creature for the day

In this day and age, there are so many forms of entertainment, from TV and DVDs to hand held video games and phone apps. The simple pleasures of a book have become buried under all the technology.

When I was a child, my parents only allowed my brother and I two hours of TV a night. The two of us had to take turns on which shows we wanted to watch. Other restrictions include not being able to watch game shows, sitcoms or soap opera type things. It makes me wonder if my parents watch reality shows these days. I know my mother watches the shopping channels. Don’t ask me to explain it, I haven’t a clue.

But that’s neither here nor there.

The Childrens’ Foundation recommends reading to your child for 20 minutes a day. They claim it will be the most important 20 minutes in your day. Reading is a skill everyone must have to be a functioning member of today’s world. Think of all the myriad of tasks you go through in a typical day and how few of them DO NOT require you to read. By the time a child has reached third grade, their reading change from learning the mechanics to needing the skill to learn further. Advanced education isn’t possible with a strong reading foundation.

When I was young, we first learned to read in elementary school. When my daughter was young, reading was first taught in kindergarten. Children now are learning to read in pre-school. Precursors to reading such as recognizing letters and understanding vocabulary are also being taught at younger and younger ages. Kids who are read to have a leg up on their peers because they have been introduced to the world of wonders books can provide.

According to several studies, children in homes with access to books are smarter then children who don’t have the same opportunity. Planet Green has an article with suggestions for busy parents or for those who cannot afford to create an in house library for their children. When my daughter was little, we went to the library every Saturday. I allowed her to pick out a book for each day of the week, to be read at bedtime. Those days are some of my fondest memories of time spent with her.

Books make kids smarter. Smarter kids are smarter adults. Smarter adults will be able to contribute better to the world they live in. All because of a few picture books at bedtime.

You may have noticed a distinct lack of creatures the last few days. I had a bunch of personal stuff that needed dealing with that pulled me out of the studio about half of the week. The rest of the week I spent finalizing artwork and uploading the new look to my web site. Several people have commented how much brighter and happier the place looks now.

This is the new look. Well, it’s the artwork I created for the new look. You can visit the web site to see the actual new look. I know some of you read my posts at other places like LiveJournal and Facebook. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

One of the things a freelance illustrator must cultivate is patience. Publishing is a very slow business. Things take a really long time to happen. My first book took me 5 years to find a publisher. And I was revising and changing the entire five years!

In mid 2009, I submitted several pieces of art to the Society Of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Bulletin. It’s an international publication and in the world of children’s book publishing pretty important. I waited until this weekend to see my first piece published in the current issue. Needless to say, I am thrilled.

And last but not least. A creature of the day (yesterday’s doodle.)

Have a wonderful Sunday everybody. See you next week!

I’ve been scrambling to get things done the last few days and haven’t had a chance to scan in my doodles. Lots of things going on and not much to show for it. I guess some days are like that. Here are the doodles for the last few days.

There’s been a lot of talk about word cleaning of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. If you ask me, I think Sam is rolling over in his grave.

Mr. Clemens was not a man to pull punches. Anyone who reads any of his non-fictional work will know that. He was a man in your face with things he felt strongly about. Racism and its various fallout was one of the places he hoped to make a point about. By bringing it front and center in his writing. Huckleberry Finn was political commentary as well as a fictional story.

Whitewashing the “n” word out of the manuscript is doing a disservice to the point Mr. Clemens was trying to make about treating people poorly based on race and skin color being wrong. Removing it diminishes his work. I understand that there are certain factions who would rewrite everything into political correctness. As if erasing the words will fix the issues behind them. Guess what? Erasing the words only further hides the issues. Political correctness doesn’t work for true social change. Euphemisms for the ugly and embarrassing only serve to further hinder bringing them out into the light where they can have a chance of being fixed.

Granted if Huckleberry Finn were to be written today, it would be an entirely different manuscript. Possibly with werewolves and vampires, who knows. But Mark Twain wrote with purpose and point. Erasing his words is counter to the reasoning behind his work. Much better to keep the work intact and use it to open a dialogue to work toward improved race relations. Prejudice will only be alleviated through education.

I’m not sure if you are aware that I am the co-host of a Twitter chat for picture book illustrators. (Twitter stream with hashtag #kidlitart Thursdays at 9 PM eastern time.) Bonnie and I started the chat a year ago, today.

It’s been quite a ride. We weren’t sure we’d have more than a couple of attendees, but in the last year, we’ve grown a lot. We’ve had special guests from around the globe in many different professions all of interest to the children’s book illustrator. Visit the blog http://kidlitart.blogspot.com/ to see transcriptions of previous chats.

One of the recurring themes on the evening chats (and there are a bunch — including snack foods) has been putting together a picture book dummy. A bunch of our regulars convinced Bonnie we should do this thing, and she in the end convinced me. So, tonight, on our 1-year anniversary of #kidlitart we are hosting the Picture Book Dummy Challenge. All the rules and regulations (such as they are) are up on the blog here.

Also on the blog is the initial kick off post Ready Set Go!. Sharpen your pencils, put on your thinking caps and do your finger calisthenics! We’re talking dummies!