IT CAME IN THE MAIL !!

HUGE 

CONGRATULATIONS 

to WHATSIT Ben Clanton

 on the release of his new, 

and oh-so-fun, book 

IT CAME IN THE MAIL

HOORAY, BEN!! 

Make it come in your mail or, better yet, 

head to your independent book shop and pick up a copy!

-ERS

Two New Editions!!!

THE WHATSITS have two new editions!!! 

The cuteness factor is off the charts for—

 WHATSIT Kevan Atteberry's new picture book, and companion to his BUNNIES!!!,

PUDDLES!!!
d.o.b May 24, 2016

and if you think PUDDLES!!! is cute . . . 

 get a load of THIS . . .

Whatsit Ben Clanton's 

newest edition—

welcome, 

THEO!!!

d.o.b May 19, 2016

All THE WHATSITS couldn't be happier!

 

Congratulations, Kevan!!! 

Congratulations, Ben!!!

DO leave some welcome-comments

for our newest, cutest, WHATSIT editions!

-ERS

SIGN HERE. . . OR THERE . . . OR . . .

by Elizabeth Rose Stanton

I’ve always been interested in how authors and illustrators sign their books. 

I doubt most people give it a second thought, unless you are one. I certainly didn’t until my own books came out, and these are some of the questions I faced:

Where do I sign? The title page? The endpapers? Should I sign the way I sign a check?  

Or with a flourish? What do I do if I make a mistake? I’m also an illustrator, so do I draw a little picture? Do I write a little pithy something that relates to something in the book? Should I date it?

Well, I soon discovered there are as many answers as there are question about this, so here’s a little romp through some of the picture books in my collection, including how we Whatsits sign some of our books.

*

First up! Let's start with a fresh-off-the-press signature! This week was the release and book launch party for our fellow Whatsit Jennifer K. Mann’s newest picture book gem, SAM AND JUMP. Here is Jennifer in action, signing her first copy (mine!) of the evening:

 Congratulations, Jennifer and welcome to the world, SAM AND JUMP!!

*

My first “witnessing” of an author-illustrator book signing was when I went to my now fellow Whatsit Ben Clanton's book party for the release of his (always, but especially now, timely) book, VOTE FOR ME. Like Jennifer, Ben did it all:  wrote a little note, signed on the main title page, and drew a little picture – although he turned to the front endpapers to do it! I was impressed with the time Ben took with each book—especially when there was a little person in front of him. Note that Ben signs his name in that kid-friendly way of his,

"Ben C." 

*

As I've collected signed picture books over the last few years, I've noticed the variation in approaches to how authors and illustrators sign their books:

Here's one of my favorites. It's simple and elegant: 

And,  quite honestly, if you are Paul O. Zelinsky, and the book is RUMPELSTILSKIN, well, there's not much more that's necessary, right?

That said, here's how he signed my copy of TOYS COME HOME. Somehow the title page got slightly damaged, and here's what he did with it!

*

While it's always a little thrill to have an illustrator draw something in your book, here are some who sometimes don't . . . and they have attractive ways of writing their monikers:

I like that I got a "ribbit" from David Wiesner

. . .  and Kadir Nelson's— neatly tucked into the moon:

Oliver Jeffers was quick about it:

*
Some people like their books straight-up signed—no personalization. But for those who do, there are some books with a handy spot built right in:

Ruth Chan also drew me a sweet little picture of her character Georgie (not to mention mentioning Henny and Peddles . . . I love it when my friends do that!). 

And David Ezra Stein's OL' MAMA SQUIRREL has the possessive built in, too:

*

It's fun to see how some illustrators handle the picture-drawing-part.

There's the obvious BIG picture:

and the little picture:

What's not to love about Caldecott honoree Molly Idle's little flamingo flourish!

Sophie Blackall's tiny wombats are to die for:

I love the way Whatsit Wendy Wahman punctuates her signature with this perfectly petite poodle:

     

And the colored picture:

Liz Wong uses a marker that's a perfect match for her name on the title page. Her sweet little drawings look like they are part of the book! 

Mike Curato had some Tombow markers handy to put the finishing dot touches on Little Elliot: 

*

Then there are those who prefer to sign on the blank front end paper:

    Herve Tullet is BOLD:

    Carson Ellis is simple:

    Whatsit Kevan Atteberry is hoppy:

 *

Then there's the enexpected and delightful that goes along with being at book events with fellow authors and illustrators . . .

I was on an author panel recently with the fun and funny Aaron Meshon. We exchanged books, and he took the time to draw little faces on all the figures on the front endpapers of his new book (not to mention the clouds):

I was tickled silly that Sherman Alexi actually drew a HENNY when he signed his book for me:

And one of my absolute favorites was when Judy Schachner paired up one of her sweet kitties with Henny:

And quite the unexpected happened when I botched signing a copy of HENNY for Mayor Ed Murray of Seattle. I made good on my mistake (I still wonder who Felix is) and gave him a fresh copy, and then . . .

He graciously turned around and signed the one I'd screwed up— for me! Thanks for the souvenir, Your Honor!

*

Finally, there's always the dilemma of how to get signed books to people who want them, but are far away. The long answer is:  they send you the book, you sign it, and you send it back. The short answer is:  the signed bookplate!
They come in handy, and I have a good supply for PEDDLES and HENNY from my publisher:

And here's one from Matthew Cordell from a wonderful book promotion he did when his book HELLO! HELLO! was released (I even got an extra for a friend):

*

I still have many unsigned and undecorated books in my collection, and I'm looking forward to someday connecting them to their author and/or illustrators.
I can't wait to see how they do it!
-ERS

*

an EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with the WORLD-RENOWNED BUBBLE BLOWING CHAMPION . . . PICKLES!

This post is brought to you by Ben Clanton and THE HUNGRY BEAR CORPORATION.

When I do school visits I usually talk a bit about story ingredients with the kids. There are two in particular that I find to be key when making stories: characters and questions. With those two ingredients you've got all you need to discover the rest (conflict, setting, resolution . . . ). When presenting I get some help from the audience to create a character (often we create some sort of miximal). I then ask for a loquacious volunteer to come up front and BECOME that character. I do a sort of talk show role-playing where I interview the character. In one such interview the character turned out to be 2,000 years old, the inventor of video games, and allergic to sneezes. In another interview my guest turned out to have a certain meal that it loved beyond all others . . . kids and authors. One of my favorite interviews was one in which the character was an alien from another planet who did not know any Earth languages so I had to get another volunteer to be an interpreter. 

This exercise of interviewing a character is a great one not only for school visits but also coming up with stories in the first place or working out sticky story bits. Often I find myself having conversations with my characters when out for a walk or when fixing dinner, but sometimes I make the process more formal and write up questions and answers. I end up knowing a lot about my characters this way and while most of the details won't end up in the book I find that the voice of my characters are better defined when I do a Q&A and the emotional/character arc becomes deeper and more believable. BUT ENOUGH of me prattling on! We've got a special guest on the blog today.

BEN (B): Pickles! Thanks for being willing to answer some questions. Can you start out by sharing a bit about yourself?

PICKLES (P): . . . .

B: Pickles? You there?

P: Oh! Um, yes, HI!! Sorry, I was distracted. My friend Chip just sent me this video of a cat facing down an alligator. That is one brave kitty! Here . . . I'll send it to you. One sec!

B: Thanks, Pickles . . . I think I saw that one. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

P: Do you think a cat could face down a T-REX? I've heard that alligators are pretty much living dinosaurs. OH, WOW!!! YOU'VE GOT TO SEE THIS VID!

B: Huh?

P: This one is full of a bunch of otters this time facing down an alligator. THEY'RE SO CUTE!!! 

B: Hey, Pickles, I know that otters are super cute and all but would you mind focusing a little?

P: Huh? What did you say? I didn't catch that . . . my brother Eucalyptus was shouting something at me. Do you like pink?

B: Sure! Who doesn't? Now can you tell us a bit about yourself?

P: Chip doesn't like pink. Chip says purple is better. I like them both. I also like raspberries. And peanuts. Oh, and that sound when a bubble pops.

B: Speaking of bubbles . . . want to tell us how you became the bubble blowing champion of the world?

P: I once had a pet bubble-rock. But it died. Or at least I think it did. It stopped floating and sunk. Maybe it is just sleeping. Huh! Oh, got to go! Good talking with you Bugle! Bye!

B: Okay . . . I guess this interview is at an end. 

And so is this post! Thanks for tuning in! I wish you more success getting answers out of your characters than I had getting any from Pickles. :)

- Ben Clanton

Literary Miximals with Elizabeth Rose Stanton

I had so much fun with fellow Whatsit, Ben Clanton's, post about "Miximals" from last week that it got me thinking about some of the "miximals" that already exist in children's literature.
Here are some that spring to mind:

Growing up, I was fascinated by Hugh Lofting's pushmi-pullyu—kind of a gazelle, bi-horned unicorn cross:

from The Story of Dr Dolittle (1920)

Lewis Carroll's fantastic nonsense creatures came to life in John Tenniel's exquisitely detailed drawings:

The gryphon, which looks to be a lion, raptor, not-sure-what-else kind of critter; and the mock turtle— a wonderful blend of cow and turtle!

from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

 . . . and the ultimate composite Alice creature, the jabberwocky:

from Through the Looking glass, and what Alice Found There (1871)

On a more modern, and lighter note, here are a few jumbled-up characters from Dr. Seuss, complete with a variety of miximal-type names:

Joats

  from If I ran the Zoo (1950)

Finally, I think Maurice Sendak's Wild Things are some of the best "miximals" going!

 from Where the Wild Things Are (1963)

 What are your favorite miximals from children's literature?

-ERS

Miximals with Ben Clanton

In the last post I did for the whatsit blog (back in November!) I talked about different ways of keeping final art loose and free. My eighth tip for loosening up was about warm-ups. Today I thought I'd share one of my favorite warm-up games. It isn't all that complex, but it tends to be a favorite among illustrators for good reason. I've heard this game called many things, but the one I like best is 'miximals.'

When I play this game at school presentations and book readings I ask the audience for three different animal names. If you do play this game with kids it can be fun to pretend to mishear the suggestion or misremember it. For example, if a kid suggests a 'dog' then I might say 'Emu?! Great idea!' . . . the kids love to shout back what the actual suggestion was. BUT seeing as I do not have an audience in my studio tonight I decided to simply search online for a 'random animal generator' which turned out great. An alternative is to rip up a bunch of paper scraps and write creature names on the different scraps, put them in a bucket, and draw out a few from the bucket. Once you have three animal names or two or ten then the next step is to simply draw a picture of all those creatures mashed together. I find this never fails to get my creative juices flowing. It is both fun and challenging. You can also take it a step further and determine the name for the creature by mixing the names of the creatures.

There is a writing game I enjoy playing sometimes that is similar to maiximals in which I write a bunch of random words down, select a few, and then have to use all those words in either a sentence or a short story. The more words the bigger the challenge and the more interesting the result!

I'd love to see what sort of miximals you come up with!

Some Meanwhile Thoughts

-Loads of activity going on for THE WHATSITS lately — book launches, new book deals, LOTS of books in the works! Never a dull moment. So hang tight. We'll be back with another scintillating post in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, here are some WHATSIT thoughts from each of us:

An upside down thought from Elizabeth Rose Stanton
.

A stellar thought from Wendy Wahman

. 

A two sides to it thought from Kevan Atteberry

.

A racy thought from Ben Clanton

.

An achy thought from Jennifer K Mann
.

See you soon!

Announcing the newest member to the family: Peddles!

by Wendy Wahman

Elizabeth Rose Stanton’s new baby, PEDDLES, debut birthday party is this Friday, and we’re mighty proud and excited around here. But what do you get a pig for his birthday? Well, if you’re the beloved nephew of A Whatsit, you might get a portrait of yourself (and a trough of cake).

If you’re in the Seattle area, join us at University Bookstore, Fri., Jan. 8th at 7pm.

to raise our champagne glasses to our dear, talented, hard working Elizabeth.

~ Check out the Calendar for upcoming PEDDLES and other Whatsits events ~

‘Peddles’ with love from Uncle Ben:

Mama Stanton:

            

Auntie Jennifer:

Uncle Kevan:

and Auntie Wendy:

 We love you, Peddles!