Featured Seller on Etsy!

I am very happy to be the featured seller on Etsy today and am using the opportunity to clean out some paintings from my studio, and turn them into something I need more. The last time I did this, it was for my daughter's braces, (and lots of you can take credit for individual straight incisors and neatly aligned molars); this time it's in the name of Summer Camp. Who'd have thought my children would want to go far, far away from me into the wild woods? And that it would be so expensive? (In case you're curious, they want to go to BEAM, which looks truly amazing, and I'm sure they will come out better human beings for going there.)
10% of proceeds will also go to our two public schools in Brooklyn, which along with many others have suffered sudden and severe budget cuts. I know it's minor compared to Haiti, but they can't actually afford paper anymore, let alone music or art or visiting authors.
A click on either of the pictures above will take you to Etsy...

Finishing Lines

I have finally, finally delivered Spinster Goose, Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children (written by Lisa Wheeler to be published by Atheneum). At the first production meeting about two years ago, I looked at my feet and muttered nervously that I wanted to set these pictures in a Victorian workhouse and for the pervading atmosphere to be bleak. Ann Bobco, Namrata Tripathi and Ginee Seo were dreamy collaborators... The proposal was met with hearty guffaws and slaps on the back and free reins to go forth and draw a world of mean geese and dunces and urchiny urchins. Ahh... what fun I had.

When You Reach Me

I mentioned Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me last year, but I'm thrilled she just won the Newbery Award (which is all to do with what's inside the book, you understand... the jacket could be covered in easy-wipe peel 'n' stick plaid vinyl and it would still win).

Moving House is Exhausting

Moving house around Christmas time was stupid, but moving while I have six books either due, nearly due or overdue was insane. This picture is not to be relied upon as accurate or even representative. It implies that my house was not heavy, that I had time to iron clothes and that I was smiling. Even the red door is a lie. The neighbours have a red door though, and I have promised the children that one day we too will have a red door. Our door right now is painted "Refried Beans".