Screen Free Week starts tomorrow!

Hi, all. If you hadn't heard, this very admirable initiative called Screen Free Week is beginning tomorrow.

http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/screenfreeweek

Let's all try our best to limit our time in front of a screen and spend more face time with the ones we love during this week.

While we're at it, let's all share HELLO! HELLO! with the ones we love too.

HELLO! HELLO! 2013!

Happy new year, blogosphere!

I have not posted anything here in a while, so I thought a books up-to-speed was in order.

Here are the crazy cool things that have happened with HELLO! HELLO! since my last check-in.

Named a Best Children's Picture Book of 2012 by the New York Times! "Its message is loud, clear and important."

Named a Best Children's Picture Book by BookPage! "Cordell’s hopeful story encourages children to play outside, while also challenging their parents to play with them, a reminder for all of us to take time to disconnect from work and gadgets and reconnect with nature and family."

Named a Top 20 Children's Book by super-librarians John Schumacher and Travis Jonker! "The story is sweet, offbeat, and funny. And hello! hello! has picture book craft in spades, with thoughtful artwork that goes from small grey spot illustrations to vivid two page spreads to match Lydia’s story. It’s a beautiful, relevant, unexpected book."

Named (alongside ANOTHER BROTHER and BAT AND RAT!) a best picture book by Tanya Turek at books4yourkids! "These three books would have made it onto this "best of list" anyway, but I just thought it was so cool that this spectacular author/illustrator had FOUR picture books out this year, three of which I reviewed here and read at story time and love to bits!"

Recommended by the Kansas City Star! "Put down your cellphone and read this with your kids, and when you're done, go outside and chase some leaves."

Recommended by People Magazine!

Very kind review from The Horn Book! "...whimsical cartoon art and a keen sense of humor."

Very kind review and an Editors Choice Award from childrensbooksguide.com! "Technology has its perks without a doubt, but let us not forget to teach our kids that it is vital to stay connected- and not through any form of technology. The illustrations are gorgeous, it’s an entertaining read, and it has a good theme to boot."

Beyond all this (whew!), this very sweet piece came out from Publishers Weekly about wonderful author/illustrator, illustrator, super-editor pals, Philip Stead, Erin Stead, and Neal Porter, respectively. Including the bit (and sample art) about how I'll be soon working on a picture book with the Mr. Stead. Very excited about this!

Also, the art giveaway/book promo for HELLO! HELLO! was a smashing success. So incredibly grateful to all those who participated. And so incredibly grateful for all the love that's been shown for this book.

Thanks to all.

2013!

Onward and upward!

Last Day for Free Art by This Guy

Alert, holiday shoppers! My big "buy hello! hello! = get free art campaign" is officially ending at the end of today. Get online or to your favorite bookstore and buy your copy or copies of hello! hello! to get you some free artwork (I make it, I ship it, all on my dime) before it's too late. This is a holiday shopping WIN-WIN for you. Buy books = holiday gifts. Get some free, snazzy artwork = holiday gifts.

Offer ends at stroke o' midnight tonight. Go forth! Find details for this offer at this blog post. Thank you so much for everyone who has participated in this promo. The response has been beyond my wildest expectations. For real.

Makin' Art, subtitled: Know My Plight

People! Tarry not! The deadline to get yourself one of my supersweet FREE watercolors of Lydia riding her beloved horse, from my new book HELLO! HELLO! is fast approaching. I need you to get your books bought and receipts sent in to me by this Saturday, December 1st to make the cut. I say tarry not!

In case you were wondering, this is just a day in the life here. This is what I go through to make one of these watercolors. It's hard out there, folks. See my blog post right here for details on how to secure one of these (maybe/maybe not tear-stained) for your own self!

Holiday! HELLO! HELLO! Art For Free! Final Week!

This is it, folks. The final week of my big "buy hello! hello! = get free art" campaign. The last day to send in your receipts for book purchases is Saturday, December 1. Help me help you to take care of some of your holiday shopping right here, right now. For complete details, please visit this blog post where I lay everything out very clearly (if not very wordily).

The last batch of orders I shipped out. Another fat batch is in the works right now. Get in this batch, man!

The gist of it is, if you buy one or more copies of my books (give them as holiday gifts!), I will reward you with artwork (give this as holiday gifts!) at no cost to you. That's right. This is WIN-WIN. And. At. No. Cost. To. You. I just need to see some receipts people. Again, read over good this blog post.

Here I am, taking hello! hello! out on the road. I thank my daughter (she's inside the book) and I thank the pony.

To quickly recap, if you buy one copy of hello! hello!, you will receive this:

A set of signed postcards that feature my artwork plus one signed and personalized bookplate.

And if you buy two copies of hello! hello!, you will receive this:

Your choice of one signed proof (any spread from within the book) plus two signed and personalized bookplates. (Proofs are first come, first serve and going fast, people.)

And if you buy three copies of hello! hello!, you will receive this sweet, sweet gem:

A very special hand watercolored print (only the black line drawing is a print, the color is applied by me, by hand, by brush, so every one I make is different!) plus three signed and personalized bookplates.

Time is running out for this offer, so let's make a run for it! Did I say it's all over this Saturday, December 1? Oh, I guess I did. Look, I totally want to hook you up with some art in exchange for you totally hooking me up and you up with some copies of hello! hello! ok? If you've already participated in this promo, I hope you'll spread the good word of your experience on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. If you haven't participated and are on the fence, get off that sucker and go buy books, man!

Books!

Art!

Holidays!

hello! hello!

First batch of hello! hello! art is en route!

Last week I had a book deadline to complete, so the orders for my "buy a copy or copies of hello! hello! = get free art" campaign were piling up. By the time it reached 21 orders, I was finally done with that book-in-progress. It took a while to complete all the watercolors and assembling of stuff and the packaging itself on all this took its own mammoth amount of time. But it's been so much fun and so worthwhile connecting with picture book lovers on this here project.

So, if you would like a free watercolor (as shown on the top of the stack in the photo) or a free proof from hello! hello! or free signed bookplate(s) and postcards, please see this blog post that lays this offer all out on the table. The thing ends on November 30, so act now!

HELLO! HELLO! art exchange, SLJ, school visits, oh my!

As I'm preparing final art for a picture book, I thought I'd pop in and update on a few things.

First, I'm nearly finished collecting and finishing up art for an amazing amount of takers on my "buy a copy--or copies--of HELLO! HELLO! and I will give you some art for free" deal! I'm so thrilled with how many people have taken me up on this offer in its first week. If you haven't read about this, please check out my blog post here. Buy 1 book gets you a signed book plate and art post cards. Buy 2 books gets you a signed proof of one of the spreads from the book. Buy 3 books and I give you a hand watercolored drawing (the drawing is printed, the watercolor is not) of Lydia riding atop her horse! I ain't even playing. If you partake, I just need to see receipts for book purchases at mattthew@matthewcordell.com. And act now, because this offer is only good until the end of November! Get your holiday shopping done here!

A whopping stack of stuff getting ready to pack up and ship out. Thanks SO much, everyone! Keep 'em coming!!

Secondly, a great new review just came in for HELLO! HELLO! from School Library Journal:

.K-Gr 6—Bored with her electronic equipment, a girl finds a new world to explore in this nearly wordless picture book. Cordell uses pen-and-ink and watercolor snapshots in a sea of white space to great effect, along with text in an old, impersonal computer typeface, to show the distance between the child and her parents and baby brother, all of whom are absorbed in their own devices. A colorful leaf blows through the door inviting the child outside where she encounters the sunny natural world in a spread that bursts with color. The limited text is now warm and handwritten. The girl says hello to a ladybug, a flower, and a horse. Her imagination soars as she rides the horse through this bright expanse and meets many animals-until her cell phone rings. The text goes back to the bland computer font and the page turns white as the horse stops suddenly, bringing the whole experience crashing to a halt. The girl rushes back to frantic, worried parents and the gray, electronic home she left behind. She gives her mother the gift of the leaf in exchange for the laptop, her father a flower in exchange for his phone, and introduces her brother to the ladybug. Together the family enjoys the outdoors. In fewer words than the standard tweet, Cordell shows how members of a family can reconnect. This is a must-have for starting a conversation about what can be experienced and shared with others once the electronic devices are turned off and the imagination is turned on.—Kristine M. Casper, Huntington Public Library, NY

Thirdly, I just did my first school visit where I read and discussed HELLO! HELLO! with the kiddos, teachers, librarians, and parents at a k-2 school in Glencoe, IL. It went ever-so-swimmingly. The school's lovely librarian, Julia Eidelman, was kind enough to provide the following pictures.

My first school visit reading HELLO! HELLO! was 11/13/12 in Glencoe, IL! Here I wow the kids with my tales of epic character development.

Ok then, Let's Draw!

Cracking myself up with this weird on-the-fly drawing-on-demand mustachioed basketball playing horse. Um, yeah.

It was so much fun reading HELLO! HELLO! to the kids and teachers. I also picked up a few new tricks I can do while reading it. And hey, lookit, my arm makes a shadow!

One more drawing-on-demand. I ask the kids to give me a favorite animal. Then I ask the kids to tell me what their mom or dad does for work, if it's something cool. This is a moose who engineers airplanes. His name is, of course, Mark.

If you would like to have me come speak at your school, please get in touch (matthew@matthewcordell.com) and let's discuss my availability, fees, and presentation. I am all about spreading the gospel of this book and I'd love to meet your school's students and teachers and librarians!

hello! hello!

HELLO! HELLO! Buy my book = get free art!

Here at Cordell Industries, we are not above a good bribe. So as of today, if you buy my new book, hello! hello!, you will be rewarded with artwork by this guy. Here's what I'm talking about:

IF YOU BUY ONE COPY OF HELLO! HELLO!, I will send you (on my dime) a signed and drawn on bookplate, personalized with your name(s) of choice. This bookplate will be an archival (acid free) label that, once received, can be applied to the spot of your choosing within your very own copy of hello! hello!. For buying one copy of hello! hello!, I will also send you a selection of postcards that feature my artwork, all signed by the artist (that's me). This bookplate will look something like this:

The postcards look like this:

IF YOU BUY TWO COPIES OF HELLO! HELLO!, I will send you (on my dime) two signed and drawn in bookplates, and a signed proof of one of the spreads from within the book. These are proofs that are used to get the book's final printed color just right. These are pages or "spreads" taken directly from the book, flat (unfolded) and in poster-like form. They are a wee bit dinged up from having folks at the publisher glaring at them and then from having my own eyes glaring at them, but this is the nature of the thing. It's nothing personal. Not to worry, they are beautiful and very limited and special! And one of these could be yours. You can request your favorite spread, but it will be first come, first serve. If I run out of hello! hello! proofs, I can offer proofs from one of my other books or come up with something even cooler to give you. Proofs will look something like this:

That top one, I expect, I hope, will go quick, so do not delay!

IF YOU BUY THREE (or more!) COPIES OF HELLO! HELLO!, I will send you (on my dime).... wait for it... a signed print of this (below) drawing from the book that will be hand watercolored by the artist (again, that is me). Only the line art/drawing is printed from my original drawing used in the book. The color is applied all by my own right, non-mechanical brush-waving hand. Along with this lovely artwork you will receive three (or more, if need be!) signed bookplates, of course. This art will be on a piece of 8" x 10" Arches watercolor paper and is ready to be framed (in other words, I ain't framing it). Every one I do will be slightly different, natch. But it will more/less look like this:

Now... you might be saying "why on Earth would I need more than one copy of your book?!" To which I say, "why, to give the extra(s) out as gifts, man!" With the holidays right around the corner, I can't think of a better way to fill that "what'm I gonna give this guy/girl/kid" void than with beautifully illustrated books and free art. Am I right or am I right?

And now... Naturally, I'm gonna need some proof that you, y' know, bought the book(s). I will need to see a copy of your receipt(s). Email this to me here: matthew@matthewcordell.com. Or private message me on Facebook. And I would love it if you could also send me a photo of you and/or the recipient of the book posing the book. I do not want this because I am some kind of weirdo. Well, ok, maybe I'm a weirdo, but I'm not that kind of weirdo. I would only want your photos to post on the blog here for fun (if that's ok with you).

Lastly... No forgeries and no funny business. I am not over here "rolling in it" if that's what you think. Not even close. So screwing me over is not like "taking down the man." I'm just an honest dude trying to make an honest living and trying to shoe the baby and feed the mouths and keep the heat and water on and keep the cat medicated for his constipation problem. Do not soil your karma by being uncool, know what I mean?

Why am I doing this? This book is incredibly important to me. If you want to know the long reason why, click here. So yes, I want to get my book out there and in front of as many eyes as possible, to get as many people as possible talking about it and what it's about, yes. But it's more than that. The spirit of hello! hello! is connecting with people. And I want to do just that. I want to connect with people who are buying my book and who love it enough to give it to someone else and who love it enough to want a piece of art to remember all of this by.

Hey, it's that hello! hello! book trailer again!

Let us connect.

And FINALLY... this offer is not open-ended. It will expire at the end of the month. The deadline to send me your receipts (and photos) will be, let's say, Saturday, December 1. So do not delay, act now, get your holiday shopping underway today!

Well... one more thing. I do not wish to tell you where to spend your money. But you might want to know, and probably you already do, it would be really cool if you bought books at your local brick-and-mortar bookstore. Why? Because bookstores are beautiful, warm places that employ beautiful warm people who love books and love to talk to you about books. Brick-and-mortar businesses keep your neighbors employed and fed and keep your community in good health. If we don't support our local businesses, we're gonna have one more ugly vacant building with one more ugly "for lease" sign in the window. But if you must buy online, by all means go forth! I do not judge.

That is it. Thank you.

hello! hello!

Ok, ok... I'm almost done already. If you like the sound of all this, please spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, email, blogs, what have you. Let's rally 'round this thing why don't we?