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!

Sheboygan Children's Book Festival October 12-14!

This weekend, I will be doing my thing at the 3rd Annual Sheboygan Children's Book Festival in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Drawing, reading, book-talking, and book-signing! In fact, my upcoming picture book, hello! hello!, will be available for purchase at the Festival before the actual release date of October 23rd! A slew of other authors and illustrators will be there including (not limited to) my lovely wifey, Julie Halpern, Liz Garton Scanlon, Dan Yaccarino, and Edward Hemingway. If you are a Wisconsinite or even anywhere nearby, I hope you will come out and enjoy and celebrate the love of children's books. I've not been to Sheboygan yet, but from what I hear it is a very nice town to visit and the festival is incredibly well-organized and attended. I hope to see you there!

Here is the link to their website for author info, schedules, and other details:

http://sheboyganchildrensbookfestival.org/

My schedule:

Sunday, October 14

10:30 am
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
ARTery
ages 5+
Matthew Cordell demonstrates his illustration techniques and children and adults will have time to make art with him in the ARTery.


11:30 am
Book sales and autographing
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Room: JMKAC Book Signing Area | Ages: All


1:30 pm
Turn Off Your Gadgets, Turn On Your Imagination!
Bookworm Gardens
Outdoors in the Gardens
ages 3+
Every so often, in our modern non-stop lives, it is important to switch off our phones, computers, and televisions to connect with each other just as a family. Join author/illustrator, Matthew Cordell, as he reads from his newest book, hello! hello! and afterwards conducts a drawing demonstration for you and your children.


2:30 pm
Book sales and autographing
Bookworm Gardens
BWG Book Signing Area 
All ages

ALA! Anaheim! I'm there!

This weekend, when I'm not at Disneyland with the fam, I will be struttin' around the conference floor at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. (Ok, maybe not with the struttin') I hope that you'll be there too and we'll have a chance to shake hands, say hello, and exchange pleasantries.

Here's my schedule:

Friday June 22
6:30-7 pm, signing ANOTHER BROTHER and JUSTIN CASE at Macmillan booth (Feiwel and Friends)
9-11 pm, kicking it at the Macmillan Dessert Party

Saturday June 23
9:30-10 am, signing ITSY-BITSY BABY MOUSE and LEAP BACK HOME TO ME at Simon and Shuster booth
1:30-3 pm, signing preview copies of IF YOU WERE A CHOCOLATE MUSTACHE with J. Patrick Lewis at Boyds Mills booth
3-4:30 pm, reading (first time ever!) my forthcoming book HELLO! HELLO! with many talented authors and illustrators at the Disney-Hyperion Storytime Preview
9-11:30 pm, kicking it at the Simon and Schuster dessert party

Sunday June 24
12-2 pm, Abrams Librarian lunch (where I'll be talking up BAT AND RAT)
2-3 pm, signing BAT AND RAT and LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE at Abrams booth

Here is a pic of these BAT AND RAT puppets I just finished up for use at the above described Abrams Lunch (a ridiculous amount of time spent which I do not have at the moment...). Blogger/Librarian/Reviewer/Pal extraordinaire, Travis Jonker (100 Scope Notes) will be voicing/pupetting the Rat to my Bat!

Hope to see you in sunny California!

IRA signings

For any and all folk who will be attending the upcoming IRA conference in Chicago, please come by one or all of my signings! I would love to see you there. I'll even draw a picture in your book(s)!

Tuesday, May 1

11:30-12pm Simon and Schuster, booth #2611. Signing copies of ITSY-BITSY BABY MOUSE  and LEAP BACK HOME TO ME

2-3pm Abrams, booth #2438. Signing copies of BAT AND RAT (it'll be BRAND NEW!) and LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE

3-3:30 Macmillan, booth #2440 . Signing copies of ANOTHER BROTHER, TROUBLE GUM, and JUSTIN CASE


Wednesday, May 2

10-11:30am Boyds Mills Press, booth #1542. Signing preview samplers of the upcoming poetry collection (fall 2012) IF YOU WERE A CHOCOLATE MUSTACHE, with the man himself, J. Patrick Lewis!

57th Street Book Fair

Chicagoland friends, authors, and illustrators: I hope to see you on Sunday (September 18) at this year's 57th Street Book Fair down in Hyde Park. I'll be drawing for and with kiddos at a little art session I'm doing at 2pm. And then I'm signing books just after at 2:30. I was a guest at the fair a couple of years ago for TROUBLE GUM and it's a lotta, lotta fun. Not to be missed! Click here for all the info.

2 book release celebration April 30

To all good folk in the Chicago area! I'll be appearing at one of my favorite local indie bookstores, The Book Stall, this Saturday. I'll be talking a bit about and reading from my two newest books. LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE (by author Julie Sternberg) and LEAP BACK HOME TO ME (by author, Lauren Thompson). I'll also conduct a little interactive drawing demo towards the end. I hope to see you there!

Here's the info:

Saturday, April 30
11am
The Book Stall
811 Elm Street
Winnetka, IL 60093
(847) 446-8880

SCBWI-ing

Last Friday, Julie and I sat in on a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) event panel of four authors to discuss the topic "What's the worst that could happen?". Rounding out the panel were two more Chicagoland authors, the excellent Stephanie Kuehnert and James Kennedy. We fielded questions like, "what if you had a reading/signing and no one came?" or "what if your editor quit or left the co. mid-way through a book?". Stuff like that.



The panel discuss was held in cool indie bookshop, 57th Street Books, put on by their fab resident book buyer and book connoisseur, Angela Sherrill, and mediated by Illinois Chapter SCBWI-er Kate Hannigan. (Readers of this blog may/may not remember I was invited down there last fall for a very cool children's book fair.)

Julie and I wondered on our drive down, "what if no one showed up to this event?". Wouldn't that've been ironic? Luckily a sizeable crowd turned up and a lively discussion ensued.

Angela used her powers and influence and somehow got this mentioned at Publisher's Weekly! Thanks to Angela and Kate for getting Julie and me on board. Twas a nice evening.

Children's Book Week, The Book Stall

While Romy's napping, I'm gonna attempt to post some pics from the panel discussion last Saturday at The Book Stall as part of Children's Book Week.


Distinguished panelists (L to R): Me, Aaron Renier, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Janice M. DelNegro. I showed some early JUSTIN CASE character sketches I worked on with my editor, Liz Szabla, and Rachel Vail, JUSTIN's mighty scribe. Apparently no one was comfortable enough to sit directly in front of me.


One more like before, sans J.M. DelNegro.


Afterward, we signed some books. Fastest hand in the midwest.

There would've been more pics, but our photographer, my lovely wife Julie Halpern, was mostly doing her best to keep up with our 18 mth old, who, at one point, burst into the panel to greet Aaron Renier.

Special thanks to Robert McDonald from the Book Stall and the folks at the Children's Book Council and Macmillan who helped me get in on this! Lots of fun.

TROUBLE at Warren Newport Public Library II

Julie and I forgot to bring our camera to the reading on Sunday. But luckily, WNPL's graphic artist, Nancy Matson, was on the scene and snapped some terrific pictures. Thanks, Nancy, for handing these over!





This one really captures the vibe of the day. Really nice, warm Moms and Dads there having fun with the kids.


I love this little guy. I had no idea anyone ever took me so seriously.

TROUBLE at Warren Newport Public Library

This past Sunday (March 14) I was a guest at Warren Newport Public Library in Gurnee, IL. Yours truly stood before a nice-sized (!) crowd of kids and parents to read TROUBLE GUM, talk pigs (my favorite thing to anthropomorphize) and do some drawing and what not. In a nutshell, I told the kids about how the pig is probably my favorite animal to draw. Because pigs are intelligent and funny, and just easy to hang human characteristics on. Then, I asked the kids what their favorite animals were, and I'd try to draw 'em. One by one, I fumbled through big (giant sketch pad on an easel, for all to see) sketches-on-command of a lion, a koala, a panda, a horse, and an ostrich. It was lots of fun.

The kids also had paper and could draw the same animals to play along. I asked if they would leave some of their drawings with me so I could share on the blog. A couple of the kiddos were kind enough to part with the following beauties.

Anika Agashe, 4 1/2 yrs old. I love this interpretation of Ruben from TROUBLE GUM. Complete with hand-lettered title type treatment in the corner!


Anika Agashe, 4 1/2 yrs old. Sweet renditions of a lion and a koala. Thanks, Anika!


Spencer, 5 yrs old. Spencer rocked this awesome cheetah, even though I didn't even draw one myself.


Spencer, 5 yrs old. Another very cool one of Ruben. Thank you, Spencer!


And thank you to Patty Sawin at WNPL for helping pull this together. I had a blast.

Anderson's Children's Lit Breakfast

To anyone who may have bought copies of any of my books to be signed at the Anderson's kids book Breakfast (always fun--great people, great speakers): My apologies, but we had to leave early. Our 15mth old's Grandma (our babysitter) was a last minute cancellation due to being sick and we had to bring Romy with. By around 11 am, she was being crazy cranky/tired and we had to leave early.

If you wanted/needed something signed by me, please just contact me and we could maybe work something out?

matthew@matthewcordell.com

Pigs, pigs, pigs.

I've been meaning to post these since my reading at The Book Stall the other week. One thing I did, near the end of the presentation, was go on about how I love drawing and seeing other people draw because it's very much an extension of one's personality. Much like the way someone speaks, or laughs, or sneezes, or smells, dresses, walks, eats, etc. Everybody draws differently. Cause everybody's brain is different, hands are different and it all flows out just different. EVEN IF we draw the exact same thing. Different.

So I drew, step-by-step, a big drawing of TROUBLE GUM's main pig, Ruben. Kids and parents and grandparents and friends followed along. Unfortunately, a couple of my tiny guys got lost, but generally the experiment went well.



These were the only ones left laying around at the end. Everyone else took theirs home. And there are some real beauts here. Like I said, all very different. All very cool.

Latest, Greatest

This has been an especially crazy couple of weeks. Just as I'm finishing up art for one book, a middle-grade novel (JUSTIN CASE by Rachel Vail--Feiwel and Friends), I'm immediately going into sketch revisions for another book, a picture book--finals due mid-December (LEAP FROG by Lauren Thompson--Simon and Schuster).

I'm also trying to do some coordinating of TROUBLE GUM promo. Right now, local indie bookshops, maybe libraries. Maybe some small school stuff. Getting up in front of groups is not my specialty. It's something I really need to do more of, get used to. Shake the anxiety once and for all. I'm about to get a crash course.

On Saturday October 17 (3pm) I'm doing my first "event" at awesome bookstore The Book Stall, in Winnetka, IL. I'm working on a bit of structure to the thing right now. Really, just a reading of TROUBLE GUM. A bit of demo drawing. A bit of "stuff I drew when I was a kid". And a bit of audience drawing participation. Simple enough, but... my nerves. Anyways, here's a sample drawing (one that'll be shown at my events). Pulled from the archives.

(huh?)

Next weekend, Julie and I are driving to Cleveland where we'll be attending, as guests, the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA) Trade Show. Promoting our new books. Julie's new YA novel, INTO THE WILD NERD YONDER, and my ol' TROUBLE GUM. We're a little stressed cause packing for the baby, in our past couple of experiences, is a major deal. This weekend, we will prep.

Speaking of baby, Romy just started crawling. Like two days ago! One night, she crawled for the very first time. The next day, it's like she was already a pro. Scooting all over the dang house. My job just got a bit harder. But we are so proud. She really likes to move.

On top of this, we just caved and bought in to a cable TV package. Mainly so we could DVR stuff and bypass commercials on shows we like. But now, there's like a bazillion more new cool shows to watch.

Where does the time go?

57th Birthday

Last weekend I had another birthday. Most birthdays just come and go, but this one really was the best birthday I've ever had.

(Why am I doing that with my finger?)

Friday, Julie totally blew me away by giving me the best b-day gift and surprise I've ever gotten. Saturday we had a nice dinner out with the fam. And Sunday, Julie, Romy and I trekked down to Chicago's beautiful Hyde Park neighborhood to partake in our first ever (but their 23rd annual) 57th Street Children's Book Fair. The whole shebang is organized every year by Hyde Park's very own 57th Street Books bookshop. President Obama's favorite bookstore (Hyde Park is the President's original pre-White-House home and stomping grounds).

I was signing copies of TROUBLE GUM in the early afternoon, right when the fair kicked off. When we got there, I was told that I would be giving away (not selling) my books to families that came to the table. Giving away. Because the Fair's head coordinator Angela Sherrill (of both 57th Street Books and 57th Street Children's Book Fair) had received a grant for the Fair which allowed them to purchase 25 copies of my books--as well as the other signing authors' books! I could just share the TROUBLE GUM love with fair attendees (limit one per family). Wow.

This was a great time. Children's books (and children) all over the place. Friendly faces, perfect weather. And our first visit to indie bookshop 57th Street Books. It's a sweet basement level store with a neat windy layout and LOTS of good books. A great kids section! We loved the store.

Hyde Park is a great place. Lots of amazing homes and architecture, great shops and restaurants. Lots of diversity in its residents--a cool and intellectual community. University of Chicago's right there. And lots of great big trees. Just good vibes all around.

On our ride home, Julie recorded a podcast of our day (she's been doing some hilarious podcasting on her blog for the last week or so). I reluctantly agreed to answer some questions into that digital voice recorder (reluctantly only cause I can't stand the sound of my own voice, and I'm perpetually afraid of having something dumb I've said be immortalized like this). I haven't listened (won't listen) to the recording, but it was a lot of fun in the making. Check this out here.

And here are some photos from the book fair and otherwise...

Here I am getting set up and ready to sign/draw. I'm putting out some of the bubble gum Feiwel and Friends made for promo opportunities. The kiddos seemed to enjoy.


People are coming at this point. For some reason, I ended up standing for the whole signing. It was kinda awkward drawing all hunched over, standing over the books, but I guess I got stuck that way. That's my table buddy on the right, Jeff Jarka (we both had the 1-2pm shift). It was his good idea to lay out the books like this. Seemed to work well, in drawing in some crowd (who might normally shy away from the likes of us). Jeff's a nice guy. He was signing copies of his new book, LOVE THAT PUPPY.


After the signing, we had a quick lunch at the park across the street with our friend Ali. Thanks to good pals Ali and Sam for showing up!


On our way out, we stopped for one last pic. They had all these cool hand-painted book-inspired wooden backdrops for kids to play in and have photos taken with. My best girls.


These last two are not my photos (I lifted them from someplace off of the internet). I wanted to show some pics of the front of the coolest 57th Street Books. Very great (and surprisingly large!) friendly neighborhood bookstore.


The cool old-school sign up close.


Thanks, 57th Street Children's Book Fair! We had a blast.

57th Street Children's Book Fair

On Sunday afternoon, September 13, from 1:00-2:00, I will be in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood at the 23rd annual 57th Street Children's Book Fair. I'll be signing copies of TROUBLE GUM. If you live in Chicago, or in the area, please do drop by.


I have not been to this event before, but it looks like a great deal of fun. The sort of thing that I would love. Lots of kid books, a parade, snacks, family activities, the whole deal. Take a look at the website and this year's press release for more info.

Hosted by Hyde Park's local bookshop, 57th Street Books. Thank you much for the invite!

Deconstructing ALA Chicago

Just got home from ALA Chicago yesterday afternoon. All the bags and books and suitcases are still flopped down by the door we brought them in. It was a wild ride. A lot of fun. Just collecting thoughts and getting back into some routine again today.

Julie and I live only about an hour's drive north of Chicago, but we stayed at the place of some very generous friends over the weekend (thank you GENEROUS friends!). This saved us lots of time and headaches with driving back/forth. This also served as our first trial-run of traveling with Romy and having her sleep and live in a place that's not our home. It went off without a hitch! Thanks to Romy for being such an awesome baby!

Anyhow, as reported in an earlier blog post, I did a signing, Julie did a signing. Julie had a nice dinner with lots of librarians, lots of friends from Feiwel and Friends, and another YA author, Andrew Smith. Julie, Andrew, and myself also partied it up with a boatload of bloggers and various Macmillan personnel the following eve at the "Macmillan Suite", Omni Hotel. Yes.

My signing was mostly to plug good ol' MIGHTY CASEY (where, incidentally, I was given a cryptic James Preller message regarding cupcakes. New friend Travis Jonker-- capt. of the great kidlit blog 100 scope notes--was the deliverer of said message. My ol' pal Preller. His way of keeping me company at the signing.) Anyhow... the signing was awesome, and I unloaded, signed, and sketched in a good number of books. I was also able to unload a nice stack of TROUBLE GUM f+g's to the interested masses. 500 packs of Feiwel-produced TROUBLE GUM bubble gum were brought to the conference, and every last one was snatched up! Thanks to all who stopped by and said hi, or bought books, chatted, etc.

The blogger bash was later that eve. A very nice group of people. Travis turned up there too, along with ol' pal Esme Raji Codell, Esther Hershenhorn, Betsy Bird, Karen Romano Young... many more. These are just some of the people I talked to. Romy was the life of the party. She seemed to warm up to new pal, Andrew Smith the most. I mean, she let him hold her without totally freaking out. Sadly, we forgot to bring the camera to this event and came back with no pics. Dang.

Julie's signing was the next day. Also a very sweet success. Somewhere around all of these happenings, we managed to bounce around the exhibits floor and pick up books from some of our favorite kid book creators. Romy, strapped to Julie's chest, was front and center for the action.

Anyways... yeah. The weekend was a great time. Now, here are 19 pics to illustrate...


My signing is underway. That's Liz Szabla in the background, editor extraordinaire and pal. What a great smile!



Here I am signing a copy of MIGHTY CASEY for a special someone (not pictured).



I also signed a fat stack of F+G's of my forthcoming, TROUBLE GUM. Note the bin in front with the great F+F-created TROUBLE GUM bubble gum boxes. They were nearly gone at this point.



Uri Shulevitz was signing copies of HOW I LEARNED GEOGRAPHY next door at Roaring Brook. Same time as my signing (guess which line was bigger). Afterwards, he stopped by to talk to Jean Feiwel. I nabbed him so I could get a picture of him with Julie and Romy. A genuinely sweet guy.



Here's the great Jean Feiwel talking with Julie and Romy. Romy is reaching for something, no doubt, to try and eat it.



Here I am with good ol' pal, Jeff Newman. Jeff is a talented author/illustrator who lives up in Milwaukee. And he's tall!



Jeff met Julie and Romy for the first time. Later, Romy showed Jeff her famous spit-up-down-Mom's-arm routine.



Here I am changing a diaper on the conference floor. You know how we do.



Julie at her signing. Romy was a great cheerleader.



An old friend we hadn't seen in years, Liz Mason (manager of Chicago's greatest comic shop, Quimby's), turned up at Julie's signing. It was such a great surprise.



A very happy trio.



Lovely Julie. Lovely Romy. Mo Willems.



Our new pal, Feiwel and Friends novelist, Andrew Smith. He gives good, warm, fatherly vibe.



Kicking back at a display of original art being raffled off to conference attendees. One of which is mine, from TROUBLE GUM. I'm actually lumped in with Uri Shulevitz, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Peter McCarty, and Danica Novgorodoff!



One more for posterity.



Julie and Romy pose with talented pic book author/illustrator, Peter Brown.



ALA pal, Nina Hess signs at Wizards of the Coast booth, her Practical Guide to Monsters. You should've seen the line she had! Nice, Nina.



Julie and Feiwel and Friends friend, Ksenia Winnicki. I learned that she actually had a part in production of one of my previous books, RIGHTY AND LEFTY.



In our final hours at the conference, Julie and I did a double-header signing. Well, triple header. Check out that scrumptious Romy smile!


And... That's it for another ALA conference.

Next stop... San Diego Comic-con! Yeah!