The Fantastical World Around You

Howdy do!  A quick note of explanation from Z-Dad here.  Due to technical difficulties, I wasn't able to post a review on Monday.  But rather than skip a week, I raided the Z-Kids' other blog, Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty, and crafted a children's-book-related-post each day this week.  That explains the following seven posts...  I hope they're enjoyable for you!


We'll close out the week with some fan art Isaac and Gracie made based on Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black's wonderful Spiderwick Chronicles Field Guide...

First, three pictures by Isaac at age 9:

Goblin
pencil


Wood Elf
colored pencil on black paper


Phoenix
cut paper

And here are some Sprites from Gracie at age 7:

Orchid Sprite
cut paper


Flower Head
colored pencil


Thicket Sprite
colored pencil

Designing Dragons

Last year, Tony DiTerlizzi had a Design Your Own Dragon contest on his blog to mark the release of his great book "Kenny and the Dragon."  The prize was a copy of his new book containing a special drawing of Tony's dragon Grahame shaking hands with the winner's dragon.  Isaac and Gracie took up the challenge and created these guys:


Pistachio the Party Dragon, by Isaac at age 9
He throws parties at home in his castle, and everyone is invited.  He likes cotton candy, and he enjoys both giving and getting presents.


Tutu the Dancing Dragon, by Gracie at age 7
She likes to dance.  She likes to boogie.  She wears this outfit all the time.  She dances for the king of TwinkleLand.  Tutu dazzles with her dancing tricks.


And, oh happy day!  Isaac and Gracie won a book together with their entries!  And here's the cool drawing Mr. DiTerlizzi added to the endpapers:



You can check out the other winners by clicking here.

Monster Haiku

One of our family favorite author/illustrators is Adam Rex.  Last year with the launch of his most recent book, "Frankenstein Takes the Cake," he hosted a Monster Haiku contest on his blog.  For the prize, Mr. Rex would illustrate the winning poems and send his original art to the lucky poets.  The Z-Kids had fun learning about haiku and submitted these poems:

by Isaac at age 10:

Flying straight for us
Furry clawed feet, mighty wings
Run and hide! Griffin!


by Gracie at age 8:

Fuzzy pink monster,
she dances for kids at night.
I want to see her.


by Lily at age 5:

His fingers wiggle
He reaches out his long arms
Stop, Tickle Monster!

It turns out there were over 180 entries and two grand prize winners selected by celebrity judges.  And one of those lucky winners was our own Lily!  Here's the art she won, which is now proudly displayed in the girls' room:





Lily wrote a nice thank-you note and mailed it to Mr. Rex along with this picture she drew of Frankenstein's monster and his bride:



After which, Mr. Rex then emailed Lily in return.  Lily thought his reply was hilarious and still talks about it:

Hi Lily,

Thank you for the lovely art you sent me.  I don't think Frankenstein has ever looked so sweet.
Now, I know that I'm thanking you for your picture, which was itself a thank you for your contest prize, and the contest prize was sort of a thank you for your great haiku.  So don't write back to thank me for this thank you or we'll never stop and it'll be impossible to get anything else done.

Take Care,
Adam

And there it stopped.

Love of Reading

One of the best children's book review sites around is Just One More Book.  Last year Mark and Andrea put out a call for folks to send in illustrations for a Love of Reading Gallery.  Isaac, Grace, and Lily wanted in on the fun and worked up these illustrations for the gallery.



Love For Reading
by Gracie at age 7

Made with cut paper (snazzy cut paper!)



Critters Reading
by Lily at age 5

A bird, a snake, and a sitting duck



Just One More Book
by Isaac at age 9

Mmmmm... Gators love books...


I thought I'd also take a moment to mention that my love for Just One More Book directly lead to the creation of Bookie Woogie.  They have a feature where anyone can call into their hotline and leave a message telling about your favorite book.  I thought the kids would really enjoy doing this, but since it's a real-time recorded call, I figured we'd have to practice lots first.  I remembered back to a Christmas letter years earlier that I had put together with the family in an interview format, and was bemoaning the fact that it couldn't work that way... record it all and type up the best bits afterward.  Then I thought, hey we could do that.  And that would actually be fun!  We could do it on a regular basis!  Start our own blog!  And thus... Bookie Woogie was born.  And that is how most things work with me... simple ideas snowball into huge, complex endeavors.  What could have been a quick one-time phone call is now instead an ongoing weekly lengthy production!

Thanks Just One More Book for your fantastic podcast and also for the inspiration!  And we'll get around to leaving that phone message someday...

(For a taste of Just One More Book, you might want to check out the review of this book written by some guy.)

Take a pick

When Isaac was 9, he made this game for us:

The large image is a detail of which animal?  The giraffe, the pigeon, or the rhino?  Take a guess and then scroll down to see if you are right!



Did you pick one? Find the correct answer below...

5

4

3

2

1


It's the pigeon wearing a mask!

For the Birds

Author/Illustrator Mo Willems often puts fan art on his great blog (now see here). Kids send him their ideas for new pigeon books... he even turned it into a big event with his last book's release. A couple years ago the Z-Kids were inspired to think up their own "Pigeon" titles. Here's some of the fun ideas they came up with:


The Pigeon Finds a Sabertooth Mouse
Gracie at age 6



Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Tank
Isaac at age 8



The Pigeon Finds Some Friends
Lily at age 4



Another one by Gracie:
The Pigeon Finds a Rocket
(Dad loves the beak on the pigeon rocket! And the curtains in the window...)

Z-Kid Favorites

Hi-ho!  Z-Dad here.  A couple weeks ago my computer broke, and since I'm an illustrator and we are therefore living off starving-artist-income, it's taking me some time to acquire all the items necessary for work (and Bookie Woogie) to get back up and running again.  But rather than skip a week of Bookie Woogie, I thought I'd raid the Z-Kids' other blog Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty for some children's-book-related posts.  So instead of a single review resting here all week long, check back every day for seven, count 'em, seven fun posts!


Through dedicated scouring of inexpensive avenues, we're fortunate to have right around 3000 children's books at home.  Last year I asked the kids what their absolute favorite books were out of the whole collection.  These pictures were based on their choices:


The Horned King from "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
by Isaac, at age 9

Dad has to say, I think Isaac's design here is the best imagining of the Horned King I have EVER seen!  Way cool!



Tribute to "Babymouse" by Jennifer & Matthew Holm
by Gracie at age 7

Gracie's picture depicts Babymouse approaching her homework-eating locker.  (I'm SURE we'll be seeing a Babymouse review here on Bookie Woogie sometime soon...)



Tribute to "Oink Oink" by Arthur Geisert
by Lily at age 5

Piglets falling from the sky into a cornfield...