Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 (Last updated July 26, 2017) Welcome! This post for young readers is about how the first Ruby Rose picture book was created. First, author Rob Sanders started with a character. He tried lots of characters and wrote lots of stories, looking for one “who was fresh and new, . . .
Woohoo, RUBY ROSE, OFF TO SCHOOL SHE GOES! dances into the world today!!! Ruby Rose loves to dance while she’s brushing her teeth, eating breakfast, and even on her way to class. But there’s NO DANCING at school! Or…is there? With a little luck and a lot of rhythm, Ruby Rose finds . . .
Just got permission to make this public: I am ***THRILLED*** to announce that I will be illustrating I’M SAD, a sequel to I’M BORED written by Michael Ian Black, coming out from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers in 2018! I’m excited to be working with editor Justin Chanda and art director . . .
When I was asked to illustrate my first picture book (I’m Bored) and I started researching picture book formats, I was confused. I knew a standard picture book had 32 pages, for example, but I discovered that these 32 pages might also include the title page and other non-story pages. Plus . . .
I’ve added some free print-ready templates for creating finger puppets related to I’M BORED and WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? You can preview the I’m Bored puppets here and download here. You can get the Where Are My Books? puppets here: Spencer & Mom download, Sis and Dad download and Squirrel/Narwhal/Book download. For all my free, print-ready material, see my Print-Ready Archives. Note that you don’t HAVE . . .
I had a FANTASTIC time during my WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? Book Tour earlier this month. Thanks to Simon & Schuster Children’s for making the book tour possible for me, and to all the schools, libraries and bookstores who participated. For those interested, I’ve posted links to my photos and . . .
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 “WHERE ARE MY BOOKS?” FINAL STAGES AND LAUNCH When Debbie’s illustrations were nearly finished, she started brainstorming ideas of the cover. Here are just a few: Everyone liked the first idea the best, so that’s the one Debbie developed into a cover. Debbie also needed . . .
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 ILLUSTRATING “WHERE ARE MY BOOKS?” Debbie needed to decide what the characters in Where Are My Books? would look like. She decided that the mother would be Asian and the father would be Caucasian: Here are some Debbie’s early sketches for Spencer: Debbie’s art director, Laurent Linn, . . .
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 WRITING THE STORY FOR “WHERE ARE MY BOOKS?” Every children’s book author/illustrator has their own method for creating a story. Debbie started with writing only the text. Here is the first version of the story: Here is another version: When Debbie was happy with the . . .
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 COMING UP WITH THE IDEA FOR “WHERE ARE MY BOOKS?” Every book starts with an idea, but where does the idea come from? Debbie carries a small notebook around with her all the time, where she can scribble down ideas and sketches whenever inspiration strikes. . . .