The image on the title page for my forthcoming book, Deer Dancer, is a young girl placing branches underneath her head-band for make-believe antlers. The story, written by Mary Lyn Ray, tells how this same young girl meets a deer and wonders if maybe her dance teacher, Nona, somehow knows the deer, since Nona says in ballet class: "Hold your head as if you are wearing antlers... Listen with your cheek bones..." The girl returns to her favorite place in the woods and meets the deer again. This time she wears her homemade antlers and learns to dance from the deer. 

As the publication day looms soon, I have been busy taking walks in my local parks and along the boulevards of my neighborhood with my handy clippers. Spring is the time for tree-trimming, thus it is a perfect time for antler gathering! With two publication parties coming up to celebrate Deer Dancer, making antlers to wear is the perfect activity!  Sticks, headbands, and duct tape are all of the necessary ingredients. I hope! 

This is the third picture book Mary Lyn Ray and I have done together. She is the author of my very first picture book, Mud. We loved working together so much that she wrote another story for me to illustrate, Red Rubber Boot Day. I love her poetic way of writing. She writes stories with lots of openings or possibilities for the pictures to add details and tell stories within the story. I only wish she lived closer so we could both be present at the publication parties!