Adventures at Wilder Farm

I’ve been thinking of a new story idea based on an experience I had with a fawn when I was a little girl. I have little time to write lately as I’m working hard on the final illustrations for the Moran story, but often find myself daydreaming about the fawn story when I have a spare moment. Now summer has arrived and our back yard here at Wilder Farm has blossomed with wildflowers and baby wildlife. We have baby turkeys bobbing about in the clover, baby jays and crows squabbling on the fence posts and baby chickadees venturing out of their nest boxes. But perhaps the best of all are the twin fawns that were born in our backyard — I saw one wobbling around just after its birth.

They are growing up, eating our garden, napping in the ferns in front of my studio and playing in the yard. I now have oodles of pictures and have enjoyed watching them grow. I guess I’m going to have to write that story after all!

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The 2008 Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards, given by the Jane Addams Peace Association, were just announced last Friday from the Hull-House Museum at the University of Illinois-Chicago. I am very, very proud that One Thousand Tracings received an honor! I’m looking forward to the awards ceremony at the United Nations Plaza in New York this October. I really feel like I’m accepting this particular award on behalf of my grandparents. One Thousand Tracings is their story—their efforts to help people who were suffering after the war and to bring healing to all people. I continue to feel very fortunate that I was able to write their story.

During last year’s awards presentation Susan Griffith read a quote from Jane Addams: “We have learned as common knowledge that much of the insensibility and hardness of the world is due to the lack of imagination which prevents a realization of the experiences of other people.” I love this quote!

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I’ve just sent a pile of Pennies for Elephants artwork to my editor and art director. This is my next book with Hyperion—hopefully a spring/summer 2009 release. The story is based on the true event of Boston area children earning money to buy the first elephants for the zoo in 1914. Here are a few images:

I’ve added these images to the main illustration page on my website and added a few other new images as well.

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A teacher at New Palestine Elementary sent these pictures and story to Becky Gaines, the publisher of the New Palestine Press. Thanks to Becky for sending this to me. And congratulations to the students at New Palestine Elementary for working on a great service project!

“One Thousand Tracings,” by Lita Judge, gave a glimpse of time in the 1940’s and of the need for people in the war stricken countries for shoes.

(…) This year’’s event included a special service project. New Palestine Elementary students donated good used shoes to aid Indianapolis children in need. Two books the children read helped give an understanding of other’s’ needs. “Those Shoes”, written by Maribeth Boelts, gave a warm understanding of how important a good pair of shoes can be. It can bring pride and dignity to many children. The second book, “One Thousand Tracings”, by Lita Judge, gave a glimpse of time in the 1940’s and of a need for people in the war stricken countries for shoes. They would trace their feet and send them to a family that would search to find their size and send them back to them. The students each traced both of their feet, making over 1,000 Tracings.

The feet tracings are hanging up at New Palestine Elementary to represent their wonderful service project. They had a special opportunity for school spirit, good exercise and, most of all learned how to give to others with their community service.”

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Our friend Melissa Stewart just gave us information on a Picture Book Festival she is organizing in Belmont, Massachusetts. This is much more than just a group book signing! Each author and/or illustrator has developed a short presentation, performance, or activity to entertain attendees, especially the children. And the entire event will be filmed and made into a documentary. It’s definitely worth checking out!

Belmont Children’s Picture Book Festival
March 29, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
First Church in Belmont, 404 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA
Free and open to the public

Six local authors celebrate the release of their new picture books with an afternoon of fun for the whole family. Meet the authors and illustrators, hear them talk about their books, and enjoy a variety of performances and activities. Wellesley Booksmith of Wellesley, Massachusetts, will make books available for purchase and signing.

Here are the web sites of the participants: Sarah S. Brannen , Anne Broyles, Timothy Basil Ering, Leo and Laura Jaffe Espinosa, James Kaczman, Melissa Stewart

For more information, contact Melissa Stewart at 978-263-7279 or hbeeprod@msn.com.

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Thank you to the International Reading Association for honoring One Thousand Tracings as the winner of the 2008 IRA Children’s Book Award! I’ll be going to the IRA Convention in Atlanta this May to accept the award. I’m so excited! The conference falls on the week of our planned vacation to Santa Fe. Dave and I rarely fit vacations in these days, but decided to take the plunge for my birthday. Now Santa Fe will have to wait for another birthday. Dave is being a great sport about it all. He’s as excited about the award as I am (perhaps more). I’ll be traveling to Atlanta with my close friend Sy Montgomery. She’s speaking on a panel—Growing up Green: Environmental Conversations with Authors—with Nic Bishop and Melissa Stewart. Sy received this same award in 2000 for her book, The Snake Scientist. We’re looking forward to the conference, and to sneaking off to see the whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium between events!

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Anyone who has met our family knows how much I love my Maine Coon, named Pu.

But you may not know just how much she supervises my work.
I spend long hours in the studio when I’m working on a book, but I’m NEVER lonely.

And of course Pu will be in my next book!
Here are a couple of preliminary sketches for Pennies with Pu’s contribution.

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I just heard more good news for Tracings—it was selected for the 2008 Storytelling World Awards! I feel so fortunate about the reception of my first book. And I love all the letters and e-mails I’ve received from readers of the book. One of my favorite letters came from a family who had also sent packages to Europeans after WWII. After reading One Thousand Tracings, they decided to try to find the family they had helped in Holland. By searching the Internet, they were able to track them down after all these years, and now the families are planning a reunion to actually meet each other in person! I have met many of the Europeans my grandparents sent packages to. I am so thankful that they shared their stories with me, and am happy that the book has helped other families share their stories.

I’m having a ball working on my current book—Pennies for Elephants. Here’s a sketch:

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… for Pennies for Elephants:

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For the past year, my husband, Dave, has been encouraging me to start a blog. We get so many terrific questions from readers and illustrators who visit my website, he thought it’d be a good opportunity to share the day to day adventures of creating children’s books, answer frequently asked questions, and share information about my working method and current projects. I had resisted until now, but the recent selection of my book, One Thousand Tracings, as a Cybil Award Finalist for a non fiction picture books (an award created and given by bloggers) has prompted me to plunge ahead into the blog world.

I’m naming my blog Adventures at Wilder Farm for two reasons. First, because my husband and I live tucked away in the NH woods at the end of Wilder Farm Road. Here, black bears, moose, deer, fox, fishers, and wild turkeys roam through our land, browse in our garden and leave a highway of tracks in the snow. Secondly, Adventures at Wilder Farm was the title of the first picture book manuscript I wrote and illustrated. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started it! The story was never published, but it did help me find my agent and a few weeks later, helped me get my first publishing job - illustrating “Ugly” by Donna Jo Napoli with Hyperion Books for Children. Three years later, I’m now working on my sixth book (my third as author and illustrator) and I have three more picture books in the works. So I have a very fond connection to the name.

Dave and I both plan to write this blog. Dave works closely with me. He designed my website and is a valuable editor and critical eye to my work. He solves all my technical headaches with computers, scanners, digital cameras and printers and plans to share a lot of his experience on this front with readers.

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