Dolores Andral's Blog

You have inspired not only a love of reading, but of craftiness too!

 

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Share your own Dr. Seuss inspired outfits or crafts!

Recently I had the pleasure of reading my Prissy story to a group of children in a children's home. It was a different experience for me because I usually give readings in a classroom setting. And although I've done a 'pajama party' reading for a school, that, too, had been on school premises, which made it feel a little institutional. It could have been that it was a Friday evening, or the home-like setting, or the fact that the kids were actually in pajamas that gave it a different feel.

I wasn't there simply to read to the children. They were given a sweet treat that they could decorate before eating, along with milk. The volunteers and I were there to shower the kids with love and attention. And just before they would be sent off to their cabin for bedtime, I would read my story to them. 

As usual with my readings: the kids got to shout, they got to jump up and down, they got to fly in their "spaceships" around the room and then bring it in for a landing. I was going to read another story when something unexpected happened. Instead of the kids shouting out stories for me to read or clamoring to give me their favorite book, they wanted to read the book they picked themselves. They wanted to do as I did: stand in front of the room and read aloud.

Some of the older ones, as old as 11, were skilled readers and their only hinderance was their shyness. Children as young as 3 would even stand in front, unwittingly holding a book upside down, and say random words--but they were reading!

I was most impressed by a 6-yr-old struggling reader. He was so energetic and emphatic about reading a book. His friends let it be known that he couldn't actually read; but that didn't stop him. He could make out simple sight words like, "to" "the" "and," and I was able to help him with the rest. The book he chose to read was Ben's Trumpet by Rachel Isadora. That book had words that were difficult and unfamiliar to him like, "musicians" "pianist" "saxophonist," but I would whisper the sentence to him, and he would recite it proudly. By the time he got to the last page, he was able to read the sentence on his own: "And we'll see what we can do."

He showed us what he could do. He showed us what perseverance and tenacity looks like. There was an inherent drive in him to want to read. At only six, he understood the basic truth that reading is fundamental. Reading is necessary. And most importantly, at its core, reading is fun.

When I read at a school, I'm always on a strict schedule; the kids are already in the middle of a day full of school work, and there is recess and lunch to be had. In that home, where the children are displaced from their family, perhaps the cozy act of reading, a warm lap, and a soothing voice made them feel a little closer to home. I don't know the answer to that. I know we did have to pry the books from their hands and tell them that it was bedtime for them, as well as for us. It also made me happy in my choice to be an author. Children love books. They love to read, to imagine, to dream, to cuddle, to laugh, to discover new worlds, and to feel safe.

I will never forget that little boy, or any of those children. Especially in a day of movies, and video games, and other distractions. On a Friday night, those little kids wanted nothing more to do than read.

 

Vladimir Andral, illustrator of Prissy On The Moon, is generally candid about his lack of formal art training when it comes to his ability to illustrate. Some people claim art can't really be taught because either you're born with it or you're not. Looking at his illustrations, I think I'm with others in amazement with what this self-taught artist has accomplished.

  We sat down with our very own "resident" artist to find out how his fingers and imagination work. 

 

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Recently via social media you released several of your pictures/paintings you created in the past.

What motivated to you show those particular works?
 

I had posted a quick sketch I made on Facebook and surprisingly got good feedback, so I decided to post a few others I'd done in the past. I'd been meaning to post some of my old works for a while; this was the perfect opportunity.







It’s been said that artists have maybe a medium, or a particular style of artistry they tend to stick with. From the looks of things, it seems your artistic style leans toward bright, bold colors. What’s your thought on that?



Hmm, I've never stopped to reflect on what my style is, but now that you ask, I would say my style is creative realism. I don't know if that's a real term, but it sounds right for me. All my art is inspired by some realistic scene which I then inject with my own fun and creativity.
 
In terms of medium, I love sketching with pencil to flesh out the main idea of the piece.  Plain paper and pencil are really all I need to get going. Once the sketch is done, I import it into Photoshop to work my cleanup and color magic.

I also love painting.  And yes, I do like bright, bold colors. Colors bring out emotions.

In some ways, yes; cartooning is a looser and more playful style than traditional painting so I had to adjust and allow myself to be less, well, real. But my version of playful drawing is different that most cartoonist. If you look at my illustrations in Prissy on the Moon, you'll see that it's not quite cartooning -- it's cartooning with a creative realist bent.

 Can you give an example of how you go from pencil sketch to finished illustration?

Sure. Below you will see a few sketches of an earlier version of Prissy.  
This first is the original pencil sketch drawn on a plain sheet of printer paper and #2 pencil.  I used our daughter, Hannah, as the model.
The second is the same sketch cleaned up and darkened in Photoshop.
The last one is the final colored piece also done in Photoshop.
I think many digital artist nowadays do everything digitally eliminating steps 1 and 2, but I love drawing with an actual pencil in hand. Maybe one day I'll switch to one of those high-end Wacom on-screen drawing displays, but for now, the three step procedure will do.

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What else would you like people to know about you?



 Although I am not a trained artist, I did take one mandatory art class in high school and one in college, other than that, I'm self taught. I basically draw what I see and make stuff up as needed.
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Award season is upon us--nominations for best film, music, books, among other things, are being discussed throughout various media outlets. We love awards because they validate our own choices, help us discover new artists, and quite frankly, they're just fun to watch or read about.

Regardless of whether an artist is seasoned or up-and-coming, we love to hear their story and share in their journey. One such up-and-comer in the publishing industry is Kara Stewart, who is a 2014 New Voices Award honor winner from book publisher Lee & Low. 

The New Voices Award was established in 2000, and is given to an unpublished author of color for a picture book manuscript. The award was established to combat the low numbers of authors of color in children's book publishing and to help new authors break into the field.

​Can you tell us anything about the Lee and Low Honor Award and the story you submitted?

I have been inserting myself over the last year with various online discussions about the need for diverse books. In many of those discussions, I gave out resources and information for teaching to and about America's first people. Some had no idea and received the information well, some not so well. 

As those discussions continued, I felt more and more obligated as Sappony (an American Indian tribe) to contribute to the number of accurate books written by and about American Indians. There are so few published each year that have AIs as main (or even secondary) characters or topics, and some of those even newly published books are filled with unacceptable stereotypes. 

I started my story last spring. A few weeks into it, I saw Lee & Low Books' blog, The Open Book, which focuses largely on authors of color. Loved it! Then I saw their contest for new authors, the New Voices Award. 

 I was (very happily) shocked to get the call that I was their Honor winner (second place). 

What motivated you to write this particular story?

 I wanted to show modern day Indian people accurately. Indians are usually presented with history, and while those stories may be written accurately, an entire almost-ignored field is modern day Native people. 

I was particularly inspired by Tim Tingle's Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness Into Light, Eric Gansworth's If I Ever Get Out Of Here and Cynthia Leitich Smith's Jingle Dancer. They all wrote these amazing books about their own tribes. I wanted to do the same, and add to the number of accurate, contemporary books about Native people.

How did your own history influence your story?

Our tribe, the Sappony, holds an annual summer camp as part of our Heritage Program. Young Sappony people come to the camp from all over, both as campers and as counselors, for a week every summer to get to know each other and build bonds and to learn about their history. They also give back to the community through work projects during the week. 

On the last night of camp, there is a talent show. My main character, Alice Ruth, who was named after my father's aunt, is worried all week that she doesn't have a talent. Turns out she is great at science! With the help of her friends, Alice Ruth uses her passion for science to wow the audience at the talent show.

I really liked the idea of not just showing modern day Native people in true to life situations (believe me, there have been some campers who are worried about the talent show!) but showing that Natives, and Native girls, excel in science.

There has been a big push in recent years for Native students to become academically involved in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields, and the results are spectacular. 

Do you have any other works in the pipeline?

 I do! I have two more works in the pipeline currently and many ideas lined up behind those two. I am working on another picture book which is kind of an unusual one. It is an oral history, done in a traditional storytelling manner, that tells the story/history of the travels of the Sappony from about 1600s to 1750s and how we came to be in what are now our traditional homelands of High Plains.

The other work in progress is a YA. It is historical fiction, and also based on the Sappony. It is set during the transitional time between when the Indians were in power and when the English became the ones in power. I am painstakingly researching for this one, since it is important to me to have the history told correctly and accurately. So while the main character and some events that happen to her are fiction, the setting and political backdrop that would have allowed those events will be accurate. This one feels huge. 

After that, I have in mind working on some much-needed non-fiction books that tell about the tribes in North Carolina, since I know our schools desperately need those.

What else would you like your readers to know about you?

I am a full time 3-5 Literacy Coach in the public schools, have two completely awesome young adult kids and a great big lovable Golden Retriever. I dabbled for a few years in photography, but writing is where I have always wanted to be and what I have always wanted to be doing. I am so grateful to be writing and so grateful to Lee & Low for this opportunity.

Blog: From Here to Writernity

Photography website: Kara Stewart Art in Photography

Photo/art products stores:  ArtinPhotography   and Colorcolor

 

Diversity in the publishing world is really a hot topic this year. It has actually been a long-standing "conversation" in the publishing world (since about 1973), even though year after year very little has changed. I don't know if the topic is fueled by the national movement of #weneeddiversebooks campaign, or if cultural phenomenons like creator/producers Shonda Rhimes and Mindy Kaling creating some of the most talked about shows on television these last few years, or having one of the most recognizable astrophysicists Neil Degrasse Tyson in the public sphere, or the likes of journalists like Lisa Ling, or even having a black president in office for two terms, or having serious female candidates vying for the presidency, or the influx of the Latino community, or maybe it's the totality and visibility of those things and more. If diversity in the world of sports has been taking place, as well as diversity in the world of music, and diversity in the world of television and movies, and even diversity in politics, though there's still a lot more ground to be covered, we can't deny that inroads have been made. 

Those same inroads unfortunately haven't occurred in the publishing world. Just focusing on black works for the moment, according to the Cooperative Children's Book Center, who has taken on the task of documenting diversity in children's books, those numbers are woefully low. Out of the 3,200 published books that the CCBC received in 2013 only 93 were about blacks (the number drops to 68 when you consider the race of the author). In terms of percentage from the time the CCBC began keeping records from 1985 books went from about .7% to a whopping 2% (and this is just based on the number of books the CCBC received, not the total number of books published). 

Those figures are striking enough, but when you add to the fact that most of those stories published about blacks are about slavery and civil rights, it adds another layer to the "conversation" that must take place. I came across and interesting article that said: "White characters not only get a wider variety of books to choose from, but books in a wider variety of settings. Characters of color in American hist-fic tend to exist strictly within certain boundaries of time or not at all. African-Americans exist within the boundaries of slavery, the Jim Crow South, or the Civil Rights Movement."*(Kendra James racialicious.com)

After working a Scholastic Book Fair this past November at my kids' school, and I can attest that most of the books I picked randomly that featured a black character consisted of a historical person of color with their story tied to slavery or the Civil Rights Movement. And of course those topics need to be taught, lest we forget. And after the terrorist attacks on US soil, we have emblazoned that thinking on our collective hearts: 9/11 Never Forget. But now imagine if every bookstore you went into only had stories in reference to 9/11--how robbed would New York be of its rich and cultured history? how robbed would Americans be?

Think about the women's suffrage movement. There was a time when women not only could not vote, but many times also lacked basic human rights. And before the World Wars most (white) women in America didn't work outside the home. Now imagine if most of the books we read only related to a time before women had rights, before they had education, before they had careers. Imagine if most of the books we came across spoke of a time when women were 'barefoot and pregnant.' Or a time when 'women knew their places.' We, as a country, would not stand for it.

And no one would doubt women's history is important and vital to the fabric of our collective history--and must not be forgotten.  

Of course diversity includes all. The campaign for diversity #weneeddiversebooks includes all people from the first/native Americans to Asians to Latinos to the LBGT community and all people in between--including men and white people. Diversity doesn't exclude, it includes. 

It's not fair for my children to see princesses, and mermaids, and dragon slayers, and all things mystical and magical, and stories about love, and redemption with only white characters, and only see the characters that look like them in bondage, abused, discriminated against, and inferior. It's time we make the book world as rich and diverse as the world that surrounds them.

 That is one of the reasons my husband and I came out with our story, Prissy On The Moon. We didn't want to wait for a select group of people to determine whether our story, our character, our setting was worthy. We put out what we know is missing in the publishing world. We wanted to move from the conversation to the application. We have decided to become the change that we want to see in the publishing world.

Diversity needs to be an action word. 

 

Every month, week, and day, we are bombarded with the "Best Of" lists. The best phones to buy, the best computers on the market, the best movies of the year. In this ever-growing world of endless options, lists are a nice way of filtering the excessive down. 

And as each New Year brings a time of reflection, I started to reflect on my own "Best Of" list: Picture Books. The books I read as a child left an indelible mark on me. There were the ones that helped me get comfortable with words, and the ones that held my interest and kept me in awe, and the ones whose illustrations enraptured me. With my own children, some of the books that graced the bookshelf of my childhood, grace theirs, like the incomparable Dr. Seuss. And others like, Clifford and Dick and Jane, however, seem to be on the shelves for nostalgic purposes alone.

I searched through our collection, acquired from brick-and-mortar stores, or as gifts, or after surveying other people's top book picks, to see which were the ones that "stood the test of time" in our house. With four children, interests can obviously vary tremendously, so these are a few that collectively as a family we've read (and continue to read) over and over and over again.  These were just some of our favorite books, most of them suffering from the abuse of being well-loved: the pages are bent, torn, and sometimes colored, and the amount of tape used to restore them borders on the comical.

Overall Picks

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst 
Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type, by Doreen Cronin
Bear Snores On, by Karma Wilson
If You Give a Mouse A Cookie, by Laura Numeroff
He's Got The Whole World In His Hands, by Kadir Nelson

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Bill Martin and Eric Carle



Dr. Seuss (He's in a class all by himself)


Horton Hatches An Egg

The Sneetches 
Green Eggs and Ham
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
The Cat In The Hat

Books for Bedtime

Good Night, Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

Llama, Llama Red Pajama, by Anna Dewdney

The Napping House, by Audrey and Don Wood

Books about the boundless love for a child

The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown
Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney

I Love You Stinky Face, Lisa McCourt

Books for the changing weather

Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats

We're Going On a Leaf Hunt, by Steve Metzger

Best Book Series

Dr. Seuss (Of course!)
How Do Dinosaurs...by Jane Yolen
If You Give A...by Laura Numeroff

Opinions obviously vary and the lists are far from exhaustive, but I'm curious, what are some of your top books?

 

 

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a 7th and 8th grade middle school class. I was there to talk about the design and flow of a book since they are tasked with putting together their school's yearbook. I had the great opportunity to read Prissy On The Moon to them, and quite to my surprise they wanted to shout and jump up and down like the younger kids do (unfortunately I couldn't allow it because 30 preteens could easily sound like a 100!).

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I started off by telling them that I’d always envisioned myself as an author/illustrator although I do not have a single illustrator/sketcher/painter gene in my body. But that did not stop me. I got out my trusty pencil and drew, traced, pasted, and designed my very own picture book dummy. The book was a total dud (as told to me by my husband who ultimately took up the task of illustrating it). 

It's still something I'm very proud of because if it wasn’t for the tragic outcome of that work, we wouldn’t have the finished Prissy On The Moon book that is now available. It was that simplistic, one-dimensional travesty that laid the groundwork for the finished product. It had good ideas that may not have been executed well, but was able to be reworked--so it wasn't a total throwaway. 

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I hope the lesson learned from my visit is that students should not be afraid to rework, redo, and edit. A lot of children, including my own, think that modifying their work is a negative strike against them. As anyone can see from my illustrations, many times one draft isn’t enough, constructive criticism can be helpful, and we don't instantaneously reach perfection. We’re not perfect artists, or authors, or students, or teachers, or parents; it’s okay to listen to others who love and care for our work.

 

I had to hear the hard truth that my drawings were not “ready.” Of course I could have had art lessons, and maybe could have gotten to the point where it was ready. I lucked out by having a husband who could take the lead. But that’s what we go to school for, and work, and teach our children: that if at first we don’t succeed, try, try again. Whether that be a picture book, or school work, or a yearbook.

I was able to show through the many Prissy incarnations, the many trial-and-errors, and working together that my husband and I were able to finally get it right. If there’s anything I want the yearbook class to take home is that our completed book didn’t happen overnight. It was a process. We didn’t keep it all in our head, we put it all down, and revisited it, and worked on it until we felt it was just right.

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Christmas Gift Highlight!

If you're like me, you spend countless hours leading up to Christmas searching for the perfect gift that is not only entertaining for your child, but educational as well.  Years ago, my friend Vicki Hyde Lewis, who I met when we were both new moms, came up with an ingenious solution to marry wooden play sets to puzzles.  The results? Flipzles: a two-sided puzzle piece that can be put together as a jigsaw puzzle on one side, and turned to the other side to reveal a different image and play piece.   

I personally love Flipzles because when my four children we younger it met each of them on a different level. When my youngest was a toddler, she loved to use the puzzle pieces like a play set. The older ones loved working together to complete the puzzle. Then the toddler would take it all apart and play with the pieces. And the older ones would race to put it back together. They could have done that all day.

I caught up with Vicki this Christmas to see how her imaginative puzzles are doing.

How did come up with such an interesting twist to the jigsaw puzzle?

My mother-in-law used to make the old fashioned thick wooden puzzles for craft fairs.  I remember thinking that it wouldn't be that much more difficult to paint both sides of the pieces instead of just the front.  That is when I decided to draw a design for a house and hand paint it.  I designed it so all the pieces could stand and my own kids could play with it or solve the puzzle.

How do you come up with the different themes?
My kids inspire me and are usually filled with great ideas and suggestions.  My daughters are the ones who wanted me to make a Pet Mansion, and all of the kids always are telling me what my next designs should be.



How long has Flipzles been in business?
Flipzles launched in October of 2012, but for a couple years before that my house and pirate ship designs were licensed to Pamela Drake Inc. as Puzzlekins. She sold her company and after that we decided to try it on our own.



What is new in Flipzles this season?

The Nativity and Dinosaur Volcano are brand new.  


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How many Flipzles puzzles are currently available? 
House, Pirate Ship, Rescue Station, Castle, Pet Mansion, Nativity, Dinosaur Volcano, and Farm* (which was 2014 Puzzle of the Year winner)

Where can we find Flipzles?

In various boutique style toy shops as well as directly from me on my website -www.flipzles.com

What can we expect from Flipzles in the future?


I'm working on a few designs that will add another layer of creativity.  Kids will be able to paint their own.

What else would you like to share?

What I love most about Flipzles is that they are great for both sides of the brain. They encourage creative play as well as problem solving -- not many toys out there do both of those things. I also love that kids of a wide age range play with them. They are not just for 4-5 year olds. Even teenagers can't resist trying to solve the challenging puzzles.
 
More about VickI:


Vicki has loved creating art ever since she can remember. As a child, her parents encouraged her to use her artistic talent and supplied her with all the supplies she wanted. She tries to do the same now for her own children so they can create freely.

Vicki graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art with an art education emphasis. Along with her love of designing puzzles, she enjoys painting portraits, illustration and painting nesting dolls. She also teaches summer art classes.

She loves being able to stay home with her four children while continuing to pursue her career as an artist. Often her children will be drawing at the table next to her, or on her lap while she works.

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We're excited to be a part of another book signing at The Last Word Book Store located at

230 East W.T. Harris Blvd Suite B11
Charlotte, NC 28262

Come for the story, stay for the crafts! Come for the crafts, stay for the story!

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A few months ago after reading Prissy On The Moon to very animated second and third graders, we had an engaging dialog about the art of storytelling.  We spoke not only about my story, but the kinds of stories that they, as authors, might like to write.  It was such a lively discussion I decided to have some writing fun.  For a chance to win a "Sammy the Alien" (Prissy book character) stuffed toy, they had to submit their own original story for review.

They took the challenge very seriously.  For weeks they worked with their teacher to construct their stories.  And when I returned to their school to collect the work, the students stood in front of the class and read their story aloud like true authors.  

To be clear, it was  a tough decision.  The kids were so enthusiastic about their story and hopeful about winning, but the mom and adult in me didn't want to have to choose just one winner.  But since I was short on supplies of Sammy dolls, a decision had to be made.

I called in for backup--my own kids--to help make the decision.  

Ultimately, we decided on a winning story.  The stories were so good we decided to also award a prize to the runner up.  Since the winning story is such a timely holiday story I will reprint below, and will reprint the runner up's story on a separate blog.  

 Perky Turkey

By O.D, third grader

         There once was a farmer named Farmer Brown.  Farmer Brown had a huge farm with Paully Pig, Katie the Cow, Chassy Chicken, Harry the Horse, and last but not least, Perky Turkey.

          Every year Farmer Brown would cook a big turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.  Last year Perky Turkey was too small to eat, but this year he was just right for dinner.  Perky Turkey had to think of a way to keep from being on the dinner table so he decided to ask all of his farm friends to help him.

          Perky went to see Paully Pig about his problem and Paully Pig said, "You are worried about once a year! I go through this every day. I'm sorry Perky, I have problems of my own."

          Perky went to see Katie the Cow and she said, "I'm glad they don't eat hamburgers on Thanksgiving."

          Chassy Chicken was not any help. She said, "I have my little chicks to look after. I'm busy."

          Perky heard Farmer Brown in the house watching football.  Suddenly, Perky had an idea.  Perky ran into the barn and two hours later came out of the barn with a helmet, a number 32 jersey, and a football.  Perky started running all around the farm making noise. Farmer Brown went outside to see what all the noise was outside.  Farmer Brown saw Perky Turkey with a helmet on his head, a jersey on his back, and a football.

           Perky was tackling Paully Pig, blocking Katie the Cow, throwing the ball to Chassy Chicken, and holding the ball for Harry the Horse to kick.

           Farmer Brown said, "Why should I make this turkey my Thanksgiving dinner when I can make him a sideshow and sell tickets so people can see him play football?"

           People came from miles around to see Perky play football, and Farmer Brown made plenty of money. 

Perky Turkey was the main attraction this year, but not on the dinner table.

  The End.

 

And really, who doesn't love a story about a turkey pardoning on Thanksgiving?