The Little Crooked Bookshelf -- AND A GIVEAWAY!**

BOB, NOT BOB!
by Liz Garton Scanlon
illustrated by Matthew Cordell

This week's pick is from Cottager Jamie Michalak.

What it's all about ...
Little Louie has the worst cold ever. All he wants is his mom, but every time he calls for her, slobbery Bob the dog comes running instead!

Why it's on The Little Crooked Bookshelf …
Because of the clever, funny, I-wish-I-thought-of-it concept: read this story as though you have the worst cold ever.

Favorite line(s) ...
"I doan wan by bedicine. I doan wanda bubba bat. And I doan wanda dap." *

Favorite illustration ...

From BOB, NOT BOB! by Liz Garton Scanlon & Audrey Vernick. Illustration copyright 2016 by Matthew Cordell. 

Why kids will love it …
Hearing the name "Bob" will get them every time.

Why grown-ups will love it …
BOB, NOT BOB! is the go-to book for any time children with a cold need a little comfort and giggles through the sniffles. And parents will surely relate to how realistically the doting, but tired, "Bob" is portrayed.

* (I don't want my medicine. I don't want a bubble bath. And I don't want a nap.)

** WIN YOUR OWN COPY OF BOB, NOT BOB! Leave a comment below to enter to win. The winner will be announced on Monday, Feb. 6th. 

Behind the Book

Behind the Book...with Rebecca Kai Dotlich!

We're very pleased to welcome Rebecca Kai Dotlich to the Cottage today! Rebecca is the author of numerous books for children, including Race Car Count, a recent Cottage favorite. Today, she's going to take us "behind the book" and tell us a bit about how she came to write her latest story, The Knowing Book. Take it away, Rebecca!

I began to write The Knowing Book at the end of a difficult day. It was a troubling time in my life and I was sad, confused and felt very alone. People and circumstances had disappointed me; I felt so much had been taken away. Suddenly I looked up at the night sky. I began to stare at this wide and wonderful sheet of stars above me; each sparkle a thing of wonder so everlasting and constant. “This will never be taken away,” I whispered. And I felt an instant and unbelievable comfort. I found myself thinking that if I can put this into words, maybe I can comfort someone else, too.  There is power in knowing the universe is constant. There is hope and joy in realizing that each day unfolds with unknown adventures, journeys and possibilities. I want every reader to remember that we all share dark emotions and places in our hearts when things seem bleak. I want every reader to remember the universality of what we share. I want every child to know, to really know, they own the stars.

The process of writing is a hard thing to pin down and is so different for everyone.  We all wonder in amazement where ideas come from. It's not hard to imagine there is an idea treasure box hidden somewhere deep and far away, and if we can just find it, we'll open it to find all kinds of wonderful ideas waiting for us.  The truth is that I think for myself and most authors the ideas are the easy part. Our heads are full of them.  It's fleshing out an idea so that it becomes a fully formed book or poem or story that give readers something to wonder over, learn from, fall in love with on the page that is the difficult work of writing. 

I brainstorm a lot.  I have many, many notebooks, both lined and unlined.  I doodle, I jot, I scribble favorite words and make up metaphors and play and pretend on those pages.  I write down memories of my home and neighborhood when I was a child; names of streets I remember, games I played, friends I had. I like to focus on the details of a time and place so that (hopefully) the reader can see it. So instead of writing "I remember that my brother and I played by the railroad tracks" I cross that out and go deeper into the details with "the time Curt got his pant leg hooked on a nail on the railroad track that rumbled over Redbird Street, and I didn't know whether to run for help or pull on his pants, but I found myself pulling and pulling and pulling just as he fell away and we heard the whistle of the approaching train."

I love discovering new words and new ways to say something. Maybe referring to the moon as a "cobweb moon" or a "snowmoon" or a "nickel moon." Rhythm and lyricism in language is something I strive for, whether it's a poem or a picture book. I think it's because it's what I love to read.  I have always admired talented and amazing writers who put language to the page in such a beautiful, mysterious way.  So I spend a lot of time not just trying to do something similar, but loving doing it.  I can't imagine not writing.

***************

Rebecca Kai Dotlich is the author of One Day, The End; When Riddles Come Rumbling; and Lemonade Sun, among other titles. Her poetry and picture books have won various honors, including the Golden Kite Honor Award. She lives near Indianapolis, Indiana. Learn more about Rebecca at her website.

The Knowing Book

by Rebecca Kai Dotlich

illustrated by Matthew Cordell

Boyds Mills Press

• ISBN-10: 1590789261

• ISBN-13: 978-1590789261

"A poem's gentle admonishments nudge readers to open themselves up to the world….Children will intuitively understand the reassuring embrace of the enveloping dome overhead….A frenzy of feeling, pen strokes, and verse that seeks to excite and empower young people just awakening from childhood slumber." —Kirkus Reviews

"(Author) Dotlich urges readers to take risks … (and) Cordell’s ink-and-wash drawings give the pages life and humor…" —Publishers Weekly

"This picture book encourages readers to make the most of their lives….Curiosity and adventure are encouraged…. The beautiful pen and ink with watercolor illustrations are as goose bump–inducing as the words of wisdom in the text. This inspirational book could be given as a graduation gift at almost any age." —School Library Journal

Audrey Vernick's Five Favorite Back-to-School Books (PLUS A 'FIRST GRADE DROPOUT' GIVEAWAY!)

Are your little ones trotting off to school this week? Are you an elementary school teacher welcoming students back to your classroom or library? Perhaps you just need a list of five fabulous books to read as you move into the cozy fall-reading season?

Well, huzzah! AUDREY VERNICK, author of more than a dozen delightful books for young readers—including two of our favorite back-to-school reads, Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?, illustrated by Daniel Jennewein, and the brand new (and totally hilarious) First Grade Dropout, illustrated by Matthew Cordell—is with us in the Cottage today. And she's brought along five of her all-time favorite back-to-school books to share.

And as an added treat, Audrey's giving away a SIGNED COPY of FIRST GRADE DROPOUT to one lucky reader. Leave a comment in the comments section below to enter.

Welcome, Audrey! Please tell us which books are your favorites for back-to-school and why. . .

1. Oliver and His Alligator by Paul Schmid

This book has the most enviable one-two punch. It begins like this: "Oliver sometimes felt his brave wasn't nearly as big as he needed it to be." And get a load of page two: “So on his first day of school, Oliver thought it best to stop by the swamp and pick up an alligator. Just in case things got rough.” Sigh. And swoon! But for me, even with those two wins in its corner, the most amazing thing about Oliver and His Alligator is the beautiful illustrations.

2. Maple and Willow Apart by Lori Nichols

This may be unique to me, the youngest of three sisters, but simply looking at the cover of this book just about breaks me open. After a lovely summer for two close summer-loving sisters, Maple and Willow Apart provides a thoughtful story about a less-explored side to the back-to-school oeuvre—the effect on the child left behind. It’s a sweet and quiet story about the bond between sisters—one in kindergarten and one still at home, with some very sweet pig-Latin moments (issmay ouyay).

3. Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon

I include this book for the kids at every school I visit—the ones who look at me blankly, hopelessly, desperately—when I do a writing workshop, because despite having lived ten years on this planet, they have never had anything worth writing about happen to them, not ever. This is a really nice story for the start of the school year about a child who is sure he has no ideas at all and guess what?! (Spoiler alert: he does.) And it’s a debut!!! Looking forward to more from Abby Hanlon!

4. Rain School, by James Rumford

Sometimes I read a book and know that a particular element would have been absolutely irresistible to young me. In this book, Thomas and his fellow students show up for the first day of school in Chad (Africa) and before their traditional learning can begin, they literally have to build their school. Of course, the act of building itself—walls and desks from mud, grass for the roof—provides its own learning experience. And then traditional classes begin. But here’s the irresistible part: in the summer, every summer, the heavy rains wash the school away. In fall, they begin again.

5. Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes

I went back and forth about this one, because of Victoria, who falls somewhere between Nellie Olsen and Regina George in the literary pantheon of mean girls. But the rest of it—Chrysanthemum’s loving mom and thesaurus-y dad; the divine Mrs. Delphinium Twinkle; and the two-word sentence that, along with “Hey, Boo,” tops the list of Great American Two-Word Sentences (“Chrysanthemum wilted.”) all stand to prove that this one’s been around for decades for a reason.

Happy back to school, everyone!

Thanks, Audrey! We will happily add these books to our Little Crooked Bookshelf. And here are two of Audrey's books YOU should most defintely add to yours. . . 

FIRST GRADE DROPOUT
by Audrey Vernick
illustrated by Matthew Cordell
(Clarion Books 2015)

★ "Vernick’s tousled-haired hero may feel miserable, but he has the self-awareness, timing, and raconteurship of a master monologist; readers will be won over from his intriguing opening line (“I’ve been lots of things”) and quickly assured that this, too, shall pass." So effective is Vernick in conjuring the boy’s blush-inducing, sweat-triggering embarrassment, readers young and old will probably find themselves flashing back to their own not-quite-forgotten moments of humiliation. Likewise, Cordell’s sketchlike illustrations, composed of frenetic ink lines and punctuated with washes of bright color, are almost Feifferesque in their sense of emotional spontaneity and comic angst." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This winning picture book will be popular for its entertainment value, as well as for its potential to introduce ideas about empathy."

—School Library Journal

IS YOUR BUFFALO READY FOR KINDERGARTEN?
by Audrey Vernick
illustrated by Daniel Jennewein
(Balzer & Bray 2010)

"This wacky picture book, with its bold cartoonlike illustrations of a buffalo that snorts, dances, and makes faces, may help apprehensive youngsters to be more at ease about going to school. 'Everyone's special in his or her own way. That's the kind of thing you learn in kindergarten.' Vernick's amusing tale will prove handy as a first-day-of-school book recommendation for children and teachers alike." —SLJ

"Just the thing to calm those night-before nerves." —Booklist

Audrey Vernick is the author of over a dozen books for young readers, including Brothers at Bat, a New York Times Notable book. A frequent speaker at elementary schools and conferences, Audrey lives near the ocean in New Jersey with her family. You can visit her online at www.audreyvernick.com.

Tell us YOUR favorite back-to-school books in the comments below to enter to win an autographed copy of FIRST GRADE DROPOUT by Audrey Vernick and Matt Cordell! 

(Winner will be announced on Wednesday, September 16th.) 

Mr. Pig Visits . . . Matthew Cordell!

Oh, hello! Mr. Pig here. I've just kicked off my summer road trip. First stop--this lovely suburb of Chicago, where I'm just about to visit the studio of bestselling illustrator Matthew Cordell. Want to join me?

Matthew is the illustrator of more than twenty-five books for children. Several of which he has also written, including the New York Times Notable picture book, HELLO! HELLO!. This year he will have four new books, including WISH and SPECIAL DELIVERY. 

Oh, there's Matthew outside his house now! Hi, Matthew! 

Hello, Mr. Pig! Come on in. . . .

Welcome to my studio. It’s a basement studio and that’s the door to the basement. Um… I should say that it’s pretty messy down there. This is going to be a sort of unvarnished warts-and-all tour here. So if you don’t like basements or messes, or warts (there’ll be no actual warts) you might want to just turn around and get back in your car and leave. But I’d rather you stay. But do whatever is comfortable to you. Really, it’s fine.

Oh, I'm sure it's not that messy, Matthew.

Seriously. Look down there. It already looks pretty messy, right? Are you sure you want to do this? Yes? OK, follow me down, and mind the coats.

What's this hanging on your hallway wall?
 
Good eye, Mr. Pig. This is a Dylan poster on your left. You know the one. The classic Milton Glaser one that came in the Greatest Hits (vol. 1) album? I love this thing. I love Glaser. I love Dylan. It’s OK if you don’t. I realize he’s a little polarizing. I love that too.

Whoa. You've been busy!

Welcome to Thunderdome! You might find this difficult to believe, but I actually cleaned up before you got here. I’m not kidding. When I’m working, I get so wrapped up on my work that I’m more concerned about the work than the cleaning up down here. But the mess does grow to a point where it becomes hard to find stuff, you can’t walk much without stepping on something, etc. and it actually gets in the way of getting work done. Or my wife gets totally annoyed by it. (We do have to walk through here to get to the laundry room!) Then I have to clean up the place. Having a messy studio can get a little uncomfortable at times. If I get too stressed about it, I think about Francis Bacon’s studio. Then I feel less stressed. 

There’s a little couch down here where I can sit and draw or read or write if I don’t feel like drawing or reading or writing at a proper desk. Half of this couch is for sitting. The other half is for… not sitting. Unless you’re that bear there. That’s where he sits.

Can you tell me about this area and how you work?

This here is where I do my drawing and painting. Most all of my art is drawn with pen and ink (nib pens and bamboo pens) and colored with watercolor paints. The surface of the desk has a great, big light box or LightPad that I use for going from final, approved sketch, to final, final pen/ink drawings. It’s kind of like tracing but without being too careful about it. Straight-up tracing can make a finished line look pretty boring. I’m all about trying to make a fresh, free, spontaneous line. As if I’d just sat down and drawn it for the very first time. It’s a very tricky balancing act, making a final art drawing from a final sketch. It’s like re-drawing it without actually re-drawing it. If that even makes any kind of sense.

Oooh, this is a fun little shelf!

My wife (YA author, Julie Halpern) and I are big time toy lovers. We used to consider ourselves “collectors” but when we had kids (also big time toy lovers), anything we collected, the kids have ransacked, opened up, and played with by now. But there’s lots of shelves down here with toys that Julie and I have collected over the years. “For display only.” Ha ha…

Oops! Sorry, Matthew. I just stepped on these books. Did they fall out of your bookshelf?

No. The books I’m loving the most end up not spending a lot of time on my bookshelves. Could be newly purchased books I love, or ones I recently pulled off the shelf again and got re-inspired by, or just ones I love so much I don’t want them squeezed into the shelf not being seen. I just like them laying around staring at me, making me like them so much.

What's this space all about?
 
This low table houses a bunch or random papers and clutter. I keep this little lazy susan-y thing there that holds my pens, pencils, nibs, etc. Wireless router on the other side of the table. The main thing this table’s for is my big ol’ printer that sits on it towards the wall. This is a large format ink jet printer that can print on 140 lb. watercolor paper. The inks it runs are waterproof. So… for every line drawing of every piece of final art I create, I scan that in and save to my computer. If I go to paint the original drawing and happen to mess up the color or some other mistake occurs in the painting end of the piece, I can then print a new drawing on this printer and color that printed drawing instead. It’s like a big safety net. I also occasionally make entire books with the intention of printing all the drawings. I can draw bits and pieces of drawings and Frankenstein them together on the computer and print out the fully composed pieces. Ready for color!

Above this table, above the printer, is this corkboard of stuff that’s been tacked down over the last, like, 7-8 years. Some of it is from books that were in progress. Some of it is from book ideas that never turned into anything (at least not yet), photos of old friends, my wife and kids, drawings and posters from art heroes, etc. and so forth. I could probably keep it more organized with more up-to-date stuff on it, if I were more organized. But I kinda like it like this. It’s sort of a monument to my past and near-present in life and illustration.

Aaaaand… my computer desk. Work-wise, I use the computer for writing, emailing publishing folks, scanning/sending sketch dummies. Not much else. I don’t use any of that wacom/cintiq stuff. (I’m not even sure if I’ve spelled those right.) I wonder if I ever will. Probably not. My computer is tragically old. I feel like it’s just hanging by a thread. One time I turned it on and it sort of wheezed and then all this dust poofed out of the top of it. (I’m serious. It only did that once, and I don’t know why, but I was terrified it was about to die. It didn’t die.) I keep toying with the idea of buying a new Mac, but I just can’t seem to pull the trigger. I’m waiting on some kind of big windfall or something. Where’s my windfall at?

Hey, it's Mr. Rogers! I love him, too.

By my computer desk hangs a poster of one of my biggest heroes, Fred Rogers. (And his pal, Mr. McFeely! Speedy Delivery!) He was one of the finest human beings to ever live. I could really go on about him, but I won’t. But one thing… I’m usually afraid to meet my heroes. Or I’m just not interested in meeting them—finding out what they’d be like in “real life.” Him, I would’ve loved to meet. I think about that a lot. I wish he were still here. I wish someone like him were here. But there’s no one like him.  When I’m feeling down, jealous, angry, sad, nervous, negative, etc. I like that I can glance up at this poster, and it serves as a sort of reminder. That life doesn’t need to be so petty and small. 

I love that.

On the wall adjacent is a drawing I did in the college years—a collaborative piece I did with an artist friend.

The worst thing about working in a basement is that there’s next to no natural light. I need light. I’m one of those folks that gets depressed when winter rolls around, because the light is gone and will be gone for a long time. So working down here is a challenge in that respect. But there are two covered window wells that let in a sliver of daylight down here. And in this one over my desk, somehow some greenery has made its way down into the darkness, as if to say, “hey, dude.” I appreciate that.

Ha! Snort.  

The second worst thing about working in a basement is that it is cold down here 24/7/365. Even in the summer, it’s cold! We used to have a dehumidifier down here which helped keep it dry and cut down on the cold. But that thing conked out on us at the end of last summer. We’ll probably get a new one sometime soon, but for now, I’ve got this little space heater that my mom-in-law loaned me and I keep it pointed right at my feet. Speaking of feet… hey, there’s one of my feet.

What's in this big closet over here at the far end of the room?

I keep those accordion doors opened up at all times. In this space, I keep drawers of art and shipping supplies, used and unused sketchbooks, old photos and postcards and other things.

If you go all they way back into this closet space, you’ll find this little death trap. We’ve had our share of mice check-in to Chez Cordell from time to time. Sorry, mice. Nothing personal. It’s a “you or me” situation.

Eep! Don't tell Itsy-Bitsy Baby Mouse.

Another view of the inner workings of this supply closet.

And a close-up view of the complicated system I use to store my shipping envelopes.
 

While we’re here by the closet, note this awesome Frog and Toad poster I scored off of ebay a while back. I love this thing. We got a frame for it, now all I need to do is just cut the mat. Sweet!

Here’s where I keep all the other books I love. Picture books, graphic novels, novels, image ref books, dictionary and thesaurus, art books, etc. I can fit most of my favorite stuff on this one shelf. There is some run-off onto another shelf or two, but I try to limit my hoarding to this one shelf. I went through and weeded some stuff not too long ago. And I have bought more stuff since.

Who are those little guys on this bookshelf?

A couple of hand puppets I made from old t-shirts. These guys are the title characters from a picture book I illustrated, BAT AND RAT, written by Patrick Jennings (Abrams 2012). Also the Christmas stocking that I had all through my childhood is hanging here for no particular reason.

Here's a pile of sketches from finished books, and some other things here, waiting to be filed or thrown away. To be determined. I know, I know… I’m working on it!

And with that, I shall abruptly end this studio tour. I know it was messy down here, but there’s a lesson to be learned from all of this. I’m not sure what that lesson is or who should be learning it, but… Lumpy Space Princess, here, will see you out. 

Thanks for showing us around your studio, Matthew! It's interesting to see the place where you've created so many favorite books -- like your new picture books, WISH and SPECIAL DELIVERY.

Thanks and thank you for coming! (Now if I could just find that thing I was looking for, I could get back to work…)

____________________

Matthew Cordell is the illustrator of more than twenty-five books for children including picture books, novels, and works of poetry. Several of which he has also written, including the New York Times Notable picture book, HELLO! HELLO!. This year he will have four new books, including his newest author-illustrator picture book, WISH, and SPECIAL DELIVERY, a picture book he illustrated by Philip C. Stead. Matthew lives in a suburb of Chicago with his wife, author Julie Halpern, and their two children. Visit him online at www.matthewcordell.com.

SPECIAL DELIVERY
by Philip E. Stead
Illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Roaring Brook Press, March 2015
ISBN 978-1596439313 

Sadie is on her way to deliver an elephant to her Great-Aunt Josephine, who lives alone. She tries everything from mailing the elephant to boarding a plane, a train, and an alligator to get to her aunt's home. Along the way she meets an array of interesting characters, including an odd postal worker and a gang of bandit monkeys, who all help her get where she is going.

"A read-aloud winner sure to deliver laughs to young readers." --School Library Journal

*"Animal lovers and stamp collectors, especially but not exclusively, will be enthralled." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

WISH
by Matthew Cordell
Disney-Hyperion, March 2015
ISBN 978-1484708750

"Cordell’s intensely personal account of parents awaiting the arrival of a child bubbles over with anticipatory joy. He draws, in his loopy pen-and-ink style, two elephants who live in a house by the ocean. Their new baby sets sail toward them from a tropical island, and they build a boat of their own to meet the baby. At sea, they send forth a beam of rainbow-colored love, but something goes wrong: “We listen.... And we wait... but you never come. And everything stops.” . . . . At last, though, the baby elephant’s boat arrives in triumph. . . . It’s easy for parents to forget to tell their children how much they longed for them to be born; Cordell provides words and pictures to help." --Publishers Weekly