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Doesn’t that sound fun?
Here’s the origin story for this book:
After getting inspired by the wealth of gorgeous coloring books I saw at the Book Expo in the spring, I designed some coloring pages, and asked some neighborhood chums if they wanted to get together and have a coloring party–some wine and cheese, with coloring and fun conversations. All of the women I asked are moms with young kids, and all of them asked if they could bring their kids to color, too–they would bake cookies, bring some juice, would that be okay?
I realized that there was a gap in the marketplace. How could a mom sit down and color in one of the fabulous new coloring books for adults out there, and expect her kid to be content to color their same-ol’ coloring book from the drug store?
My wonderful agent, Anna Olswanger, found a home for Let’s Color Together: A Shareable Coloring Book for Parents and Kids at Sourcebooks, with editor Anna Michels. The folks at Sourcebooks conceived of the idea of putting the coloring page pairs I designed face to face, so that you could sit at a table with a coloring friend, facing each other, to color. Fun! It is going to be published in April, and is available to preorder from Amazon now:
Pre-Order Let’s Color Together!
I spent much of December painting these HOT clothes, designed by Juan Gatti, and made by the extraordinary artists at John Kristiansen NYC. These smokin’ hot performers will be seen shortly in the Saxony Theater at the Faena hotel in Miami:
The yards and yards of ruffles you see here are my excuse for not sending any holiday cards, for not baking *as many* holiday cookies, for not attending any holiday parties. So, no holiday wishes from me, but I want to wish you all a very happy new year. I am counting my many blessings…
xxx
Margaret
This has been a wonderful year for Crow and Crow’s story of making friends in CROW MADE A FRIEND. Daniel made a really cute video for me, featuring our talented friend Jay Douglas as the voice of Crow, and the wonderful music of Lunasa https://www.margaretpeot.com/videos/. Thanks, Daniel!!
And, Crow received a starred review, and then was listed as one of the Best Children’s Books of 2015 by Kirkus Review! Click here to see the complete list. I am honored to be included with these books: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/margaret-peot/crow-made-a-friend/
And today, the beautiful and talented Brittany Mitchell at Holiday House informed me that Crow Made a Friend is an Honorable Mention under “Best Friendship”. Below is the full link for the article. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/minhle/best-picture-books-of-201_2_b_8746618.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ir=Books
And if that wasn’t nice enough, Holiday House is using an image from Crow Made a Friend as their email holiday greeting:
CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE, “Margaret Peot Draws a Crow,” to see the lovely video Daniel Levy made of me drawing Crow! Thank you so much!!
At Crow’s publication party, Daniel set up a way for me to draw Crow in front of the room of crafters and parents with an overhead projector. That’s Daniel, my husband, below with the camera:
I get to draw a crow for everyone while they watch!
I resisted initially (I had not planned to do this when scheming up the whole idea of a crafting party to celebrate my book, and planned an almost completely technology-free event!), but it ended up being really nice, and a way for me to share with all the young creators in the room an important fact about how I draw.
Thanks to Brittany Mitchell for these photos!
When I draw, especially when I am working on illustrations, I scribble and scratch in my sketchbook, not erasing, getting the gesture right, and then take my sketchbook home, scan the drawing, print it out larger, and put it on my light table to trace and refine.
Crafters and parents watching the drawing
Crow drawing, complete
I know there are artists in this world who can knock out gorgeous lines full of gesture and life, with no erasures, like my teacher Alex McKibben. However, most of us draw and refine our drawings. But there is something about drawing small in a sketchbook that allows for almost as active a mark as drawing really large. Even without a scanner you can use this technique. On a piece of paper the size of your finished artwork, loosely draw your composition, not worrying about specific details, but really get the feeling of the action happening on the page. Then tape this loose drawing to a window, and tape a clean piece of paper on top of it, and trace your drawing.
Click on the link at the top of the post to see the video!
What a great time we all had making friends at the CROW MADE A FRIEND (Holiday House 2015!) publication party this past Sunday! What I wanted to do most of all to celebrate Crow, and makers everywhere, was to have a crafting party. There were seven tables of crafts, including crow paper dolls (or action figures) with natty crow clothes to color, nests to put clay crows and eggs in, articulated creatures to cut out and construct, rainbow scratchboard crows, and the Crow paper dolls that Holiday House so kindly provided. I wanted us to have some snacks to sustain us through our crafting, and some readings and song. And it happened just like that!
However, the party wouldn’t have happened at all without the help of incredibly generous friends: George and Brittany for helping me decorate, Sue and Beverly for moral support and copious *Baked Goods* of extreme deliciousness, Sue, Beverly, Kristen, Gerry, Shannon and Sophie for helping at the crafting tables. Thanks to Daniel and Sam for setting up tables and chairs, and thanks to Brittany for manning the “bookstore” so capably and calmly. Thanks to Freddy for his wonderful readings, and to Jason for teaching the kids the myna bird song and hula, and for Sophie’s confident ukelele accompaniment. Wow: I feel blessed ten times over.
Thank you to Marie Bardos for these wonderful photographs:
Busy crafters
Making a clay bird
A fantastic combo of the clay craft and the paperdoll! With tiny brads for eyes!
Photo by Marie Bardos
Jason Poole taught us all a song about a myna bird (a little smart, talkative blackbird–as close as we could get to a crow!):
Photo by James Clavell
Photo by James Clavell
Freddy Arsenault read wonderfully, and we hung on every word–even me, and I, of course, knew the story…
Brittany Mitchell was my calm and tech savvy bookseller:
Photo by Marie Bardos
There really were cupcakes–fabulous ones made by Sue and Sophie and Gracie, with crow decorations on top:
Photo by Brittany Mitchell
In the middle of all this fun, I did a powerpoint on the Origin Story of Crow Made a Friend, and drew a crow on Daniel’s overhead projector. Stay tuned for Part 2 and Part 3 of the party posts–a video of me drawing Crow, and some craft how-tos should you want to do your own Crow Made a Friend Party!
Jason Poole and I–Thanks, James for this photograph, too.
This love note to my Crow party helpers wouldn’t be complete without thanking everyone who cleaned up afterwards: Sue, Beverly, Brittany, Gerry, Freddy, Elizabeth, Daniel, Sam.
Photo by Jason Poole
Neighborhood children made more than 150 friends at the 2015 Washington Heights Harvest Festival in Fort Tryon Park! At least, I know that that many children made birds with clay, pipe cleaners and feathers, and tucked them into leaf and twig lined paper bag nests, to help me celebrate the publication of my early reader picture book Crow Made a Friend!
The nests were made with lunch-sized paper bags, with the edges rolled down to make cozy nests, the clay was Crayola air dry clay. I collected twigs and leaves from the gardener’s brush piles, and provided pipe cleaners and feathers in different colors. All the kids, even the very tiniest ones, had success making a bird. Some made tiny eggs with clay for their nests. It was fun to see all the kids walking and cradling their creations as they enjoyed the fair.
Special thanks to my pal Sue Seitner, who first had the idea of making little birds, and for helping me help the kids make their creations. And thanks to Sam and Daniel who hauled all my stuff around!
Thank you to Holiday House who provided Crow paper doll pages for kids and parents to take away to make at home.
And congratulations to the Festival organizers–it was a really lovely day out.
There were so many inventive nest and bird creators!
Photo by Nick Katsivelos
Taking a break to read all about Crow on a chilly fall day at the Harvest Festival
I bought a Silhouette Cameo a couple of years ago, and honestly, it languished in a box on my floor for all that time. Sometimes new technology is fantastic and sometimes it makes me want to weep. I couldn’t imagine that the interface would be all that easy, and I had plenty to do without another learning curve to figure out. BUT I was WRONG about it all!
I had to design a poster for the annual Harvest Festival. It is the 14th year of this fantastic event in upper Manhattan, and I have done a woodcut for each of the previous 13 years. This year, my hands were tired from another intense project, I had two days to crank something wonderful out and knew that I couldn’t carve and print a block that fast. So I dragged out the Cameo, set it up, and not to sound like a testimonial, it was SO EASY. The above is the four color print that I made to raffle off for the event, and I made a separate one color print for the poster and t-shirts:
Here’s some additional pictures from the process. I used 5 mil matte stencil plastic and it cut great. If you are not familiar with this machine, it has a little moving blade that cuts various materials, from paper of varying widths, fabric, vinyl, and various products that the Silhouette company sells. I found working with the stencil plastic that I am familiar with was easiest, and didn’t use their products. Best of all, the cutter makes a very cute, busy sound as it is cutting–almost musical. An added bonus! This is an excellent tool.
Its fall again and that means it is Harvest Festival time on the New Leaf Cafe Lawn in Ft Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan. Come up for pumpkin painting, food, games for kids, free live music, and most importantly, the pleasure of the company of your neighbors and friends!
Come and visit me, too–I will have a table set up with a fun “making friends” craft for kids to do to celebrate the publication of my new picture book CROW MADE A FRIEND.
This is the poster for the Harvest Festival this year. The stencil (in all the past years I have done woodcuts, but Mary Beth Shaw, Stencil Girl owner and stencil ninja, inspired me to do something different!) print (mine) will go on t-shirts, posters, advertising, and a four color version will raffled off to raise money to support the festival:
Try, try again is the lesson Crow teaches beginning readers in this picture book reader. Crow was all alone. But like all crows, he was very clever. Using autumn leaves for wings, sticks for the body and a crab apple for the head, Crow made a friend! But winter winds blew in, destroying his creation. Undaunted, Crow fashioned another bird friend out of snow but could not prevent it from melting in the warm spring sun. Alone again, Crow heard the caw, caw, caw of a real, live bird. Together they built a nest and by summer, Crow had a family.
In honor of the official pub-day of Crow Made a Friend, I am offering a giveaway drawing that includes a hardcover copy of Crow Made a Friend, a hand-stenciled canvas Crow Tote, along with Crow paper dolls, coloring pages, a Crow Fact Dial, and a surprise not pictured here.
TO ENTER: LEAVE A COMMENT HERE OR ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE, WITH A CROW SIGHTING OR STORY! I WILL DRAW FOR A WINNER ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2015.
Crow Made a Friend is part of Holiday House’s innovative and award-winning I LIKE TO READ® books, which are just right for emergent readers. These picture books by renowned and beloved artists have been evaluated and assigned Guided Reading Levels B through G based on the Fountas and Pinnell system and feature short texts familiar vocabulary repetition to reinforce learning illustrations that are designed to be a part of the learning experience
Kirkus Starred Review:
“Crow is alone. How will he make a friend? A lonely crow tries to make a friend, literally. As the seasons progress, the plans change. In the fall, he uses sticks for a body, a crabapple for a head, and leaves for wings. But when the wind blows, his friend is gone. In winter, he piles snow, adds a seed for an eye, and sticks for wings. But when the sun shines, his friend is gone. When spring comes along, a bird calls, and this time Crow finds a real friend. Together they build a nest, and come summer, Crow has a family. Children taking their first steps into reading will easily follow the simple text on each page. The illustrations complement the text brilliantly. Done in ink and watercolors, an iridescent crow, his colorful creations, and his final true friend stand out against a white background. Readers will appreciate Crow’s resourcefulness as he creates his friends and will not need any prompting when they read the “Oh no!” text as the wind blows the fall creation to pieces or the sun melts the winter creation. The overall message of the importance of friends and family is sweet but not cloying. A brightly illustrated story perfect for the very beginner reader. (Early reader. 4-7)”
