The Silver Lining

 Wow! I can't believe this Robert's Snow Winter Blog Blitz is coming to an end, but the climax is right around the corner. The auction! I can't wait to see those snowflakes fly to their homes and the money rise for cancer research this year. I've had a blast reading about all the many snowflake illustrators. Who knew the world could hold so much talent?

I'm very happy to show you a wonderful snowflake by Cynthia Decker. I was not able to contact Cynthia, so there will not be an interview or insight into her work, but I think it speaks for itself.  Here's her rendition of "Peace on Earth". Tee hee! I can see she has a sense of humor...


Cynthia has illustrated several books, including Everybody Makes Mistakes, by Christine Kole MacLean, published by Dutton in 2005. In fact, my daughter had picked this book up at the library just the other day. I recognized Cynthia's style instantlly. If you want to see more of her work, visit her website: C.B.Decker . 

This snowflake will go to auction on November 26th. The auction for the first week of snowflakes will happen on November 19th! Only ONE MORE WEEK!!! I will be posting a reminder, so get ready to bid!

Be sure to visit all the blogs today highlighting illustrators and their snowflakes:

Cecily Lang at Kate's Book Blog

Jane Dyer at Whimsy Books

Gutierrez at AmoXcalli and Cuentecitos

Lee White at Please Come Flying

 

Breathtaking ice-crystal landscapes, sledding snowmen, playful penguins, beautiful nativities: These are just a tiny peek into the artistic world of award-winning children's illustrator, Tim Coffey. Grace Lin sure knew what she was doing when she contacted Tim through his publisher, Albert Whitman and Company. His whimsical, snowy creations are perfect for a Robert's Snow for Cancer Cure snowflake. Just take a peek at a mug he did for Demdaco!

Tim started on his award winning career path at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth where he majored in illustration. (Did you know he had switched his major from electrical engineering? Boy, are we glad, Tim!) He found children's illustration later, after an extensive successful career designing paper products, prints, stationary, party-ware, and more. I even found out that he has his art on those Thirsty Stone coasters! Wow! But while he earned success in the adult consumer world, it was children's illustration that held his heart: "I chose children's books because I was having more fun doing that than illustrating for adults." 

And fun he's been having! His first illustrated picture book, Red Berry Wool, by Robyn Eversole, won an SCBWI Golden Kite honor and his second book, Mabela the Clever by Margaret Read MacDonald, was an ABA Pick of Lists book. His first children's book that he also wrote is entitled, Christmas At The Top of the World. See? He's a snow-season expert! 

When asked to lend his snowy talents to a Robert's Snow snowflake, Tim was happy to oblige. "It's an honor to be involved in a project with so many fine illustrators. And it just feels good to help out a good cause." 

Here's his whimsical snowflake entitled, "Christmas Wishes". Look familiar? (Did you click on that mug link earlier?) "I had been working on penguins recently and it seemed like a perfect subject matter for a snowflake. And it seems penguins are popular these days."

They sure are! And I'd love to get this snowflake to match my Tim Coffey coffee mugs. Wouldn't you?



Tim diligently works in his studio in New Hampshire where the beautiful landscape continually inspires his work. He is now writing and developing more picture books. I can't wait to see what Tim will offer the children's literary world in the future. Maybe that will satisfy his SIX SISTERS! Yes, he's the youngest of seven children!

"Christmas Wishes" will go to auction on November 26th, so put that on your calendar! 

And please visit the other blogs outlining today's snowflake illustrators (including illustrator friends, 

sruble and Elizabeth Dulemba):

• Elizabeth Dulemba at sruble's world
  
  
• Chris Gall at Through the Studio Door
  
  
• Amy Schimler  at Please Come Flying

Mmmm...now where is that Tim Coffey mug? I want some hot chocolate! Yum!

 

 It's STILL snowing around here in blogland and I'm happily frolicking in the frosty e-hills of Robert's Snow: Blogging for a Cure. Wee!

 I'm very excited to introduce to you the illustrator of one of my six year old daughter's favorite books, MINE! MINE! MINE! ( by cyber-friend, Shelly Becker)--Hideko Takahashi! If you haven't noticed Hideko's style already, she's definitely the cuteness maven of children's literature. And hence my daughter's absolute adoration! (And mine!)  


Grace Lin emailed Hideko, asking her to make a Robert's Snow for Cancer Cure snowflake, and here it is entitled, Snow Day Fun!:







Do you recognize the little kids riding the sled? It's none other than the main characters in SNOW DAY by Lynn Plourde. I love the blue sky on one side and the pink dusk on the other, similar to the circular events of the story. 

 When Hideko got her snowflake, she thought of SNOW DAY immediately. "There's a scene in that book where two siblings are sledding. I changed it a little to use for the front of the snowflake and on the back, I painted a new image with a snowman and sled tracks in the dusk as the children have left on their way home."

Beautiful!

When Grace Lin mentioned Robert's Snow, Hideko had a friend who was fighting cancer. "I was very happy to do something for Cancer Cure. Fortunately, my friend got well and I hope more people can survive cancer."

Hideko is originally from Osaka, Japan where she first learned to love illustration. She studied under a Japanese painting artist as a child and then moved to the United States in 1990 to study illustration at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. "When I was in art school, I enjoyed assignments of illustrating stories and thought it would be fun to do it as a pro." And pro she is! Look at all her books!

Interestingly, she recently illustrated a story set in Japan. It will be coming out in 2008 by Henry Holt. "The author wrote it, inspired by a true story that happened in WWII. I did a lot of historical research to be accurate and created realistic images different from the cute round faces and distorted perspectives I usually do." Her first book project was entitled, BEACH PLAY by Marsha Hayles. It came out by Henry Holt in 1998. 

Hideko has more in the pipeline as she is working on a set of board books for toddlers. Aww...

With all that talent and all that work, she also has a whole bunch of spunk! When I asked her to tell me something no one would know about her, she stated (with an impish grin, I'm sure), "Hmm...that's a good question because as soon as I tell it, it is no longer something no one would know!"

Funny, isn't she? Tee hee!

But she was sweet enough to let us in on her secret! "I work at home watching TV, and it often helps me come up with images." Hey, she sounds a lot like my teenagers! HA! Maybe that's a good sign that one will become a famous illustrator like Hideko Takahashi. 

Hideko's snowflake will be available for auction on November 19th! So don't forget to bookmark the page and get your auction button fingers limbered up for the big event!

Make sure you visit the other blogs swishing in the snow today:

• Susan Miller at Your Neighborhood Librarian
  
• Ellen Beier at What Adrienne Thinks About That
  
• Judith Moffat at Jo's Journal
  
• Wendell Minor at Wild Rose Reader

 

Swish! Swoosh! Swish!

Do you see a girl sliding down that sparkling slope? It's the very talented, Sarah Dillard! Isn't she cute in her lavender blue ski suit? Almost as cute as her Robert's Snow snowflake (Sorry, Sarah, but bunnies are the ultimate in super-cuteness!)

I'm very excited to introduce you to one of my favorite illustrators, Sarah Dillard! She is the illustrator of a cyber friend, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen's book, Tightrope Poppy. When I chose Sarah to highlight, little did I know that she not only loves winter and very regularly skis, shovel's snow, and loves building snowmen, but she has a very real and touching connection to the Robert's Snow for Cancer Cure mission. She had recently lost her father to cancer when Grace Lin sent out the call for illustrators on the Rhode Island School of Design alumni list back in 2004. Sarah knew she had to participate. "I don't think there is anyone who hasn't been personally touched by cancer in some way," she says, "but when it is someone young with their life still ahead of them, it seems especially unfair." 

She has participated in Robert's Snow ever since that first year in 2004. This year, she was inspired by the twinkling snow outside her door. "I love winter," she explains, "but sometimes I just get caught up in complaining about the cold, the ice, and the shoveling. Still, I can never look at falling snow without feeling a child-like joy. My snowflake depicts a rabbit shoveling snow on one side and on the other the same rabbit is looking up at the snow, smiling. I think that we can approach just about any difficult situation in two ways:  either complaining about it, or moving forward and looking for joy. I've been so impressed with Grace's ability to do the latter and I wanted to show that in my snowflake."

Here is her joy-filling snowflake entitled, "Snowstorm":



Growing up in Harvard, Massachusetts, Sarah always knew she wanted to be a children's illustrator, but it took her a while to achieve her dream. "I spent a lot of years dancing around the edges before just throwing myself into it and making it my career." She majored in art at Wheaton college and received her masters in Art Education at Rhode island School of Design. Even with all that training, she learned that in order to succeed, she had to draw every day and learn how to express herself in her own way. "No one can really teach you that." She spends her time drawing cute little mice, but that's where the love stops. "I can't stand to see them in my house!" Eek! Me either, Sarah!

Her first published book was entitled, Blossom Tales: Flower Stories of Many Folk by Patricia Hruby Powell. "I began working on it while my father was sick. He passed away before it was published but I was so happy that he was able to see the sketches for it." Since then she's illustrated for over twenty companies, including Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin, Reader's Digest, and Sterling Publishing. She's very excited to announce that she is working on a new picture book that will be her first to write as well as illustrate. Look for it in the spring of 2009!


I'll leave you with some words she shared with me about what it means to her to participate in the Robert Snow Foundation: "It is so wonderful to be a part of something with so many other illustrators. We are all making a small contribution, but together we've been able to create something significant." 

You can do something significant as well. Please go to the auction site, bookmark it, and plan to bid on Sarah's snowflake or any of the other beautiful pieces of snowflake art. Bidding starts November 19th.

And check out the other blogs featuring snowflakes today (including lj friend,

cynthialord

Julie Fromme Fortenberry at Your Neighborhood Librarian

John Hassett at cynthialord's Journal

Abigail Marble at Please Come Flying

When the call went out across the kidlit-blogosphere to highlight Robert's Snow for Cancer Cure Snowflakes, I couldn't wait to put my blog into the ring. After all, I'd witnessed the marvelous talent of several years of snowflakes. I knew whomever I'd get to highlight would be brilliant.

I was right.

As promised yesterday, I am very honored to introduce the immensely talented illustrator, Don Tate! (And he's talented in more ways than one--did you know he was an award winning, drug-free BODYBUILDER??? Wow! If you're kind of nosy like me, you can see his award winning, ahem, body here: bodybuilding) I chose him because I'm an avid reader/fan of his blog, Devas T. Rants and Raves ! I'm one of those wish-I-coulda-been-an-illustrator-but-doggone-it-I-got-no-talent types, so I read lots of illustrator blogs who show how they work. And Don's work amazes me!

As an illustrator of over twenty-five trade and educational books, Don's bold style and deft writing has won him many honors, including, most recently, Lee & Low Books New Voices Honor for a picture book biography that will be coming out in the Fall of 2009.

When I asked him why he wanted to participate in this campaign to rid the world of cancer, he said he understood what it feels like to watch a family member go through a harrowing disease. His two nieces were born with sickle cell anemia--a painful inherited blood disorder that affects mainly African Americans. "Two years ago, one of my nieces underwent a bone marrow transplant which eventually cured her of the disease. It was very expensive, but my family — especially my mother — did a lot of fundraising. Between family contributions and fundraising campaigns, enough money was raised for the procedure. My contribution was small, but collectively, the money added up. Great things can happen when individuals ban together and put their talents to work for them. I feel the same way about the Robert's Snow fundraiser."

 

And so, here is his snowflake entitled, "You'd better duck!"

Remembering the winter fun he'd had as a kid in his Des Moines, Iowa neighborhood, his design choice was simple. "We took our snowball fights seriously. If you didn't duck, you'd get decked."

Now, if you're like me and you want to witness genius in action, go to his blog to see how he made this snowflake masterpiece: Painting the Snowflake

Wondering where Don's amazing talent comes from? He actually inherited it from his aunt, Eleanora E. Tate, who is a writer of young adult novels. She inspired him to illustrate one of her books entitled, RETOLD AFRICAN MYTHS and he fell in love with children's illustration. Don went on to illustrate his first trade picture book, SAY HEY! A SONG OF WILLIE MAYS by Peter Mandel. "I was honored and excited to work with Andrea Pinkney, then a senior editor at Jump At the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children. I'd been a huge fan of Andrea and Brian Pinkney's works, so getting a chance to work with her was a dream come true."

Some of his other books include, SURE AS SUNRISE (Houghton Mifflin 2004), BLACK ALL AROUND (Lee & Low, 2002), THE HIDDEN FEAST (August House, 2006), and THE LEGEND OF VALENTINE (Zondervan, 2002), which is a Christian Bookseller Association best seller!

If you'd like to own "You'd Better Duck" by this award winning illustrator, the bidding starts on November 19th: Robert's Snow for Cancer Cure Auction.

Oh, and please visit the other blogs today that are highlighting snowflakes. Here's the schedule:

• Rick Chrustowski at laurasalas
  
  
• Diane DeGroat at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup
  
  
• Ilene Richard at Something Different Every Day
  
  
• Brie Spangler at Lectitans
  

Let it SNOW!

 
Can you see it? Snowflakes are falling EVERYWHERE in blogland! All in order to raise money for cancer research. I'll never forget when Grace Lin told her fellow yellow board buddies about her ingenious idea to auction snowflakes illustrated by beloved children's illustrators. Why? Because her husband, Robert, had cancer and was in need of a cure. I remember sitting back in awe watching the first snowflakes go up and the money fly into Dana Farber Cancer Institute's treasury. Grace Lin has managed to raise over $200,000 for cancer research since that first auction in 2004. 

Sadly, Robert's battle with cancer ended this past summer. My heart and prayers go out to Grace and her family. And that is why I feel the urge to do something in Robert's memory and the memory of others who have been hurt by this insidious disease. Along with many other blogs, I'm participating in Robert's Snow Blogging for a Cure to raise awareness in our industry about the snowflakes when they go to auction so more money can be raised. I can't wait to bid on one of these beautiful snowflakes! 

I hope all of you visit the auction site when it happens on November 19th and BID! 



Here are today's participating blogs and their snowflake illustrators. I've posted the Winter Blog Blast schedule in the sidebar to the left so you can keep up with it.

Monday, October 15

• Randy Cecil at ChatRabbit
• Michelle Chang at The Longstockings
• Kevin Hawkes at Cynthia Lord's Journal
• Barbara Lehman at The Excelsior File
• Grace Lin at In the Pages

The first snowflake I will be highlighting is by Don Tate. Look for it on Wednesday!

 LET IT SNOW!!!!!!!