This weekend I’m headed to a high school reunion, and the anticipation has got me thinking back to those years much more than usual. What do you remember from high school? Hanging out with close friends? Hours each night spent on homework? The daily routine of classes, sports practice, dinner, hitting the books? The Mean […]Read more "Biology Review"

  My colleagues and I wore our Little Black Dresses to work to celebrate the release of TFCB’s new Fall 2011 Dressing a Nation fashion series. Above, left to right, back row: Anna, Ashley, Brie, Domenica; Seated, left to right: Sara, Katie, Martha. Not pictured: Danielle the photographer, Amelia the prop girl, and Alison the […]Read more "The Little Black Dress—Top Ten List"

I enjoy checking Brian P. Cleary’s Facebook page. Here are a few recent tidbits I found especially interesting: “Had me in stitches?” STITCH originally meant a sharp thrust or puncture. Nearly 1,000 years ago, the word meant an acute pain in the side, as if stabbed. So if someone “has you in stitches,” it’s a […]Read more "Word Nerd Fun"

If you hate blogs about the old days, skip this one. I was reminiscing the other day about how much office supplies once mattered in the bookmaking process. We’d collect highlighters or colored pencils in every color we could find and hoard them like gold. They were just right for trying to suggest a color […]Read more "Office Supplies, etc."

Cartooning Studio is an annual summer workshop offered at The Center for Cartoon Studies. I’ve been teaching at the workshops for the past 6 years. This Sunday I headed up to White River Junction, Vermont for two days of intensive teaching. Jon Chad and I lecture on the importance of book design. One of my […]Read more "Design Lessons at Comic Book Camp"

Are you a teen with a great profile pic? We want to use your avatar on the cover of a new book that is all about social media! All you need to do is email an uncropped, high quality jpeg of your picture to publicityinfo@lernerbooks.com by August 15, 2011. If your picture is selected, we’ll […]Read more "Your Profile Picture on a Book Cover!"

One of my father’s favorite expressions is “pig in a poke.” You know, to refer to something you get (into) or buy without knowing ahead of time what it really is. For example, I love the “pig in a poke” approach to dining, in which a restaurant offers a surprise tasting menu based on whatever […]Read more "Pig in a Poke"

I was recently reading an article in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s entitled “Creation Myth,” and while much of it is focused on Xerox PARC, Steve Jobs, and the personal computer, it also included a broader discussion of creative people and their ideas. Gladwell discusses the work of psychologist Dean Simonton. He says: […]Read more "The Creative Process"