Learn to draw Doll-E and Blutooth characters from my new book, DOLL-E 1.0! Just print and enjoy! Happy drawing!
Nice work, Andre!
Feel free to COLOR! Just click on a thumbnail for a large, printable version. ENJOY!
Before the details of this awesome trip to NYC slips my mind, I wanted to write about it here.
Every year, Little, Brown hosts a Picture Book Event where they invite media, book stores, and librarians, etc. to see original art from their upcoming Spring books. They also get to meet 2 author-illustrators tat are a part of that Spring list. Caldecott Medalist, Sophie Blackall, was the main attraction as she spoke about her beautiful upcoming book HELLO LIGHTHOUSE. And the other author-illustrator was ME! I spoke about myself as a new kid on the block and my debut book, DOLL-E 1.0. (My anxiety meds work well, because I wasn’t nervous!) Let’s just say, the attendees got to know the real Shanda – southern accent, tripping up on several words, a few tears and everything when I shared about my eye struggles. Why not? This is me :)
The space where the event was held was decorated with my characters and Sophie’s too! Each place setting had Doll-E and Lighthouse Valentines, sweet hearts candy, and a magnifying glass to find clues in the presentations. It was the cutest! And I finally got to meet the team I’ve been working remotely with in person: Andrea Spooner (my editor), Hallie Tibbetts (Andrea’s assistant), Jen Keenan (my art director), and Saho Fuji (art director) among others! I felt so welcomed and celebrated. It was a breakfast (and lunch) I’ll never forget, because I know this doesn’t happen to everybody, and it may never feel like this again … but that’s why this blog post is here … to document this wonderful moment in my journey!
Shanda “like panda” slide sketch in my presentation.
Me and Sophie
Office of fun!
Signed my very first book!
See this face? This is the face of a REAL LIVE HERO! His name is Austin, and he and his family went out of their way last Sunday night for some strangers (us) that lived nearby to help us find our sweet buddy, Charlie (a 15 year-old deaf terrier). Charlie had gotten spooked by some unfamiliar faces that were trying to take care of him while we were out of town for the weekend, and he ran far away into unfamiliar territory. The temporary caretakers (my husband’s parents) were so scared of what could’ve happened to Charlie, but thanks to Austin and his kind family (who searched in dark woods with flashlights) Charlie was safe and found!
I am so grateful to my in-laws, my neighbor- Burt, and Austin’s family who all played a part in Charlie’s rescue! I sure do love our little city of Ball Ground and the people who make it such a sweet place to live!
Ta-da!!! The final cover:
I’m really proud of this cover … my FIRST cover! We (me, Andrea Spooner, Jen Keenan, and Saho Fuji) experimented with several cover ideas before we came to this perfect conclusion! Since this was my first book, I was really intrigued by the process of working with a team that wanted the cover to look cool as much as I did. I am very lucky an honored to have worked with these women who knew much more than I did about great cover design.
Here’s a few of our ideas that didn’t pan out, looked too busy, or worse – looked a bit SCARY …
Doll-E 1.0 comes out May 1, 2018 and is available for preorder now!
I sincerely thank each of you who are cheering me on and reading this post! I hope you’ll join me in the countdown to book release day by signing up for my email newsletter (at the bottom of my website), so you’ll be sure to know where I’m doing story-times and book signings to celebrate next spring!
With love and excitement,
Shanda
P.S. What do you think of the cover? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
This book is a lovely one! It’s written in a neat parallel way with sparse text. My little girls and I enjoyed seeking out the different personality trait clues in the pictures and relating to one sister or the other. The kitchen scenes were especially great! I also liked the author’s choices of words describing various snow activities. This is a sweet little read, especially when snuggling with your little girls! This book hits the shelves in January! Available for pre-order now (which is the best way to support a book)!
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/snow-sisters-kerri-kokias/1126605047?ean=9781101938836
https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Sisters-Kerri-Kokias/dp/1101938838
I got a great response from my original post about “Gifting Books To Kids (the cool way)!” So, it gives me an excuse to put together and share more book/gift ideas – which makes me happy :) I hope it inspires you.
I love Halloween like a little kid. Nothing too scary, but everything else about it is SO MUCH FUN! So when I saw a couple Vampirina Ballerina books ($18 each) (illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, Luyen Pham) in the bookstore, I grabbed them up! I found a headband ($2) that looked similar to Vampirina’s and a black tutu ($5) to go with it, a fun little make-up set ($3) and a plastic set of vampire teeth ($1). A $27 gift if you include one book or a $45 gift if you include two books :)
The next idea is very simple, inexpensive, and still lots of fun! “Boo!” by Leslie Patricelli ($8) is visual Halloween candy! I paired it with a couple of giant googly eyes ($2), a headband ($2), and 2 Cuties ($1) that I drew Jack-O-lantern faces on with a Sharpie. A $13 gift for a young Halloween lover!
I’d love to see or hear about what you come up with!
Happy Fall book gifting!
-Shanda
Checklists beside my kiddo’s bed. (Beware of toddlers drawing on the wall with the marker.)
My daughter started second grade about a month a ago. She’s a good girl who enjoys school for the most part, but she has her fair share of issues that will probably challenge her for life. For one, she’s the youngest in her class, yet the tallest. And she was delivered 3 weeks early when she was born. I think that may play into her actual “age” a lot. So she’s young. It can be difficult for her to focus. Reading hasn’t come as easily to her as it has to most of her peers, but she’s constantly getting stronger and stronger. That’s ALL that matters to me. But I see her little confidence wavering sometimes, and that can be tough to watch as a parent. So when I see her light up with empowerment over something in her life – it’s GOLD! Which is the case with 2 simple checklists we started using at the beginning of this school year.
They are nothing more than a basic “getting ready for bed checklist” and a “getting ready for school checklist”, but they have truly given her the success in independence she craves! When her alarm goes off in the morning, she gets up and starts checking things off the list. So simple. She’s usually ready for the day with a smile on her face before I even stumble down the stairs. I no longer have to yell or repeat “did you brush you teeth?” a thousand times. I used to be the angriest morning mom, and now I’m much cooler (and so is my daughter :) It’s night and day from last year’s school mornings!
So, I’d love to share these with you if you think they may help your family too. They are FREE! Just print them out and laminate at a UPS Store or somewhere like that (I used a friend’s small home laminator that he got for $30), then hang a dry-erase marker next to the list tacked on the wall for your kiddo to start checking things off :)
I’d love to know how it goes if you give it a try.
So simple. So powerful.
Cheers to a great school year!
-Shanda
