You have your own tour bus.
And, a giant hedgehog who travels with you. And, a standing-room-only crowd at your book presentation and signing. Whew!
This is Jan Brett, folks. Author/Illustrator extraordinaire. She came to visit our favorite indie bookstore, Square Books, on Saturday night. She spoke to a packed house about where she gets her story ideas (she often retells folk tales and ancient fairy tales) and about some of her artistic tricks and techniques. She demonstrated how a character's emotions can be seen in his or her eyes by holding her hand over her mouth and having us guess what she was feeling just by looking at her eyes (this was my children's favorite part). She also said that it took her an HOUR to draw an inch of one of her drawings and that it took her a full year to complete a book. If you are familiar with Jan Brett's work, this makes sense--her painstaking detail in her watercolor illustrations is stunning. If you are not familiar with her work, go NOW and look at one of her books. You will become lost in her magical world
Once again, I feel so lucky to live in a town with a bookstore that is able to draw such inspiring figures from the children's book world. And, I am inspired.
SF
4 comments:
I forgot to mention the hedgehog purse that Jan Brett had draped over her shoulder. That is another thing that you don't see everyday (although, there is a store here in Oxford that sells armadillo purses).
Wow.
I'm happy if I sell a book to someone I don't know. At any of my previous signings. That is a whole 'nother level.
Hey Bill. You need to come down to sunny Oxford and hang out with us!
What an amazing bookstore - Laurent de Brunhoff, Jan Brett, and a giant hedgehog in one week? Seriously, does that place really have signings that often?
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