Favorite Reads from 2017

The time has come to recap! This was a great year for poetry and graphic novels for me, but I failed to read as much fiction so instead of splitting my favorites into genres as I usually do, I have chosen to feature the top 9 books that made a significant impact.

They are listed below in no particular order:

Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline: 7 Basic Skills for Turning Conflict into Cooperation - Becky Bailey

Saga - Brian Vaughn
           Fiona Staples

Tell the Wolves I'm Home - Carol Rifka Brunt

When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities - Chen Chen

Mother May I - Tina Parker

Out of Wonder - Ekua Holms
                      Kwame Alexander

Where's Halmoni - Julie Kim

Maus - Art Spiegelman

Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur


What were your favorites of 2017?

Picture Book Oscars of 2017

What an excellent and wonderfully diverse year it's been for picture books! After reading hundreds of picture books from 2016 I am eager to celebrate my favorites and the favorites of my 5 year old son.

First category...

Best Child Appeal (Based off my 5 year old's favorites)

The Not So Quiet Library – Zacharia O'Hora

Dragon Was Terrible – Kelly DiPucchio and Greg Pizzoli

Super Happy Magic Forest – Matty Long

Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea – Ben Clanton

Ninja: Attack of the Clan – Arree Chung

And the winner is....

Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea

Best Illustrators

There is a Tribe of Kids – Lane Smith

The Singing Bones – Shaun Tan

Return – Aaron Becker

When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons –  Julie Morstad

The Nutcracker – Niroot Puttapipat

And the Winner is...

When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons – Julie Morstad

Best Humor

A Hungry Lion or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals – Lucy Ruth Cummins

Best Frints – Atoinette Portis

My Favorite Pets: by Gus W. for Ms. Smolinksi’s Class – Jeanne Birdsall and Harry Bliss

We Found a Hat – Jon Klassen

The Thank You Book – Mo Willems

And the winner is...

We Found a Hat - Jon Klassen

Best Male Protagonist

Thunder Boy Jr. (Lightning) from "Thunder Boy Jr.

Inspector Flytrap from "Inspetor Flytrap"

Oskar from "The Not So Quiet Library"

Dogman from "Dogman"

Dennis from "Be a Friend"

And the Winner is...

Thunder Boy Jr. also known as Lightning!!!

Best Female Protagonist

Little Red from "Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion"

Flora from "Flora and the Peacocks"

Roz from "The Wild Robot" 

Little Dee from "Little Dee and the Penguin"

Blanche from"Blanche Hates the Night"

And the winner is...

Little Red!!!

Best Nonfiction

The Secret Subway – Shana Corey and Red Nose Studio

Beetle is Shy – Dianna Aston and Sylvia Long

Animals by the Numbers – Steve Jenkins

Are You an Echo? – The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko

Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-soaking Stream of Inventions – Chris Barton and Don Tate

And the winner is...

Animals by the Numbers – Steve Jenkins

Best Fiction

School’s First Day of School – Adam Rex and Christian Robinson

The Not So Quiet Library – Zacharia OHora

They all Saw a Cat - Brendan Wenzel

We Found a Hat – Jon Klassen

Return – Aaron Becker

And the winner is...

The NOT so Quiet Library!!!

And finally here is the list of honorable mentions...

The Hueys: What’s the Opposite – Oliver Jeffers

A Family is a Family is a Family – Sara O’Leary and Qin Leng

The Cookie Fiasco – Dan Santat

The Airport Book – Lisa Brown

Playground – Mies Van Hout

Swap – Steve Light

A Beginner’s Guide to Bear Spotting - Michelle Robinson

Silly Wonderful You – Sherri Duskey Rinker and Patrick McDonnel

Coyote – Maria Gianferrari and Bagram Ibatoulline

So many fantastic books. If you have any other recommendations for me of books I might have missed please let me know! I would love to read them. 

Graphic Novels 
Total: 31

 Favorites
1. 100 Bullet Series - Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
2. Blue is the Warmest Color - Julie Maroh
3. Anya's Ghost - Vera Brosgol

Fiction
Total: 9

Favorites
1. Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
2. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
3. Birds of Opulence - Crystal Wilkinson

Nonfiction/Poetry
Total: 7

Favorites
1. Singing Bones - Shaun Tan
2. Nearly Perfect Photograph - Chris McCurry
3. When Green Becomes Tomatoes - Julie Fogliano and Julie Morstad

Juvenile Fiction
Total: 7

Favorites
1. Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne
2. Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Louis Sachar
3. Coraline - Neil Gaiman

Graphic Design is Tough Work!

Whew! I can't believe my last blog post was all the way back in March! I've been crazy busy over the past couple of months. For those of you who may not know, I joined a nonprofit organization called Grow Appalachia as an Americorps member. We're working on this terrific project called Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). Our goal is to provide free meals and fun educational activities to kids in Berea all summer long.

One thing that I really appreciate about Grow Appalachia is that they value my skills as an artist. My first week on board they put me to work designing a new logo for SFSP. After several sketches I finally came up with the idea to do a silhouette of children marching in a parade since our motto for this program is "Your Summer Vacation Destination!" 

After designing the logo I jumped right in to designing flyers and banners and signs to help spread the word about SFSP. For the first time ever I feel like a legit graphic designer, and let me tell you what! It is tough work! I had to make draft after draft after draft for every task at hand. The flyer was especially difficult because it required me to condense a ton of information on a single 8x11 page format.

I've also made plenty of mistakes. For example, I accidentally sent the wrong draft of the SFSP flyer to Berea Printing Services and spent over $90 of Grow Appalachia's money to print hundreds of copies of the wrong flyer! That was a rough day.

I may have learned some hard lessons on this job, but every bit was worth it. My knowledge about graphic design and Photoshop has tripled since I started working here. I made myself learn tons of little technical quirks that I've avoided for a long time, like making transparent backgrounds and enlarging images for printing huge banners and posters. All things that will help me in the future as a free lance illustrator. 

Anyways I just wanted to give a big shout out to my fellow co-workers at Grow Appalachia. Their encouragement and constructive criticism helped make my work the best it could possibly be. I've learned so much and I am incredibly grateful for this experience. 

I'm so excited for next week when we actually start providing meals and activities to kids all throughout Berea! 

Bookish Romance

It's been ages since I wrote any poetry, but being surrounded by friends who write poems has inspired me to take it up again. Here's one for my husband, Keith.

Bookish Romance

You loved books about sports.

I loved books about animals.

You read Hardy Boys.

I read American Girls.

You thought you were a nerd for reading each Harry Potter book twice?

Well I read them thrice.

In your courtship letters,

Your summer reading included:

No Country for Old Men

On the Road

The Shipping News.

That was sexy. 

You loved the Great Gatsby in high school.

I did not.

You read Jane Eyre for me.

I read Slaughterhouse-Five for you.

Now I read poetry.

And you,

economic text books.

I prefer audiobooks.

You prefer paperbacks.

You read obsessively.

I read consistently.

Sitting side by side at the airport,

You reading Agatha Christie,

Me reading John Steinbeck,

I think to myself,

This is what love looks like.

A Peek into the Process

Task - To draw an illustration for client's upcoming website where he will review music, movies, sports, comics, and television.

Sketch #1 - Nope! Too cool. Too in control. More chaos!

Sketch #2 - Blah! Doesn't look at all like the client and too boring!

Sketch # 3 - Bingo!

Now for the fun part. Outlining by hand with with black marker.

Finally it's time to bring it to life with colors! This is done in Photoshop.

And there you have it! Illustration complete.

Susanna Hill's Valentiny Writing Contest!

I am participating in one of Susanna Hill's fabulous writing contests. This year the theme is "Grumpy" and entries must be under 214 words. The deadline is February 12th and I strongly encourage everyone to participate or at least go and read some of the other wonderful entires. You can join in the fun by visiting here. 

And now without further ado I give you my story.

Walrus and Penguin (207 words)

Hmmmph!

What’s wrong Walrus?

I’m grumpy.

Why?

I just am.

Aww don’t be grumpy! I bet I can make you smile.

Bet you can’t.

Bet I can! I am a 1,000,000% sure I can make you smile.

You mean 100%. 

Nope! 1,000,000%! I'm gonna make you smile if it’s the last thing I do!

Hmmph.

Plan A

Knock knock!

Who’s there?

Walrus.

Walrus who?

Walrus Poo! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That’s not funny.

Plan B

Look! A puppy! Ain’t he cute? Tell me he’s not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. 

He’s not the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

Shhh! You'll hurt his feelings! 

Plan C

Tra la la la la! What a beautiful day! I sure hope I don’t slip on this banana peel...

Aghhh! THUD!

Ow.

Plan D

Ta-da! I made you banana cream pie! 

I don't like banana cream. 

YOU DON'T LIKE BANANA CREAM?!!! Unbelievable! That's it! You'll never smile again! You're going to be grumpy FOREVER!!!

SPLAT!

Did you just throw that banana cream pie at my face? 

Hehe...maybe.

You're smiling right now aren't you?

Yes.

Ha Ha! I did it! You're smiling! You’re finally smiling!

Okay okay. Don’t rub it in.

Mmmm! This banana cream pie is delicious! 

Hey Penguin?

Yes?

Thank you.

You’re welcome.