Adventures at Wilder Farm

I was speechless after receiving this lovely letter from South Elementary in Jackson, Missouri. With the librarian’s permission I’d like to share it:

Dear Lita,

I am a school librarian at South Elementary in Jackson, Missouri. After the recent earthquake in Haiti, I used your book One Thousand Tracings for a text-to-world connection. The students were asked for ways they can help the people of Haiti just as the children after WWII helped the Germans. The students then cut out their footprints and signed each with their own way of helping the earthquake victims. Many brought money for the American Red Cross. This morning over $1200 was turned in to the Red Cross. Attached is the picture of the presentation.

Thanks for sharing and know others have benefited from this story.

WOW!! I’m still speechless. Congratulations to South Elementary for such an amazing effort!!

Tags: 1 Comment

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it to a lot of people, but I have another book lined up with Roaring Brook/Flash Point for 2011! The book is called BIRD TALK and it’s a 48 page non-fiction picture book about the different ways that birds communicate, and why. I’ve been working on a finished dummy and thought it’d be fun to share a few images (click on any image to see it larger).

Tags: 5 Comments

My next book will be released three months from now! Born to be Giants is a 48 page non-fiction picture book with Roaring Brook/Flashpoint Press.

This book fills a lifelong dream to investigate paleontologists’ understanding of baby dinosaurs and their parents. It was an exciting book because scientists have made many great new discoveries of fossilized baby dinosaurs, nests, and eggs in recent years. I wrote and illustrated the book in a format with hypotheses about dinosaur behavior following clues to engage young readers in the scientific method.

Here’s an example of the format of the book. First we see some clues. These are things that are known about dinosaurs based on fossil evidence along with observations about animals, like crocodiles, that are alive today. (Click on any of the following images to see them larger.)

Then we see a hypothesis of possible dinosaur behavior.

Born to be Giants is a Junior Library Guild Selection and will also be available at Scholastic Book Fairs! The release data is April 27th.

Tags: 1 Comment

Last May Dave and I traveled to England to research the book I’m currently working on, titled Strange Creatures: The Story of Walter Rothschild and his Museum (2011, Disney-Hyperion).

Walter Rothschild was the son of Lord Rothschild, banker to Queen Victoria. He was incredibly rich and seemed like a kid who would have had everything, but he struggled with being horribly shy. His father demanded a lot of him — yet Walter was so nervous, he could barely speak. He seems like an unlikely hero, but a hero is just what he was to me. When he was 7 years old he declared to his parents he would build a museum. He set out to collect bugs, butterflies, birds, fish, reptiles, mammals and even plants. By the time he was a late teenager, he was funding expeditions all over the world to collect animals. This was in the late 1800’s when scientists still had not discovered many of the world’s plants and animals. Walter’s father discouraged his dreams and insisted he begin work at the family banking firm, but Walter persevered and opened his museum to the public when he was 24 years old. With the help of two curators and many explorers, Walter created the largest natural history collection ever gathered by one person and furthered our understanding of the world’s animals in immense ways. I’m really enjoying bringing his story to life!

You can see how the visit to the actual museum helped in creating some of the sketches:

I’m getting pretty close to finishing the final art for the illustrations so I wanted to post a sneak peek at a couple of the paintings:

Tags: 2 Comments

I probably should have known that giving a talk on Halloween was asking for trouble. But I didn’t expect the lights and power to go off halfway through my talk at the Keene State Children’s lit conference.  That was a new experience. Standing in front of 550 people, everything was going terrifically for the first 20 minutes, then BLACK! It turned out a squirrel had gotten into a transformer and blew all the electricity throughout the campus. Jane Yolen stepped up like a seasoned conference trooper and suggested we break up into small groups in different areas of the auditorium, so that the attendees could speak personally with each of the presenters (Lois Lowry, Katherine Paterson, me, and this year’s Caldecott winner, New Hampshire artist Beth Krommes.) That turned nightmare into a fun experience for all. Eventually a battery powered mic was located and Jane started her talk since I relied on power point to show visuals. After Jane, the power came back. Ah. I finished my hour-long talk. Surprisingly, it all came together seamlessly!

Time has flown by and I’m sorry to be behind on my blog entries. I’m half way through final art of my next book, which is always consuming. And the weather up here in New England has been exceptional this fall, so when not up to my ears in drawings and paintings, I crave to be outside, soaking up the last of the fall sun. This year we had a special treat, savoring autumn’s beauty with my editor Namrata and her husband Quinn. They came up from the city and we reveled in everything fitting for the season — hikes in fall color, hot apple cider and books by the fire, guitar and banjo music with friends, toasted S’mores, and even pumpkin carving! What fun we had with them. We even fit a little time for work over a book.

Nami and me by the river — my favorite spot to think about books and ideas.

Quinn is a talented musician, but somewhat unschooled at traditional New England pumpkin carving. He chose to create with a jigsaw.

It’s starting to feel more like winter these days. And as the days get colder, the wildlife comes in closer to select goodies from the yard.

Tags: No Comments.

Next summer I’ll be teaching a three day field seminar at Yellowstone National Park! I’m so excited!! Not only do I get to go back to a place I love, but I’ll get to share a subject I’m passionate about — seeing nature through the eyes of an artist. The seminar will combine exploration of the park  with on-location watercolor painting as we follow in the footsteps of Thomas Moran, William Jackson, Ferdinand Hayden and the 1871 Hayden expedition. The workshop is offered through the non-profit Yellowstone Association Institute. Just staying at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch should be a treat, but exploring and sharing with others the sights of Yellowstone during the summer will be a blast!

Here’s the description of my field seminar:

Explore Yellowstone through the eyes of an artist. Thomas Moran’s field sketches from the 1871 Hayden Expedition played a vital role in the preservation of the park. View the paintings of Moran and other early explorers at the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center, and follow in their footsteps as you discover the pleasure of plein-air (open air) painting with watercolors. Through daily painting excursions, nightly lectures, and painting demonstrations, you’ll explore and learn the art history of Yellowstone. Enjoy three days of on-location painting that includes demonstrations, critiques and encouragement from your artist instructor. You may even get the opportunity to paint some of the same locations made famous by Moran.

If you’re interested in attending, please contact the Yellowstone Association Institute. All levels of painters are welcome!

Field Seminar: Moran Watercolor, August 10-13, 2010

Location: Lamar Buffalo Ranch, Yellowstone National Park

And here’s a video clip from the Yellowstone Association.

Tags: No Comments.