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Sun Above and Blooms Below: A Springtime of Opposites written by Felicia Chernesky, illustrated by Susan Swan

It’s the perfect storm! #Fridayreads and #BannedBooksWeek. You know all of us at Albert Whitman love books. Publishing them and reading them. Going forward, every #FridayReads we’re going to have one of our staffers talk about a book they’re currently reading. Today, we start off with our Director of Sales and Marketing Mike Spradlin:

I kind of chuckle to myself that ALA reports ever increasing challenges of comics and graphic novels in the last few years. Growing up, if it wasn’t for comics, I know I wouldn’t be the reader I am today. I read all of them I could get my hands on, and still do to this day. Right now I’m enjoying the Fables graphic novels by Bill Willingham, James Jean and Alex Maleev.

The story takes place in a contemporary world, where all of the characters from classic fables and fairy tales have been driven from their world, and forced to live among mankind. Many of them like Snow White and her ex-husband Prince Charming can pass as human, but many such, as the three little pigs, must keep to the shadows. All the ‘fables’ want is to unite and remove a mysterious, malevolent evil from their homelands that drove them into our world in the first place. But much like human beings, factions develop, trust issues abound and they find that even with a common enemy uniting is harder than first thought. It’s a great story, with terrific art and I highly recommend it.

Happy Friday and Happy Reading!

Kathleen Kemly has wanted to illustrate children’s books since she was in third grade. She grew up in Michigan and studied illustration at Parsons School of Design in New York. She is the Illustrator of many award winning books. Kathleen works in pastels, oils and pencil and has exhibited her pastel paintings in Seattle. She has worked with children as an artist in residence for middle school students and enjoys visiting schools and talking to children about illustration and creating characters.

Ms. Kemly is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and a recipient of the Seattle Arts Council Arts in Education Grant. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two grown sons. She likes to ski, hike in the mountains and be outside as much as possible.

Above and Below are Two illustrations from THE ICE POND – A Work in Progress.

Below is Kathleen’s newest book, MOLLY, BY GOLLY: The Legend of Molly Williams Americas First Female Firefighter. Written by Dianne Ochiltree and published by Boyd’s Mill Press. You will have to wait until the fall of 2012 for it to hit the bookshevles.

KT: This is so much fun. I just realized that Molly, by Golly was written by my friend Dianne Ochiltree. Did you have a chance to interact with Dianne while working on the book?

KK: Not directly, but she provided lots of reference material for me to use. She was also part of the illustration review process, not usual for a writer, because she is an expert on the history of fire fighters equipment and clothing. Her input really helped Molly come to life, along with her great story!

Couple all these great illustrations and a wonderful story by Dianne Ochiltree, to me, this is a must by book. Can’t wait until it is available to buy.

Here is Kathleen sharing her process:

I like to start in Photoshop with sketches. For a book I will do a bunch of character sketches first and then storyboard the book very loosely. When the storyboard is where I want it to be I’ll print it out and make a dummy to make sure there are few compositional redundancies and it has good ‘page turn-ability’. I like to have my art director and editor take a look at this point so they know and approve of the direction of the project.

Next I enlarge each thumbnail, in Photoshop, to the final art size and do the sketch. Drawing in Photoshop enables me to make changes easily, move, resize and warp until the drawing is just where I want it.

Oh boy! Imagine my delight to discover that my book 'One Smart Cookie' made it into the Scholastic book club! I had no idea. And of course, the artist is always the last person to know anything in publishing... the absolute last. (An email would be far too troublesome to write, naturally).

So imagine my dumbfoundedness to open a letter from my publisher to find a fine fat four figure royalty check! Disbelief... total shock, followed by a suspicion that it couldn't possibly be for me. Oh no, I figured, it must be for some other artist and they got the bookkeeping wrong. Usually I find royalty statements to be confusing, I only glance briefly, despair and stuff them away.

So quickly I rifled through my business files, wondering how to write the letter with the about to be returned check. But I discovered in translating the taciturn royalty figures that it turns out that Cookie became a Scholastic book club book last summer! Nothing could amaze me more.

So now I have to reevaluate my artistic accomplishments for the better as a bookmaker. Hopefully it's a verdict that might stick.

Thank you, Cookie!

By Kristie Leung

Although this was our second year participating at the Beijing International Book Fair, I still could not help being overwhelmed by the amount of traffic our booth generated. There were plenty of times when I turned around after talking with fellow fairgoers to find our display shelves were nearly empty because all the books were in the hands of folks browsing our books. A few of their favorites were the Boxcar Children© Mysteries, Robert E. Wells series, and The Way I Feel series.

When I was able to steal a few minutes on day three from all the scheduled meetings with local publishers, distributors, and agents, I strolled around the exhibition halls a little. The most interesting part of this book fair is that exhibitions are mainly separated into two main sections – the international exhibitors and the domestic Chinese exhibitors. The set up of the international hall (where we were located) was divided by each country with their own pavilions. Upon entering the Chinese hall, visitors were greeted by three floors of local publishing houses, grouped by their provinces, along with special pavilions of India (the Guest of Honor country this year) and Digital. Many provinces had beautiful pavilions with a touch of their local flavors.  I will let the photos speak for themselves here.

Mud stains on cashmere and and my brothers fat wife Germ covered kleenex and problems that cause strife Super hot blind dates who only want flings These are a few of my most hated things Really close talkers and people with bad breath Road kill and popcorn and lesbian bed death Giving up kittens and ripped apron strings These are a few of my mosted hated things Boys in tight t-shirts who have

The very first time I visited McCormick Place, it was the original McCormick Place's grand opening and I was in the fourth grade. My class had studied Chicago history and the book had a drawing of the new convention center. I just had to go. I don't know how I got my dad to take the family but we all went. And who did we run into? Well, Mrs. Bacon, my fourth grade teacher! Talk about getting brownie points!

McCormick Place and I have had our ups and downs through the years (the original building was devoured in a fire and sat in ruins for years before being rebuilt and expanded). But yesterday we were both having a grand time. The site of the old center, now dubbed McCormick Lakeside or East, is hosting the annual conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. I was there to sign books in the Albert Whitman booth.

It was fun to meet the editors, marketing people, and even the president with whom I had only emailed and spoken with on the phone. Here I am in my New Year's best with my editor Wendy McClure.

Good Morning:

I've been tagged by the lovely and always sincere Katey of Quacks of Life. I love to give the 7 random facts about myself, but...I won't tag anyone else because I think I've tagged just about everyone I know already. So, here it goes:

1. Like Katey, I knew that my kids would learn at home before they were born.

2. I no longer count my steps.

3. I can't breath in complete darkness.

4. I have a passion for Fried Green Tomatoes.

5. I will be celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary on June 13th.

6. I hate showers, as I can't breath when water gets on my face, so I take baths.

7. I have no sense of logic, therefore, everything I own is out of order.

and...there you have it. 7 random facts about me.

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I have a few errands to run today, and then I'm off to the studio to paint some backgrounds for my next round of collage ACEOs.

I've listed another set of 3 ACEO collage prints in My Etsy Shop. This particular set includes 3 prints from my "Best Friends Forever" series.

"Best Friends Forever #3 : Circus Men"
Check out the guy in the pink pants. His fly is open!! I have a series of vintage photos with these two guys hamming it up for the camera. They were circus performers from the 20's. I think they were a couple.


"Best Friends Forever #4"


"Best Friends Forever #1"


I'm offering free shipping on all of my "sets of 3" ACEO collage prints today, Saturday and Sunday. As always, if anyone is interested in my collage, it can be purchased directly through my blog. Just go to my profile and send me an email.

As always, thank you so much for continuing to stop by my blog to read my daily entries and take peeks at my art.

Until Tomorrow:
Kim
Garden Painter Art
gnarly-dolls