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Creating a picture book

Lauren Stringer is the wonderful artist who is illustrating a new picture book I've written. I've loved her books since I first saw them, so it was a big thrill to be able to meet her in Minneapolis earlier this year, especially as we instantly felt that we'd been friends for years - what a shame we live so far apart!

Now I feel like it's a sneaky little thrill to peek in and see what she's doing on the book:

Studio-working on now

After a few days in sunny Santa Monica, I headed for Minneapolis and the Public Library Conference. It was massive - I think there 15,000 attendees - mindboggling! And so many stands, with so many books... it'll feel like Christmas when my parcel arrives, because once I'd decided to send a box it seemed sensible to fill it properly.

Minneapolis is also the home of Lauren Stringer, the artist who's just started working on my picture book text, One Night. Her home's a fascinating old house, a type I've always wanted to live in, full of amazing art, and it was one of those rare and wonderful meetings that feels much more like picking up an old friendship than meeting for the first time. I can't wait to see what she does with the story.
One of the first books that I saw of Lauren's was 'Our Family Tree', which is quite magical - and I also really love her latest, "Winter is the warmest season".

We held a preview screening of Nim's Island for the conference attendees on the Thursday night; it was a lovely atmosphere; people laughed and clapped and asked great questions afterwards - very encouraging as to what audience reactions were likely to be when it actually came out. Best of all, at least on a personal letter, was that I was able to relax and see it as a film, separate from me, and just enjoy it, so I didn't even cry till Nim did, near the end.

I also met Ingrid Lawes, author of Savvy, at dinner after the movie. The book has gone in my box to read when I get home, but the first sentence convinced me - I predict a great future for the book, and for Ingrid.

It was also great to meet some young Nim fans at a signing at Barnes and Noble in Maple Grove, and then the many librians who came to the signing at the conference the morning after the screening.

Of course Minneapolis was a good reminder of northern winters; there was still snow on the ground, and a snow storm prediccted for the Friday we were due to fly back to LA - I was quite happy that didn't eventuate!

Today's edition of Travel the World brings us to the Netherlands. The book is Playing with Stuff: Outrageous Games With Ordinary Objects by Ferry Piekart and Lars Deltrap. The first American edition is 2004; the publisher is Kane/Miller.

Playing with Stuff is a strange little book. It is full of activities, crafts, games, etc. for children to play indoors and out with ordinary household items or "stuff." Some of the games, I think, would be a hit with children. I'm not sure all of the games would be a hit, however, with parents who would most likely have to clean up afterwards. I'll be specific. I'm not sure parents would get excited about the idea of their kids using rolls and rolls of toilet paper and playing "Robber Roundup" a game where the children first take rolls of toilet paper strips and make a confusing pattern weaving it up and down and around all the furniture. Most likely you've seen it in the movies--when a burglar breaks into a building there's usually high-tech security. Laser beams criss-cross the entire place and the slightest touch triggers the alarm: beep-beep-peep! Risky business. That's why real robbers practice. And you can too (even though you're not a robber). How? With lots of toilet paper of course! Another toilet paper focused game is Story Boardy where kids use rolls of toilet paper to make a game board around the house. Six squares of toilet paper equals one game square, and kids are encouraged to write on the toilet paper funny game instructions. And of course, the kids themselves are the players. While I'm not denying that it is probably fun to be your player in a board game and have things be life-sized, I am sure it would require quite a bit of set up time. And clean up time. But there are many, many other games that require less time and cleanup. For example, Calendar Caper just requires an old calendar, two game pieces, 2 markers, and dice. And Cheese Squeeze just requires a slice of cheese, a plate, and two straws. Both of those games sound like fun to me.