All posts tagged: author-illustrator

THE LOVELY & TALENTED ESTELI MEZA on natural disasters, homelessness, rebuilding; how children need to process feelings & be supported by loving, caring friends/adults + her artisic process

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By Leslie Lindsay  Kind words, good cheer, and yet…Conejo is sad, restless, and just wants to find ‘home’ in this illustrated children’s picture book. ~WRITERS INTERVIEWING WRITERS|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ CHILDREN’S LITERATURE  Kind words, good cheer, and yet…Conejo is sad, restless, and just wants to find ‘home’ in this illustrated children’s picture book. Children’s author-illustrators are my heart. I think it’s because as a child reader, this is what shaped me, made me want to write. Here, in FINDING HOME (forthcoming from Scholastic, Jan 5 2021), Esteli Meza poetically and lyrically tells the story of Conejo, a little rabbit whose home blows away in fall storms. Off he goes seeking a new home. At each turn, he is met with a group of kind, caring friends–all forest animals–who offer insight and distraction…maybe they have a picnic or reminisce, play music, have a cup of tea. All of this is lovely and wonderful, but Conejo is not satisfied. Still, no home. Eventually, the story ends with Conejo in a new home, one which he has filled with recent memories of kindness and …

Darling children’s book TOLD IN HIGHLY IMAGINATIVE ILLUSTRATIONS SUPPORTS THE VALUE OF OBSERVATION, SMALL THINGS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, PLUS EXPAND YOUR READING EXPERIENCE WITH AN ACTITIVITY

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By Leslie Lindsay  Delightful children’s book about a little mouse who comes to stay and leaves the family with a delightful array of treasures.  ~A LITTLE LITERACY|ALWAYS WITH A BOOK~ Kid Lit Monday When a foreign exchange student comes to live with a typical suburban family, he brings with him a boundless sense of curiosity — and a stream of unexpected questions (which his hosts are never quite sure how to answer). But when the moment comes to say good-bye, a beautiful surprise awaits, and a gift the family will never forget. Here, this darling story of a little mouse who comes to stay with a family, we are introduced to a new way of looking at the world. All of the ‘big’ things in life are underwhelming to Eric. He doesn’t care about them, but is more intrigued with the scraps–the tin foil, a gum wrapper, a bottle cap. The family finds this strange, unsettling, but decide it must be his way. Here is where the real magic happens. Could it be that the …

Stunning fictional portrayal of the French Revolution, Marie Tussaud, & so much more in this glimmering historical fiction, LITTLE–with amazing illustrations–by the immensely talented Edward Carey

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By Leslie Lindsay  Richly imagined novel of the woman who would one day become known as Madame Tussaud is charming as it is eccentric.  And I was mesmerized. Edward Carey is here chatting about how the cast  of characters was ‘exhausting and worrying,’ how LITTLE is like a ‘very dark fairytale,’ how Louis XVI was really a ‘pretty bad king, but a great locksmith…and would often go to the top of Versailles to shoot feral cats,’ and so much more.  Narrated by Marie Grosholtz, the ‘tiny,’ bright and ambitious orphan, apprenticed to a wax sculptor, readers fall easily into her charm, her wonderful, strange, and fascinating world of wax modeling.  I so loved LITTLE (Riverhead, 2018), which is tumbling with drama, from the challenging early years of Marie’s life (her father died from the Seven Years War) and her mother’s suicide, through her apprenticeship at to Doctor Curtius (who was a physician but also a wax sculptor), the streets of Paris, Versailles, and through the French Revolution. Seriously, LITTLE has so much going for it–love and loss, sharp eccentricities, morbidity, …