Just One More Book!!

It was like picture-book-boot-camp.  We had an 8am workshop and our training officer, one Jarrett Krosoczka (on JOMB), didn’t waste any time.  After a quick introduction to his pug Ralph Macchio and his fantastic creative environment, Jarrett demonstrated his illustrating and painting technique.  Before long, Lucy and Bayla were rolling up their sleeves and trying out what they had just learned; prepping the illustration paper, mixing paint and shading to create three dimensions.  At the end of the whole process, we had an original Krosoczka/Ross-Blevis painting to bring home.

Oh yeah, it was when we finally arrived at Jarrett’s (after being coached to his place over the phone) that we decided we weren’t going to get lost en route to any more of our scheduled appointments.

MUSIC

• Theme: Woolly Mammoth by Robert Farrell (from Sun House Fury, part 1)
• PF on Tour Interlude performed by Punk Farm

Author/Illustrator Diane de Groat walks us through the digital process of putting dogs in poses they don’t do — like lounging on a couch with a newspaper — for her upcoming book (with Shelley Rotner), Dogs Don’t Brush Their Teeth (coming in August 2009).  She also shows us how she adds digital colour, then real paint to her illustrations.  Lucy and Bayla particularly enjoyed having the opportunity to sketch using Diane’s digital tablet.

MUSIC

• Theme: Woolly Mammoth by Robert Farrell (from Sun House Fury, part 1)
• Arlechinno by Paul Bourdeau (from Wild Rice, performed by Paul Bourdeau and Shane Simpson)

Be sure to check out Diane’s contribution to our Love of Reading Gallery.

In the final of three parts that feature Author/Illustrator Lane Smith (on JOMB), we go through Lane’s archives to see ten years worth of idea development for his amazing book John, Paul, George and Ben.  Then, we hit the road for Northampton with a fun stop at the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Scultpure Gardens in Springfield, Massachusetts.

MUSIC

• Theme: Woolly Mammoth by Robert Farrell (from Sun House Fury, part 1)
• Song About You by The Birdinumnums (from She Say Go, found on the Podsafe Music Network)
• The Swaggering Dragon by Zubot and Dawson (from Tractor Parts: Further Adventures in Strang)

Author/Illustrator Lane Smith (on JOMB) walks us through his thought process and style decisions for two books he’s working on that will be published in 2009 — Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) with Florence Parry Heide due out September 22, 2009; and The Big Elephant in the Room due out July 7, 2009.  He also demonstrates how he takes original sketches, imports them into Photoshop and turns them into digital, production-ready artwork.

MUSIC

• Theme: Woolly Mammoth by Robert Farrell (from Sun House Fury, part 1)
• Subtle Groove by Ehren Starks (from Depths of a Year, available on Magnatune)

Bloggers and podcasters take note of the interview segment with Lane during the end credits!

This is the first of three videos that document our visit with Lane Smith (on JOMB) and Molly Leach. Here, Lane shows us original artwork from The Stinky Cheese Man, describes the production process for The Happy Hocky Family books, shares his passion for children’s books — old and new — and compares traditional collage with digital collage.

MUSIC

• Theme: Woolly Mammoth by Robert Farrell (from Sun House Fury, part 1)
• The Getaway by Matthew Ebel (from Goodbye Planet Earth)

It was a little idea that turned into a couple of phone calls, then a few emails and eventually exploded into two-and-a-half months of planning.  Finally, after a restless night, Just One More Book!! (Mark and Andrea, and their two daughters, Lucy and Bayla) set out early in the morning of November 12, 2008 for a six-day road trip to live, eat, socialize, paint and read with children’s book creators in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Part 1 of this series recounts the story of how the trip came to be and includes footage of the drive from Ottawa, Ontario to Roxbury, Connecticut.  It also features photographs and video footage of some of the people we spent time with and places we visited — all of which will appear later in the series.  The travel sequence ends with our arrival at Lane Smith’s and Molly Leach’s home.

MUSIC

• Theme: Woolly Mammoth by Robert Farrell (from Sun House Fury, part 1)
• Metal Stabs by Vergel Evans (from Lx7 Promo Release)
• Animus Girl by Savium (from Inane and Serene)

Finally!!!  Mark has produced more than half of the videos from our six-day holiday to Connecticut and Northampton — our November 2008 Rock Stars of Reading road trip.  This means we’ll begin publishing the video series, one video at-a-time, beginning on March 31; filling up the “off-days” in the Just One More Book!! publishing cycle until all of the videos are available.

To prove this is really happening, here is a promotional video for the series.  It’s an extract from Part 1 and features some of our car travel as well as photographs and video clips from the entire trip, all cut to the amazing song Animus Girl by savium.  Look for the faces of Richard Michelson, Paul O. Zelinsky, Jane Yolen, Jeanne Birdsall, Mo Willems, Jane Dyer, Jarrett Krosoczka, Diane de Groat, Lane Smith, Corinne Dumas, Jeff Mack and MANY MORE!

With the exception of this promotional video, we will not be embedding the videos into the Just One More Book!! RSS feed.  You’ll have to come here to watch them.  Each video will be about 15 minutes long.

We’re hard at work editing 13 hours of video, 25 hours of audio and over 2,000 pictures into a series of short documentaries about our 6-day children’s book roadtrip. To reward your patience, we’ve created this quick teaser of our visit with Lane Smith and Molly Leach.

Subscribers of our monthly email newsletter were able to see this video first! Our newsletter also features extra news items and additional audio never published on our website. Don’t miss out! Sign up for our monthly newsletter on our website, justonemorebook.com/newsletter.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Author: Cynthia Rylant (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Lauren Stringer (on JOMB)
Published: 2008 Harcourt (on JOMB)
ISBN: 0152053034

Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Welcoming snowscapes, glowing orange coziness and carefully, crafted verse capture our very personal yet wonderfully universal relationship with snow in this exquisite reflection on the fleeting sweetness of life.

More wintry reading on JOMB:

• Snowsong Whistling
• The Snow Show — with Chef Kelvin
• Treasure for Lunch
• The Lamp, the Ice and the Boat Called Fish
• The Magic Hockey Stick
• Irving and Muktuk: Two Bad Bears
• Cuddly Dudley
• Wenceslas

HOTLINE VOICES: Blogger and soon to be published children’s book author Candace Ryan shares a creative review (with a Thanksgiving twist) of Blue Hat, Green Hat (by Sandra Boynton).

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave us a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487.

Welcome to Just One More Book!! If you’re a newcomer to our website or are unfamiliar with audio podcasts and how the Just One More Book!! audio programs promote children’s books, the people that create them and a general love of reading, you may find this video to be a helpful on-ramp to becoming part of the Just One More Book!! community.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Author: Zetta Elliott (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Shadra Strickland (on JOMB)
Published: 2008 Lee and Low Books (on JOMB)
ISBN: 160060241X

Amazon.com

Delicate first-person verse and a stirring orchestration of watercolour, charcoal and ballpoint pen illustrations peek inside a young artist as he wrestles with his family’s issues of addiction and loss.

More dreams of flight on JOMB:

• My Dad’s A Birdman
• Fly, Eagle, Fly
• I Can Hear the Sun
• Tudley Didn’t Know
• Chopsticks
• Falling Angels
• Today I Will Fly!

Pop over to Brimstone Soup for today’s full menu of poetry offerings. Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.

HOTLINE VOICES: Marlive Harris, founder of the gritskids.com book club tells us about Little Lion Goes to School (by Kellie Magnus and Michael Robinson)

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave us a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487.

Welcome to Just One More Book!!
If you’re a newcomer to our website or are unfamiliar with audio podcasts and how the Just One More Book! audio programs promote children’s books, the people that create them and a general love of reading, you may find this video to be a helpful on-ramp to becoming part of the Just One More Book!! community.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It’s November 8, 2008, three days before the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day, the end of World War I. A crowd has gathered in a big hall in the Canadian War Museum. Among the historic military machines on exhibit is a small glass display case, one foot by one foot, set atop a narrow pedestal. In the display case is “Teddy”, a child’s stuffed toy.

The crowd is here to celebrate the launch of the book A Bear in War, written by Stephanie Innes and Harry Endrulat and illustrated by Brian Deines. In the book, “Teddy”, that stuffed toy on display in the museum, tells the true story of a family affected by World War I; Lt. Lawrence Browning Rogers, his wife Janet May Weaver Rogers and their two children Aileen and Howard.

MUSIC: Poor James from the CD Tractor Parts: Further Adventures in Strang by Zubot and Dawson.

Related links

• A detailed series on the workflow to create this episode
• Remembrance Day Tribute podcast

As an experiment, we’ve created a video/slideshow version of this edition of Just One More Book!! The video can be viewed on our website; it is not included in our RSS subscription feed. The audio version of the program is available, as usual, at the bottom of this post. We’d appreciate your feedback.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave us a voice message on the JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487.