When you put your life and soul into something, it’s only natural to want to share it with the people you interact with. I mean….what mother can’t keep her mouth shut about the cute thing her toddler said, or the sleepless night spent with a teething infant? It’s just how we are made. We were meant to share things.

I for one, and not naturally a ‘secret keeper.’ I can keep a secret when there is a specific reason behind the withholding…like this book I’m illustrating for instance…but any one who knows me, knows that I’m a rather transparent person. I wear my feelings and thoughts on my sleeve.

But…the book is getting closer. Closer and closer to being done! It’s taken a bit longer than initially anticipated:  mostly due to my buying and selling and remodeling a house, having a baby and mothering 3 under school age children while trying to learn the industry of picture book making all at the same time. Whew! But thankfully I have the best editor in the entire universe (Yes, YOU Molly!) and I’ve been granted a lot of strength and help from my family…namely my incredible and good-lookin’ husband.

I’ll save all the thank-you’s for when I’m actually finished with this baby. But it’s been an AMAZING journey…one that I can’t wait to share more of. I can’t share it all now…I still have a bit more time before it goes to press…. but the lessons have been invaluable. I’m completely in love with the Children’s Book industry, and illustrating picture books is the hardest yet most fulfilling and wonderful work! I feel so, so lucky. It’s such an amazing opportunity and I am so humbled to be involved and learning!

A CHRISTMAS GOODNIGHT (Fall 2011) written by Laura Godwin and Published with Katherine Tegan Books, and imprint of Harper Collins Children’s Books,  is a simple goodnight story which mixes the traditional Christmas story with the story we make for ourselves every season. It is a classic treasure!

Stay tuned for more!

Children’s books have more power in 32 pages than children even realize. It isn’t until we are older than we find ourselves saying, “Mom, remember that book with the one page that had a dog in the bed, but he wasn’t asleep…and then a tree at the end? What was it called again?It was my favorite book.” Our memory of reading picture books can be as vivid as our real childhood memories, because imagination and reality are one and the same to kids.  The pages of picture books allow a child’s’ mind and senses to make sense of the world around them and give them freedom to explore new places and feelings in a very safe way. It’s a beautiful art, and one that I hope to master some day. There is so much more that goes into a book than a simple “tree at the end” ending. But to affect the child in a positive way is the ultimate quest.

Marilka is one of those books to me. To be completely honest, my memories of reading this as a child have completely messed up my critical eye. This could be a lousy book (which it isn’t) but because I loved it so much as a child, I love it now. Do you have those kind of books? Books that as you read now aren’t that amazing, but to your 5 year old self they captivated you?

From the front flap:

“When Marilka’s parents think she is lost, not only are they miserable, but everyone and everything in the neighborhood is afflicted too. When Marilka reappears, joy is unbounded, and she knows that she is the center of her parents’ world. In gorgeous full-color pictures and playfully exaggerated text, Janina Domanska transforms a universal childhood experience into a work of art.”

Marilka (I believe) is out of print (Macmillan 1970) and can only be found here or in your libraries.

I’m in final art mode for A Christmas Goodnight (Fall 2011) and I thought I’d share with you some images I have in my studio to get the juices going. The book is full of wonderful color and texture, and though the characters in these images have nothing to do with the subject I am working with, the line and color inspires me.  It’s so important for me to have visual inspiration for the projects I work on. It gets me right in the mood!

Image via Bibliodyssey

Image via Bibliodyssey

Mauric Sendak from “The Art of Maurice Sendak”

This has been in my files forever….can’t find the reference! Let me know if you know!

EDIT: William Joyce from MY FIRST BOOK OF NURSERY TALES

Image from Kevin Henkes upcoming book via Greenwillow Press Blog.

Maurice Sendak, Moon Jumpers

Rosemary Wells, Original Art

And a little Van Gogh, Starry Night