Last weekend I began the daunting task of packing up my apartment to move to a new place at the end of the month. I’ll be less than a mile from my current home, but I’m still faced with four years of Stuff to sort through and pack up. Since the closets were too intimidating […]Read more "Stop, Ponder, Lift"

If you’ve been following my posts, you’ve probably noticed Graphic Universe has been visiting a lot of comics festivals and convention recently. Just two weeks ago GU author Colleen Venable attended the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and gave this interview to Good Comics for Kids. Another convention is coming up: MeCAF in beautiful Portland, Maine. […]Read more "The "Maine" Event!"

Autism is often in the news, most recently with high-profile coverage of Andrew Wakefield, whose research linking the onset of autism to the common childhood measles vaccination was debunked not so long ago. The New York Times Magazine ran a profile of Wakefield’s story (link above) in April 2011, and no matter where you find […]Read more "Neodiversity"

Who doesn’t love a fabulous hairdo! In honor of Kate Hosford and Holly Clifton-Brown’s new picture book Big Bouffant, we want to see your best ‘do! Take a look at these fabulous styles from a few of Kate Hosford’s book signings…To enter, simply post a link to a photo of your best hairdo (or hairDON’T) […]Read more "Big Bouffant Contest"

I’ve told all of you before how I compulsively read everything—even the packaging for various products I have lying around at home. Well, one thing I see all the time on packaging that makes me want to tear my hair out is the claim that a product is “100% all natural.” AUUGGH! If something’s 100% […]Read more "Copywriting Fail"

Did you catch kidlit agent (and editor of more award winning books than you can shake a stick at) Brenda Bowen on Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me a couple weekends ago? I’ve been listening to that show since I was in high school, and rarely have the panelists irritated me more than they did in […]Read more "Harder than you think"

The planets must have aligned on April 16th. For some unknown reason, a number of comic convention and festivals were held across the country on that day. In The Bronx we had Kid’s Comic Con, attended by our own Carol Burrell, Colleen AF Venable and Yuko Ota. In Portland, Oregon was Stumptown Comics Fest, one […]Read more "Wish You Were Here"

Here at Lerner, we talk a lot about the importance of cover designs in attracting both fiction and nonfiction readers. One of my favorite recent TFCB covers, for example, is Mass Extinction (Discovery! series, cover below). The cover hits all the key elements of a stylish design: elegance, simplicity, and what fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent […]Read more "Attracted by Design"

I admired Jane Brocket’s photographs long before we began working together on her lovely (and clever!) series of children’s books. She has quite a collection of photos to draw from as she creates her books. However, there are times when just the right photo doesn’t yet exist. I’ve blogged before about the cover design process […]Read more "The Photo That Didn’t Go As Planned"