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.