48 days and counting!

Hello again! It's been a nice few weeks for Amos and crew (Phil and myself included). It certainly helps that it's spring and that baseball season has started. Phil has started a blog in anticipation of his next book, Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat. The book is about a very lost best friend teddy bear and the adventure Jonathan has to go on to find him. And so, for every day that passes he'll be putting up a postage stamp of a ship from somewhere around the world. You can follow the journey here. You can see some of the art from both of Phil's books here and here, too! Also, see some kid art related to Creamed Tuna Fish and Peas on Toast here.

A Sick Day for Amos McGee has had a very nice couple of weeks. Phil and I received our

certificates and lapel pins from the Junior Library Guild (Amos is their September selection) and we've been discussing the best way to wear them with pride. Amos McGee

will also have reviews coming up in Kirkus and The Horn Book (hooray!). But today was also very exciting because Amos was reviewed on Elizabeth Bird's blog for the School Library Journal. You can see that here. It was delightful but very strange to see my own drawing on a blog I read daily. What a nice surprise.

Whew. Well, who's fed up with the bragging? That will be it outta me for a couple of weeks. Let's get down to some art sharing. Today we'll go to a tea party....of the non political variety (I'll admit, I kind of resent that group for usurping such a happy phrase of mild friendship time).

I sketched this one out towards the end of the book making process so I was able to be a little looser and more confident before I went to a final illustration. If you look closely you'll notice I had to color code the penguin to table to Amos area because carving woodblocks for that area was getting a little confusing.

And there's the final illustration. Come back soon! Less bragging! More art!