This month’s printable theme was suggested by Megan Lewitin, a 3rd-grade teacher from New York. Her class mascot is a manatee - I hope they have fun learning about and drawing these ‘sea cows’! (Sidenote: The picture book “This is a Sea Cow” by Cassandra Federman looks adorable and perfect to pair with these printables!)
I should have been working on several other projects yesterday, but instead, I finally buckled down and worked on a first draft of a picture book that has been brewing in my brain and scattered across notepads and scraps for months. It will obviously go through lots of revisions and changes, but it feels wonderful to have a tangible THING rather than floating bits. This story started as just a title during Tara Lazar’s Storystorm this January. If you have any inklings about writing picture books I can’t recommend Storystorm enough. The event is one month only but you can read through the years of guest blog posts anytime.
This Thursday is also the monthly KidLitArtPostcard event. I started this in 2021 for fellow KidLit illustrators to effectively market their work online during the work-from-home days of the pandemic. This image is what I’ll be sharing online AND sending as a snail-mail postcard to publishers. I was watching an adorable little baby tortoise on Instagram (through.the.lleaves) and couldn’t help but create a whole cafe full of them. Pop on over to Twitter or Instagram on Thursday and search by the hashtag #KidLitArtPostcard and you should see a flood of new and creative work.
It’s a short post this month because I am swamped with ‘stuff to do’ - a school visit tomorrow, upcoming events, illustration deadlines, postcards to mail, critique group, one kid turning 12 mid-month, the other kid going on his first multi-day school trip, etc etc. This time of year tends to get really crunchy for teachers too, right?
And it’s always fun to end with a few shares of what I’m reading, listening to, watching, etc:
Reading: I pre-ordered Jarrett Lerner’s middle-grade book A Work in Progress, out in stores today so it’s at the top of my to-read pile. (Happy Book Birthday, Jarrett!!!)
Listening To: the fictional podcast Passenger List from Radiotopia. If you also watched the Netflix documentary ‘The Plane That Disappeared’ and were disappointed that a) It’s an unsolved mystery b) It was sort of a hot mess you might dig this.
Watching: The Last Thing He Told Me on AppleTV. I wouldn’t have started this without a solid recommendation, so I’m doing you the same favor. It’s slow at times, but I love a good slow-burn mystery and maybe you should watch it just for the gorgeous houseboat-in-Sausalito setting. And the bowl-turning scenes.
Ok. That’s all for now. I’m off to warm up another lukewarm cup of tea.