Learning through Sketching
March 12, 2015
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At this point, I’ve read a great many books and papers about elephants. I’ve watched hours and hours of YouTube videos and documentaries. And I’ve seen thousands of images posted on the Internet. I’ve filled an entire notebook with notes about their diet, circulation and migration rou
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How to Date Your Book
February 26, 2015
So you’ve got your book idea. You’ve played around a bit—an image here, a scene there—maybe using Post-its or notecards or by making some sort of simple outline. But… now what? What’s the next step? It’s time to date your book. This isn’t exactly like real dating, of course. You don’t
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Guest post by Bear Pond Books!
February 11, 2015
Last weekend I had the privilege of talking about Neighborhood Sharks with kids, parents, and educators at Bear Pond Books in beautiful (and snowy) Montpelier, Vermont. I had a wonderful time sharing my process and research behind the book, and best of all were the incredible question
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Neighborhood Sharks Named a Sibert Honor Book!
February 03, 2015
Yikes!! I’m so excited to share that yesterday morning at the 2015 ALA Youth Media Awards, Neighborhood Sharks was named a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book for 2014 nonfiction in children’s literature! WOW WOW WOW! The annual American Library Association mid-winter conference is held in Ch
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Picturebooking Podcast
January 28, 2015
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Nick Patton of The Picturebooking Podcast to talk about my process, my research, and the story behind Neighborhood Sharks. I’m really proud of this interview—it’s an intimate look at how I think and work through
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Puzzle It Out
January 21, 2015
When I was a kid, I did a lot of puzzles with my dad. I was good at them, even the hard ones, because a puzzle is a kind of matching game that uses shapes, colors, and textures to create a completed scene. Now, as a grown up, I still do puzzles every day—it’s called writing and drawin
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The Very Beginning
January 06, 2015
The new year has me thinking about new projects, new beginnings, and how something very small can sometimes turn into something very big. Like an idea. Or an elephant. Or an idea for a book about elephants. Where and how do these big things begin? Let’s start at the very beginning A v
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Merry Christmas!
December 24, 2014
It’s Christmas Eve! Santa’s on his way! What a wonderful year it’s been, full of drawing and books and meeting my first readers as an author. I can hardly wait for all the things to come in 2015! Wishing you a joyous holiday, filled with food and love (and maybe even
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