Kelly Murphy, the incredibly talented illustrator of my first two books, is on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast today! She has another book out this season, Brand-New Baby Blues, written by Kathi Appelt, that is just terrific:

and Jules had them over for coffee (I know, it was just cyber-coffee, but I'm still jealous!)

I finally got my hands on a copy of this book just last week and it was great fun to read- a swingy, bouncy text with adorable illustrations. It was entertaining, too, to pull it out for my kids- they recognized that it was Kelly's work right away (which made me very proud- discerning little picture-book purveyors that they are).

What we especially loved was seeing her spot illustrations for a change- almost all of Hush, Little Dragon and Over At The Castle are full-bleed (I hope I have that terminology right!) illustrations with just one or two items getting a spot treatment- and don't get me wrong- they're gorgeous! But in Brand-New Baby Blues, the full-bleed pages are alternated with spreads that have multiple spot illustrations and Kelly is awesome at those! When they're alternated like that, it feels kind of swingy, like the text. So it was fun to see a slightly different style from what we're used to (not that we sit around all day here and look at Hush and Castle- really, we don't...much. Ha!)

Anyway, enough of my amateurish rambling- go check out Jules' much more professional treatment of this fantastic new book. It's a lovely way to start your day!

:)

I am so pleased with how my bookmarks came out for my new book, OVER AT THE CASTLE!



They're beautiful! (Well, how could they NOT be beautiful if they feature Kelly's artwork??) The front-side image is from my favorite spread in the book and it highlights the really cool "sub-plot" told by the illustrations which was all Kelly's idea (yes, she is a genius!)

Do you have a favorite class or teacher or librarian that would like some signed bookmarks?

I'll send a bundle of 25 signed bookmarks to the first 20 people who e-mail me at boni.ashburn(at)gmail.com (Use the real @ sign of course, put "bookmark giveaway" on the subject line, and include your mailing address in the body of the e-mail.)



Ready, set, GO!

:)

My daughter wants to be on stage- singing, dancing, acting- whatever. She's talented. She's dramatic. And yes, she's adorable :)

THIS is a fabulous book for anyone like that in your life:



It's big and bold and every page is bright and fun and filled with quotes and statistics and definitions- you could spend hours reading this book with your child and not get bored.

The genius of it is the alphabet-book framework- younger children can enjoy the book on a simpler level, following the ABC's and understanding the basic definitions (and being entertained by the dynamic layout and zany illustrations), while older children will find the quotes and more in-depth material fascinating.

What I really love about this book is its gender-neutrality. They could have gone girly with this in the hopes of reaching the Fancy Nancy audience, but they didn't. Both girls AND boys will easily find a lot to enjoy here. And so will the parents!

;)

If you are insanely obsessive, like me, and you pre-ordered a copy of this:



from Amazon, just so you would know the exact moment it is in stock and shipping,

then you already know it is.

In case you aren't like me, and you're just a regular, relaxed kind of person, then you should know:

OVER AT THE CASTLE is in-stock and shipping RIGHT NOW from Amazon!

(happy sigh)

:)

I'm really excited about a book coming out in March/April from my publisher, Abrams Books For Young Readers. It's called The Strange Case Of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. The wonderful cover looks like this:


Nice, Chad Beckerman, very nice.

We here in the Ashburn house are big, BIG Star Wars fans. BIG. Jack collects and builds Star Wars Lego ships in any spare time he has and watches the movies, um, regularly. We have more lightsabers than General Grievous. And we sometimes talk like Yoda. But don't tell anybody :)

Henry is also a fan (although not as rabid) and by coincidence, he is also ridiculously skilled at Origami.

And we all love MG books :)

So, you can understand my excitement. I haven't read it yet, but have heard *very good* things from people who have. And there's a video over on StarWars.com that shows you how to make your own origami Yoda. Here is what Henry made for me:



Adorable, no?? He is now residing on my desk, quietly telling me "Do or not do. There is no try." I think everyone needs one!

:)

My kids love the game they discovered via this book:



Thanks, Erica Perl, really, thank you so much ;)

Jack can play this game forever! But my kids, my twisted kids, are putting their own little spin on some of the traditional responses.

"Guess what?"
"Chicken butt." Of course that one is never gonna change- ha! But then we move on to:

"Guess why?"
"Chicken STIR-FRY!"

Ahhh, I would expect nothing less from my children...

:)

I am on a Wonderful Mid-Grade Book streak! Gosh I love reading good books.

It started with When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.


A HARD act to follow, no? But seriously, it has been followed by a whole string of fun, worthwhile books:


And right now I am laughing my way through A Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup

(I'm only a third of the way in, but so far it's hilarious!)

This streak is something of a hodge-podge (well, it's not THAT much of a hodge-podge, but I love any excuse to say the word hodge-podge), but I'd recommend every one of these books! I'm loving reading this many winners in a row...

:)