Happy New Year! I hope everyone is settling back into their routines but also with fresh socks and a little extra pep from the holiday break!
Since you are all so kind as to be subscribers, I am unofficially sharing the news that I have 2 new books coming out in 2023!
As you may have noticed, I really enjoy coming up with drawing and activity sheets for kids. Over the course of many events, school visits, and workshops, I was inspired to develop Mini Doodles. I’m thrilled to have found a home for them with Bushel & Peck Books. Each book is a fun theme and kid-sized: 60 pages, and 6” x 8” inches. This is intentionally much smaller and shorter than most kids’ drawing and activity books. I think it’s the right size for tossing in a backpack, purse, or the back of a car/plane seat. And not so long that kids are overwhelmed or get bored. I had a lot of fun putting weird and surprising prompts into these books and I hope kids have just as much fun filling them up. I’ll be sharing more about them, including peeks at the inside, soon! You can get more info about the books here (along with pre-order links to your favorite booksellers). FYI: the release date is listed as May 8th but I expect this will be changed to late June.
And now to the printables. This month’s activity sheets include how-to-draw a Fennec Fox with five fun facts and a character sheet. This time I wanted to share something for older students (3rd through 5th grade, maybe 2nd for extra creative kids?).
I hope your students enjoy drawing their own fennec foxes and thinking of stories.
Until next time, I’ll be busy working on a cool assignment for Highlights, new book ideas, and several upcoming school visits. I’m visiting 2nd graders in January, talking about the unique research process for illustrating the Aven Green series. Also, Aven Green Soccer Machine comes out April 4th, 2023 - the fourth book in the series.
Books I’ve Read:
I just finished Small Game by Blair Braverman. I’ve loved her as a guest host with Sarah Marshall on the podcast You’re Wrong About, and her book was a short but emotional read about survival games and survival.
I’ll be finishing up Family of Liars by E. Lockhart on audiobook as I struggle to hem some lacy curtains (I do NOT enjoy sewing, truly).
Oh. And I finally read the picture book Bedtime for Bo (Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold & Mari Kanstad Johnsen, Enchanted Lion) and it was a stunner. I would have loved to read this to my kids when they were younger, all cuddled together, taking time to look at each BIG page carefully.
Psst. I’d love to see students’ drawings from any of the worksheets. You can send them along by email or tag me on social media. And if you have special requests for content, just let me know! Thanks for subscribing and reading!
-Gina
Congrats on those books, Gina, they look super fun!