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Teen social commerce site Lockerz (has quietly ramped up its user base and funding, most recently landing $18 million in backing from newly launched sFund) (TechCrunch) - Mobile learning (is evolving with the growth of mobile media and new usage... Read the rest of this post

AOL calls on Jonas Brothers to help 'redesign the internet' (AOL CEO and Chairman Tim Armstrong name drops the boy band as key creative collaborators in efforts to keep the web from looking like it was "created by people in Silicon Valley with... Read the rest of this post

'Toy Story 3′ storms the box office (giving Hollywood a much-needed cash infusion this summer and Pixar's biggest opening [$109 million] to date. Maybe this study will push licensing folks to package healthy snacks with cartoon characters on... Read the rest of this post

Gender bending dress codes (in high school. The New York Times, reg. required, explores the complex issues of safety, self-expression and sexual orientation sparked by students who cross dress and how different schools across the country handle the... Read the rest of this post

Timberland announces its 2009 'Earthkeeper' Heroes (which is part of its ongoing Earthkeepers Movement launched back in 2008. Plus check out Project Greensearch – a "green" modeling competition.) - New Pew Research report on teens and mobile... Read the rest of this post

When I mused about the rise of nerd culture the other day,  I stuck with mostly gender-neutral terms. But after reading these "5 Tips for Raising Your Girl Geek" on Wired I got to thinking and decided to revisit the topic. From the... Read the rest of this post

The Amanda Project (goes live. The interactive mystery series invites creative teens to get involved online before the first book's release this fall.  Plus the ins and outs of fanfiction on SLJ. Also a Facebook group rallies for a library-themed... Read the rest of this post

All jokes about tween hearts breaking aside, the news of 21-year-old Kevin Jonas, a.k.a. the oldest member of the Jonas Brothers, getting engaged did make me wonder about the impact on the group's "boy band" image. I realize that Kevin Jonas will... Read the rest of this post

- Rebecca Rubin (the first Jewish American Girl. Plus, a look at the economic and psychological effects of little girls' 'princess' phase) (New York Times, reg. required) (AP) - Only 8% of teens watch TV online (as opposed to on a regular... Read the rest of this post

Today's Youth Advisory Board post is from Caroline Marques, one of the Jonas Brothers' more casual fans who caught their new Disney show the other day and wanted to share her thoughts. Remember, you can communicate directly with any member of the... Read the rest of this post

With "Hannah Montana: The Movie" landing as a box office mega hit and the overall Miley Cyrus lovefest that seems to have a resurged as of late (her past indiscretions seem forgiven, if not forgotten), I thought I'd put the question to Ypulse... Read the rest of this post

JoBros deliver the tween dream in person (making a surprise appearance on the opening night of their 3-D "rockumentary." But even with triple the hearthrob power,  the boys couldn't dethrone the reigning Disney princess at the box office ) (USA... Read the rest of this post

Embracing the reality that one screen can no longer command a viewer’s full attention, Senior VP and GM of MTV Digital Dan Hart gave a fascinating presentation on some of MTV’s latest digital strategies for bridging the gap between TV, online... Read the rest of this post

I am currently starting to dummy up a picture book that features a taxi cab.

When I draw the art for my own books or books by another author, I draw directly from my head and my heart, rather than from life, so that my art is fresh and not stilted, and so that it is mine, and mine alone. I know that what comes from my heart is not anyone else's work and it will always be in my own style. It will also be much more impressionistic. In other words, I do NOT want my drawing of a taxi to look just like a taxi does. I want it to look like my head thinks a taxi looks. By working that way, I can be certain that my art will be strictly my own sensibility, and not someone else's, and it will also not be too tight. The last thing this children's book world needs is yet another exacting and realistic approach to picture book illustration.

Of course, if one is to illustrate from one's head, there has to be reference material upstairs to draw from. And so, I do a lot of studying before the fact. And that means looking at tons of books or pictures that have the kind of stuff I am about to draw. Thanks to Tex and Sugar, I can now draw the pants off a steer, horse, or pig--animals that were not regulars in my repertoire, but who came to be very familiar to me.

Even though I will do some research, most of the time I have a mental image of the thing I am in the process of drawing. But sometimes, the image in my memory is so old, it's a little too vague. I knew that I wanted my taxi to be a model somewhere around 1960 or so. And in 1960, Taxi cabs still had meters with flags that the driver would push down when your toll was starting to be measured in time and/or miles. The problem is: I could not conjure up the fine details of one of those meters enough to make it believable. And Google image search did not have one, either. Or, at least it did not have one that I could find.

So I turned to my old stand-by: EBAY! And, lo and behold, I had several old taxi meters to choose from. Yessirree! Now, I am the proud owner of a vintage taxi meter.

"SO what's wrong with that?" you ask. I'll tell you what's wrong with that. Going toEbay for me is like taking sip of water after a trek in the desert. Get my sand drift? I did NOT stop at the meter. I also got this:

And while I was looking at "vintage taxi" search results, it was almost impossible to not check out "MORE ITEMS FROM THIS SELLER." SO I did. I now also own this:

And then that led me to the item above.

Now I think I need a twelve step program for ebay addicts, which I used to be, big time. There's a reason I have over a hundred cookie jars, or an equal number of carnival chalkware pieces. Thanks to my little visit ebay visit this past weekend, I currently have about 12 items listed on my "My Ebay" page, and the tin toy collection that use to be on hold is now in a serious acquisition phase.

Creating this book might turn out to be very expensive....