Sweet things

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday! We made a visit, at last, to the incredible Tartine Bakery down the street from where we're staying in San Francisco. I've been hearing about this place for some time, but every time we've tried to go there was a line down the block to get in. So yesterday we headed out early and thankfully made it through the door. It every bit deserves its reputation for having the best sweets in the city. We had chocolate croissants still warm from the oven, apple brioche bread pudding, and these delicious chocolate hazelnut tarts.

After arriving home I got some sweet news. Disappearing Desmond has been included in the Cooperative Children's Book Center's best-of-the-year list. Hurray! I am truly honored to have Desmond on the list. Grace is on there too with Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.

The complete list will be here on March 5th. Congrats to everyone!













Lastly baby made some sweet progress this weekend. For the very first time she lifted her head up during "tummy time"! These days you have to give babies time on their belly, since its not considered safe to let them sleep that way, so they can learn to lift their head to prepare for crawling. Normally Wren cries the whole time, but this weekend she not only smiled through it but got some lift! I am a very proud mama.

Disappearing Desmond book giveaway

To celebrate the release of my new book, for the first two weeks of November I'll be running a Disappearing Desmond book giveaway! Ten winners will get their very own copy sent to their doorstep.

All you have to do is find Desmond as he appears on various children's book blogs around the web and click on him before the contest disappears. From November 1st through November 14th he will appear on the following sites among others:

Painting Bunnies
Wild Rose Reader
Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup
Brimful Curiosities
Katie's Literature Lounge
LadyD Books
Bloomabilities
Gracenotes
From Libby

(And of course here on BRG)

Winners will be chosen at random on Nov. 15th and notified by email. Enter as many times as you like! Simply click on the image below.*


*Please note, US residents only!

Disappearing Desmond Activity kit

Some of you may remember that this summer I was working on a Master of Disguise Activity page for Disappearing Desmond. The activity kit is now complete! You can download it for free here.

Curious City Doings did a fabulous job of putting together fun, inclusive activities for use at schools, libraries, and at home. Shy and outgoing kids alike will get to know eachother and play with disguises like these:



If you use any of the activities I'd love to see pictures!

San Francisco adventures and a book signing

We are at last getting settled in our new city! Its so gorgeous here, I could spend hours wandering around the different neighborhoods taking it all in. I love that gardens are still in full bloom... there seem to be rose bushes and nasturtiums and bougainvillea everywhere.



This is the view from a nearby hilltop, looking north towards the Marina. The hill we hiked to get there was so steep it had stairs!



The architecture around here is just amazing.



Here are some shots from a recent hike around the Lincoln Park area; China Beach, Lands End, and the Sutro Baths.







This Sunday I'll have my first book signing for Disappearing Desmond, which just came out last month. I'm excited to get to know some west coast book stores and read the book to kids for the first time! If you're in the area please join me. Here are the details:

Sunday, October 3rd
11:30 am
Kepler's Books
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(650) 324-4321

Desmond spotting

I love it when your book shows up in unexpected places. Below is a recent sighting of Disappearing Desmond at MOMA in NY (thanks Kirsten!).

Another lovely Desmond review

This review of Disappearing Desmond just in from School Library Journal. Thanks guys!

ps Will have pictures and updates from our recent cross country move soon, once my office arrives from UPS (fingers crossed).


"Desmond the cat blends in with his surroundings. In fact, his entire family fades into the background in their portrait. Everything changes when Gloria, a rabbit, arrives at school. Not only does she take every possible chance to get noticed herself, but she also notices Desmond no matter where he hides. To his surprise, he likes interacting with others. He even coaxes someone else from his hiding place to join the playground fun. Young viewers will enjoy spotting Desmond in his ingenious costumes and identifying others trying to stay out of sight in the schoolyard. Alter’s animal characters will be familiar to those who know her previous books, including Abigail Spells (Knopf, 2009), featured in a library poster. This low-key story of how friendship can support and encourage others will be a welcome addition for most libraries."

-School Library Journal

Desmond is out today, hurray!

As I mentioned last week I've been busy putting together materials for my new book, out today! Lots of fun things are in the works, I'll keep you posted as I put materials on my web site and plan events this fall to get the word out about the book.

If you'll be in the San Francisco area, I'll be signing books at Kepler's in Menlo Park on October 3rd. More on that soon!

Did I mention I'm temporarily moving to San Francisco for 9 months? So that is happening too. In one week. This is what my studio presently looks like:



Also, I am seven months pregnant. This is what I presently look like:



Its been a busy summer to say the least. Looking forward to an eventful fall!

One week to Desmond!

Next week Disappearing Desmond will be on book shelves at last! I've spent the past few weeks madly making materials that teachers can use in their classroom in the new school year as I think its the perfect back to school book.

Curious City marketing has been helping me to put together a classroom/library activity kit that I'm really excited about. Desmond is a shy cat, who goes to great lengths to blend into the background so he won't be noticed. For example:





Which, of course, is not always very effective...



We've all seen kids like that in the classroom, right? The book is perfect for helping those wallflowers gain confidence and make friends. The kit will have "get to know you" activities that can be used to in conjunction with the book, and will be available for download from my web site very soon.

We are also working on a Disappearing Desmond Master of Disguise sheet that kids can use to disguise themselves just like Desmond. Here was my first draft:



After consulting with Curious City they suggested it be black and white so that teachers and librarians could easily xerox it. Also, the leaf border kept me from fitting as much on there as I wanted to, so this is version number two:



I'm still tweaking the cutouts and testing everything out...



Do you recognize me?

Desmond's Rich Inner Life or A Tale for Shrinking Violets

The first review of Disappearing Desmond is in, hurray! I love this review from Publishers Weekly, they really got Desmond's spirit.

"'How Not to Be Seen' is a famous Monty Python sketch, but it also describes the peculiar and poignant talent of shy children like Alter's (What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe?) hero Desmond, an anthropomorphized cat. Desmond is so self-erasing that he can easily blend into a classroom poster: "Sometimes, even his teacher could not find him." Then one day, a vivacious and persistent rabbit named Gloria (think young Auntie Mame with long ears) arrives in class and pulls Desmond out of his shell. One good turn leads to another, and soon most of the class wallflowers are blooming--although the final image makes it clear there's still work to be done. Many of Desmond's camouflage efforts show a lot of ingenuity, which could convey to some readers that his inner life in rich enough to compensate for his lack of friends. But Alter's empathy is never in question, and with Gloria's arrival it becomes clear just how much yearning was in Desmond's heart--socially confident readers and shrinking violets alike will be won over."

-Publishers Weekly

And in honor of "not being seen", take it away Monty Python:

PS. There are some explosions and gun shooting in this video, if you're showing this blog to your students be warned!



Desmond will be in stores August 24th!

First books

One week til my deadline for A Photo for Greta! I'm at the stage where I go back over all the paintings and touch up little things, make sure the colors match, and make any last minute changes... there is much to be done so I will make my post short today.

Just yesterday I got a sweet little package on my doorstep, the first bound books for Disappearing Desmond. The book will be on shelves in August, more soon on festivities planned!

Good news

ABIGAIL SPELLS has been named to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choice list. Hurray!

CCBC Choices is the annual best-of-the-year list of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) is a unique examination, study and research library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more information and the complete list of choices, click here.

Also the f&gs for Disappearing Desmond just arrived! Aren't they nice and shiny?



Wilbur says they smell pretty good.

Desmond the cowboy

Another painting in progress post for you from Disappearing Desmond!

Done!

The art for Disappearing Desmond is officially signed, sealed, and delivered, yippee! The last bunny has been painted and the last thumbnail crossed off. I made a quick trip down to NY yesterday to drop it off (I am loving that Northampton is so much closer to the city than Boston) and am officially in the post-deadline afterglow. This means time to catch up on my non-work to do list, thank my fella for dutifully cooking dinner every night, and clean my apartment.

While I do all these things I will leave you with some of the finishes from the book. Stay tuned for updates as it is designed, printed, and makes its way into the world!

Planning for a deadline

Since the art for Disappearing Desmond is due in a week (final stretch!), I thought I'd talk about how I pace myself with a picture book deadline. This book is 40 pages with self ends and has many, many illustrations in it... I laid it out with a lot of spots and vignettes and square-ups of all sizes. So to keep it all straight, as soon as the sketches got approved, I printed out thumbnails of all the pages that look like this:



I wrote the date I planned to do each painting above its thumbnail. I don't always follow this plan, but it helps to have an idea of how much I need to accomplish each week to make the deadline. Of course sometimes paintings take more or less time than expected... there are several with this book I've repainted entirely. But again having an overview helps make such an immense amount of painting seem less overwhelming.

So I go along, beginning each painting on the planned week. Once I've begun an image I put a check on top of its thumbnail. I say begun because I don't usually finish all the paintings til the very end. I'll usually go as far as I can until I reach a point where I am not sure what to do next. Usually at some point I will get stumped by which color or pattern to choose. So to keep myself from ruining or overworking the painting, I put it aside and move on to the next one. I like to hang these half finished paintings around my studio, so I can keep them on the creative back burner.



Then once all the paintings are on their way, I go back and finish them all off. This is where I am now, I've planned these last couple weeks to fill in all the details left in each piece. Finishing them all around the same time helps me be consistent; when I've worked in sequence sometimes by the end I end up with a style that has shifted somewhat. When a piece is finished I turn the check above each thumbnail into an x. I know, I'm ocd that way.

I'd be really curious to know how other people plan, or don't plan, this all out- how do YOU do it?

Disappearing Desmond continued

Apologies for the late post, I spent the morning in Connecticut at a school visit, and the afternoon at a book talk given by the lovely Alison Morris at the Smith College Campus school- a follow up to the book fair yesterday where Grace and I presented and signed with a bunch of local author/illustrators. It was a busy day considering I usually sit at my drafting table all by my lonesome (with the possible company of my cats), and a needed break before the final stretch to my deadline.

Anyhow, here is the conclusion to last week's post about one of the Disappearing Desmond paintings. Just a few more to go, all the art will be done less than two weeks- eek!

When we left off I had just started to repaint the figures over the background layers:



Next I filled in the snowman and Desmond, dressed in blue to blend into the shadows:



Then I worked on the two figures behind him, beginning patterns on their clothing:



More layers, on the trees especially:



And the finished painting: