it shrink (if you’re lucky enough to have a stove you can look into), and then remove it and VOILA!  Your image is now brighter, smaller, and perfect for hanging on the tree or whatever object in your home can be bedecked.

Since the bulk of the gathered had some kind of connection to children’s literature my current crop of children’s books were nabbed for tracing ideas.  Here are the remarkable results:

#1: Napoleon from the cover of Hark, A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

As you can see the likeness is extraordinary.  The fact that his thin little sword didn’t break right off is remarkable in and of itself.  It did curl up a bit (Shrinky Dinks have a tendency to curl) but not so much that it wouldn’t strike fear in a fellow Shrinky Dink’s heart.

#2: Betty Bunny stuffing chocolate cake in her sock from Betty Bunny Loves Cake by Michael Kaplan, illustrated by Stephane Jorisch

Because the SDs have a tendency to shrink (no misnomer here) we

Writing huts!  We all have them.  And by “all” I mean “Laurie Halse Anderson”.  But famous authors of the past also have had magnificent writing huts and one of them belonged to Roald Dahl.  Now Dahl’s granddaughter Sophie is leading a fund-raiser to restore and relocate the hut.  I would think she need only appeal to Wes Anderson for her needs.  He’s a Dahl hut fan, this I know.  Thanks to Playing By the Book for the link.

So this past Saturday was the Kidlitosphere Conference.  Due to my maternity leave I was unable to attend but I did at least present via Skype a panel alongside Mary Ann Scheuer of Great Kid Books and Paula Wiley of Pink Me about children’s book apps.  To begin, we showed this video for The Three Little Pigs, a pop-up version based on the book by Leslie Brooke. It is one of the smarter app trailers out there, and possibly my favorite.

Big time thanks to Paula Wiley for the link!

Speaking of trailers, I was a big fan of last year’s Blexbolex book Seasons.  Here’s a trailer for the newest title by the Frenchman, People.  I love the connections made between the images.

Recently Jules at 7-Imp wrote a fabulous post on Jack Gantos and his ambassadorial possibilities.  Jack Gantos is a charming fellow, and well worth the price if you can ever hear him speak.  Case in point, he recently presented at the Center for Children’s & Young Adult Literature (CCYAL) at the University of Tennessee’s first annual Focus on Children’s Literature Conference on April 2, 2011.  Here’s a taste of what he was offering:

So.  Richard Dawkins wrote a book for kids.  Were you aware of this?  Nor I.  But here’s a trailer for it and everything.  The art was by none other than Dave McKean (The Wolves in the Walls, etc.).  The jury is out.  Has anyone seen this?