Celebrations for readertotz founder, Joan Holub! Her "This Little" series continues beautifully with This Little Artist, an Art History Primer.
Painting, shaping, making art. With creative joy, hands, and heart.
Little artists have great big imaginations. Introduce your totz to ten artists who have shaped our world culture by reflecting their own insights. A rhyme and portrait is followed by a fact and example of the featured artist's work. Daniel Roode's adorable big-eyed, flat characters create a unity in our diversity. Lastly, a final spread collects eighteen more creators. The broad field of art is open to collage, photography, glass creation, performance and more. An end question asks: Crayons, paper, paint, or clay- what will you use to make art today? Bravo, Joan and Daniel! Thank you for this joyful board book! This Little Artist, an Art History Primer by Joan Holub illustrated by Daniel Roode Little Simon, September 10, 2019
For those eager for spring, you may be ready for Seeking a Bunny. Another board book from Angela Diterlizzi, illustrated by Allie Smith, takes the Easter holiday and hops away with it. Consider this for Poetry Friday:
Have marshmallow chicks
and green grass and flowers
Come in all weather
especially spring showers
What should the Easter Bunny be like? Bold graphic images, with main characters surrounded by a thick black line, lead the way in the search down the bunny trail. Here's a quick-paced contribution to the upcoming holiday. Seek the bunny with your readertotz.
Seeking a Bunny
by Angela Diterlizzi
illustrated by Allie Smith
Little Simon, 2017
You can enjoy a catchy rhyme and introduce your readertotz to Santa in this board book for first readers. Angela Diterlizzi's fast-paced text outlines how to recognize the jolly character in Seeking a Santa. Are you one yourself, maybe? Allie Smith's illustrations pop with strong color and a black outline when contrast is needed.
This is a perfect pick for a holiday Poetry Friday! Take a look:
"Crave milk and cookies
Have a belly that jiggles
Love humming and whistling
and carols and giggles"
Let's all share and spread cheer as we love our children and read to them this season. Happy holidays!
Seeking a Santa
by Angela Diterlizzi
illustrated by Allie Smith
Little Simon, 2016
You can celebrate Thanksgiving right alongside the itsy bitsy pilgrim this year. With a rhyming text from Jeffrey Burton and soft illustrations from Sanja Rescek, the mood will be set for a day of thanks.
The Itsy Bitsy Pilgrim board book shares the story of a mouse who sails on the Mayflower to a new home. There he helps build the community and makes new friends. All come together in a thankful meal.
Echoing the nursery rhyme "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," your totz will likely recognize the adjectives and rhythm thereby endearing this book even more. Here's to your Happy Thanksgiving with your itsy bitsy readertotz!
For Poetry Friday and to set the atmosphere with your readertotz, find Seeking a Witch. The bold limited palate, pops for the Halloween theme. Allie Smith's graphic imagery is a fun match to Angela Diterlizzi's rolling rhyme.
"I'm seeking a
witch
and everyone knows
Your skin must
be green
With a wart
on your nose."
The pages will be turned quickly in this new board book from Little Simon. Happy Poetry Friday to youuuuuuu.
Seeking a Witch
by Angela Diterlizzi
illustrated by Allie Smith
Little Simon, 2016
Happy Presidents Day! Right now, find This Little President, a Presidential Primer by Joan Holub. It's always fun to celebrate our own contributions to the board book format at readertotz. Congrats, Joan!
Jefferson
This little president
was super-duper smart.
He liked buildings, inventions,
books, fossils, and art.
Daniel Roode's simple illustrations capture our beloved presidents with zest and fun. The round eyes alone make you smile.
Joan has brought the celebration of our country's leaders into the board book format for your totz. Start building your little patriot's library with This Little President! Who knows? You may be reading to the next leader of the United States.
This is a truly unique 1 to 10 counting-up and counting-down book. It's especially cool because it's a neverending, circular story that begins:
Follow the leader and count with me the fish that live beneath the sea...
The text from then on is mostly simple a new fish is added on each page. The text reads: 1 fish, 2 fish, 3 fish, etc. The fish are all wildly different and intriguing. The colors are bright and beautiful. Each stencil of cut-out fish overlays the next group of fish, so that the next fish are used to pattern the previous page's fish. Each new group of fish is an exciting revelation.
As we come to the end of the book (or what would traditionally be the end), we: Follow the leader and do it again!
Which means we turn the book upside down and count back down to ten. Page by page, the stencils all work in reverse now from back to front. Very innovative--I think totz will love this!
This is not a true board book, but the pages are fairly sturdy and should hold up to substantial wear, but not chewing.
Oh have you met Karate Pig? He's not too small. He's not too big.
Yes, I have now met Karate Pig, and I love him. And this book.
Turns out that Karate Pig likes to share. Which sometimes means he must CHOP things in halves. Or, in the case of a pizza, in eighths. In fact, he's driven to split an entire page right down the middle, at which point the narrator posits:
Any more of his kung fu, and I'm afraid this book is ruined.
A valid concern, since Karate Pig is slamming, kicking, and chopping his merry way through each page. The page corners and pages separate in very intriguing ways with each chop or kick. I've never seen another book like this one when it comes to unusual pull-out pages and a gatefold flap. Like the pig, the book is not too big or too small, and is very sturdy, which is nice, since it can take a pounding from karate totz who are sure to enjoy its rowdy, POW-erful, good humor. I like the fact that Karate Pig introduces basic fractions in a painless way as well. Well done!
I'm so happy to feature Wings by Salina Yoon. As the cover notes, it's a book to touch and feel. And it's adorable!
Taking a look at various wings, Salina asks what kind do different birds and insects have. What kind for bumblebees, ducklings, ladybugs, and more.
Each question is answered with a different color as well as a texture insert: shimmery pink butterfly wings, glistening green hummingbird wings.
Salina's illustrations have a thick, varied-width black outline and flat color spaces. Every other spread carries lighter value polka dots in the background. So cute to mimic the ladybug on the cover. She herself has wings which open and close.
Find Wings for your totz. It will be enjoyed! Then check out Salina's Phototoz entry here.
Welcome to readertotz Wednesday's Win! Drop a comment for a chance to win Five Spring Fairies, a pop-up book written by Joan Holub and beautifully illustrated by Kathy Couri (Little Simon). A random winner will be chosen and posted Thursday morning. Don’t forget to check back to see if you’ve won.
Just as flowers need seeds, earth, sun, and spring showers to grow, Five Spring Fairies is a book that needed an author, editor, and illustrator to see it truly bloom. I wrote the story--sowing the seeds in the earth--as a board book originally titled Five Fairy Babies. It's a countdown from five to one (with flaps and pop-ups), in which we see flowers eventually bloom:
Five spring fairies crown a queen. One goes to make the leaves turn green.
Four spring fairies playing ball. One goes to tell the rain to fall.
When I submitted it as a manuscript to Erin Molta at Little Simon, she showered it with her savvy marketing expertise--adding the word "spring" to let readers know immediately that it was about spring flowers as well as fairies. She also thought it would make a great pop-up book because we'd be able to see the fairies and flowers bloom.
She brought Kathy Couri on board as the artist, and her illustrations really shine. I'd first seen her work in The Night Before Easter, and I've adored her ever since.
We'll be giving a copy of this book away in our new weekly feature, Wednesday's Win, sometime in April.
I'm so pleased with the illustrations for my text of Hug Hug! Rebecca's (Becky's) work is absolutely beautiful. I had to ask her a few questions to share the answers with you. So listen in with your totz...
Becky do you want to share your technique?
Sure, Lorie Ann! I use acrylic paint for my illustrations. First, I prepare an illustration board by coating it with two coats of gesso. When that is dry, I put a light coat of cadmium yellow paint over the whole surface to make sure that no white peeks through in the final painting. If some yellow peeks through that's ok -- I think it gives a nice warm feel to the finished illustration. The yellow background also helps me to keep my lights and darks in balance as I'm working.
I transfer my sketch to my prepared illustration board by rubbing the back of the sketch with a soft pencil. I then place it right side up on the board and trace over it.
Next comes the fun part -- putting on the color! I usually use no more than seven tubes of paint -- two blues, two reds, two yellows, and a white. I find that I can mix up almost any color I need with just those few tubes of paint.
Do you have a favorite spread?
Hmmm... I think maybe the owls ("Hugs in the dark.") -- they were fun to paint. I liked thinking about how safe and snug the babies would feel sleeping all together with their mom on that branch, listening to the night sounds in the cool forest air.
Lorie Ann: That's my favorite, too! And yet, I also love the curves of these dear chickens:
Can you tell us about the final painting in Hug Hug!?
Ok, now that one really is my favorite -- because the two people on that spread are me and my son! The stuffed animal that you see there was originally sketched out as a stuffed kitty -- which is my son's bedtime snuggle pal -- but the publisher asked me to change it to a bear. Every time my son looks at that spread he says, "Why didn't you tell them that I sleep with a kitty, not a bear?" -- I have to keep explaining to him that the publishers don't even know that the picture is of me and him... !!
Lorie Ann: And now they do!
Would you like to scan a preliminary sketch to share?
Sure -- here is my original sketch for that last spread of the book ("Hugs while we sleep."). You can see that the original is quite different from the final -- I showed more of the boy's bedroom... there was a lot more detail. I think the illustration that ended up in the book is successful because it really focuses in on what is important -- the mom and the son and the loving hug that they share.
Lorie Ann: I agree!
How will you celebrate Valentine's Day? I hope to spend the day eating lots of chocolates and inhaling the perfume from the many bouquets of flowers that my husband will buy for me (Mike, if you're reading this... hint hint!).
Who are your favorite people or animals to share a hug with?
That's an easy one -- my husband Mike and my son Ryan are my favorite people to hug and to get hugs from. As for animals, the two that live with us -- our old chocolate lab named Grizz and our new little kitten named Friendly -- are my favorite animals to wrap my arms around.
Anymore books in the hopper?
As of this writing, I have three books under consideration with an editor and am working on a fourth that I hope to have ready to submit within the next few weeks -- it's a counting book featuring an omelette! No hugging in that one... ;^)
Do you have any websites/blogs to share so everyone can see more of your work?
Yes, thank you for asking -- my website is www.rebeccamaloneillustration.com -- if you check it out, you'll find more of my illustrations, some sketches, and even a few interior illustrations from "Hug Hug!".
Even Further Inside Scoop
Lorie Ann: Becky didn't know I had submitted a dummy to illustrate Hug Hug! But the publishing house felt her work was an even stronger fit for my text this round. Here's an illustration from my dummy. It always is so nice when the illustrator has the same vision. This was true throughout. Look at how similar our chickens are!
Many thanks to Becky for gifting my text with such beautiful art. Thanks to Little Simon for combining our strengths!
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Randomly, I'll award a comment on this post on Valentine's Day with a copy of Hug Hug! Best to you each!
It's been so fun to see our work in Barnes & Noble this February. Woohoo!
Hug Hug!, by Lorie Ann Grover and Rebecca Malone, Little Simon, 2009
My first Sandra Boynton experience was a birthday card that said “Hippo Birdies Two Ewe.” It was accompanied by simple, whimsical illustrations of a hippo, birds, and two ewe. I’ve loved her quirky sense of humor and her illustrations ever since. (Okay, that “ewe” pluralization sounded odd to me as I wrote it just now, so I looked it up on wiktionary. Sandra is right—“ewe” can be pluralized with or without the “s.” Who gnu?)
A true small-size board book made of paper over board, The Going to Bed Book is goofiness at its finest. A crew of endearing animals on board a ship prepare for bed by going below to take a bath, brush their teeth, and so on. The surprise comes as the moon rises, when they all go upstairs for a bit of exercise before settling down to sleep. The rhythm never misses a beat and the last spread echoes the soothing, sway of a ship as "They rock and rock and rock to sleep."
Inside scoop: According to an article in the New York Times, Sandra Boynton’s studio is located in a renovated barn beside her Connecticut home, which sits on 100 acres. With her first illustration sale at age 14 to a local newspaper, she bought two shares of AT&T stock!
Enjoy these videos of families reading this book. Take a look:
CO-FOUNDER OF READERGIRLZ AND READERTOTZ CELEBRATES A NEW BOARD BOOK: HUG, HUG!
Author/illustrator Lorie Ann Grover's new board book for babies and toddlers embodies the love of a hug.
December 16, 2008 (Seattle, Wash.) – readergirlz and readertotz co-founder and author/illustrator Lorie Ann Grover's new board book Hug Hug! has just been released from Little Simon. Endearingly illustrated by Rebecca Malone, the work beautifully expresses love from the largest animals to the smallest bug.
Hugs with our noses. (elephants) Hugs in red roses. (ladybugs)
Hugs round the neck. (giraffes) Hugs with a peck. (chickens)
"I loved the thought that we all snuggle and hug each other," says Grover. "It was exemplified as I watched Sumner High School band students greeting each other, and swallows were nesting in the school vents. Pairing a rhyme with each spread was the perfect format to mimic a hug and share this concept with parents and their babies."
Hug Hug! is a sturdy board book which introduces a love of reading to preschoolers and reinforces the comfort of a hug.
About readergirlz, readertotz, Lorie Ann Grover, and Rebecca Malone
readergirlz is the foremost online book community for teen girls, led by six critically acclaimed YA authors. The site is the recipient of a 2007 James Patterson PageTurner Award and the Association for Library Services to Children, ALA, Great Web Sites Award. www.readergirlz.com
readertotz is a blog which showcases infant-toddler books as an important addition to children's literature. http://readertotz.blogspot.com
Lorie Ann Grover is the author of three young adult verse novels (Loose Threads, On Pointe, Hold Me Tight) and three board books (When Daddy Comes Home, Hug Hug!, Bedtime Kiss for Little Fish). http://lorieanngrover.blogspot.com
Rebecca Malone is an illustrator from Massachusetts who enjoys creating beautiful works with acrylic paints. www.rebeccamaloneillustration.com
