What a Christmas season it was! I was kept busy as I visited bookstores, baby stores, libraries and museums. I had a wonderful time with kids (and young-at-heart adults, too) as we:
• pretended to stomp through a forest, looking for a tree, • learned a hand rhyme about Santa popping from a chimney, • joined together for a lively reading of PICK A PINE TREE, and • decorated the silliest pine tree that kids had ever seen. (That is my son, Will, as the human Christmas tree. He was a gentleman and true sport, and I am so grateful for his help.) At most places I visited, the children decorated Christmas tree ornaments to add to their own trees. They also added their names to paper strips that were later linked together to make a giant PICK A PINE TREE paper chain. On Christmas Eve, I draped the paper chain around my own Christmas tree. Oh my, what a lovely sight! My heart, and my tree branches, were overflowing. I will never know another Christmas like my first Christmas with PICK A PINE TREE. On Dec 2, the Guardian newspaper listed their "Best Books of 2017" and PICK A PINE TREE was one of four titles in the Ages 0-4 category! Here is what the Guardian had to say: "Anticipation builds throughout this rhyming, ritual account of choosing and bedecking a tree. Everyone in the blocky, soft-glowing images is beaming, from people to pets to plump Santa ornaments; by the end of the book, readers will be, too." Thank you, Guardian! Read the entire Guardian list HERE. Gosh, I am SO far behind on news! So here are a few tidbits, with more to come:
ALL ABOARD THE LONDON BUS was lucky to be one of four books selected for the shortlist for poetry by the North Somerset Teachers Book Award committee. The prizes were announced on November 18, and the London Bus book did not win, but a spectacular poetry collection did -- REACHING THE STARS: POEMS ABOUT EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN AND GIRLS by Jan Dean, Liz Brownlee, and Michaela Morgan. Because I am so far away from North Somerset, I was unable to attend, but I sent a slightly goofy video and instructed friends who were there to eat cake for me! One day later, on November 19, the illustrator of PICK A PINE TREE decorated the giant windows that overlook the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern Museum in London. Using PICK A PINE TREE as his inspiration, Jarvis created an outdoor scene of a band of "Pick a Pine Tree" players, serenading the crowd at a Christmas tree lot. The first photo below shows Jarvis working late into the evening, and the second shows the finished window. Isn't it brilliant? |