Elephant Summer
August 25, 2015
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The past few months have been full of many things: writing a manuscript, drawing a book, attending my first library conference, and—last but not least—getting ready for a baby! My son is due to arrive any day now, forever changing the lives of my husband and I in ways that we can̵
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The Many Lives of Page One
March 31, 2015
When I was in high school, dreaming of being an illustrator, and even while at RISD on my way to that goal, I really had no idea how many drafts it could take to get a drawing right. A couple of thumbnails, a color sketch, and WHAM BAM KABLAM, make the final art, right? Finger paintin
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Calling all kids! Cast your vote!
March 18, 2015
Last month was a big month for Neighborhood Sharks. Not only did the book win a John Burroughs Riverby Award for Young Readers, it was also named as a finalist for the Eighth Annual Children’s Choice Awards for Debut Author!! Every year the Children’s Book Council and the
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Learning through Sketching
March 12, 2015
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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