This upcoming weekend will is the Brooklyn Book Festival in NYC. Two of our illustrators, Liz Zunon (The Legendary Miss Lena Horne) and Il Sung Na (The Opposite Zoo) will be participating in events on Children’s Day, Saturday the 17th.

Il Sung Na will be one of the illustrators featured in the Illustrator Smackdown. Il Sung and several other children’s illustrators will participate in “the year’s most dynamic live action drawing competition.” The event will begin at 3 pm in the New York University Tandon School of Engineering Auditorium, 5 MetroTech Commons.

Liz Zunon will be featured in two events. At 1:30 pm you can find her at the Picture Book Stage at the MetroTech Commons. At 2:30 pm you can join her for Mural Making at the Art Spot, MetroTech Commons.

The Brooklyn Book Festival is sure to be a great event for any book lover. Il Sung and Liz would be happy to see any fans at their events. If you’re in NYC this weekend, be sure to check it out!

You can find out more about the Brooklyn Book Festival here. The full schedule of events for Children’s Day is here.

The picture book Bird, written by Zetta Elliot and illustrated by Shadra Strickland, tells the story of a young African American boy coping with the loss of his grandfather and brother through his art. It was originally published as a hardcover book in 2008, but now it will be reissued as a paperback. It will be available for purchase in March of 2017.

Even more excitingly, Bird’s publisher, Lee and Low, will join forces with the NEA foundation and First Book to help with the Stories for All project. Bird has been selected as one of the titles that will included in this project. The Stories for All Project is a program that seeks to encourage reading in children in need by making diverse books available to educators and schools at little to no cost. A special edition of Bird will also be published for this project.

You can find out more about the Stories for All Project at their site.

The recently released picture book Mary Had a Little Glam, has been receiving tons of praise. This rhyming picture book, written by Tammi Sauer and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton, retells the story of Mary and her lamb with Mary as a fashionable little girl who shares her glamour with her classmates and friends. Check out some of the praise below!

“Illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton adds diversity not just in the styles of dress, but also in the makeup of Mary’s class.” –The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Mary Had a Little Glam is wonderful book that has a beautiful carefree black girl as the main character. This is a book that promotes having positive self-esteem…Mary Had a Little Glam will make a great addition to any little girl’s library.” –Brown Mamas blog

“I love how the author, Tammi Sauer, and the illustrator, Vanessa Brantley-Newton, tied in bits and pieces of the original story. But Mary was FAB-U-LOUS in this book! Outside of being incredibly cute and glam, I loved how secure with herself she was and how she loved making her friends feel good about themselves as well.” –The Crunchy Mommy blog

You can order Mary Had a Little Glam online here.

In their September issue, the School Library Journal reviewed the recently released picture book, Pirasaurs!, written by Josh Funk and illustrated by Michael Slack. Pirasaurs! is the story of  the youngest recruit on a pirate ship that is, of course, run by dinosaurs. The School Library Journal praised the rhyming prose and wrote that Michael Slack’s “Angular and toothily aggressive depictions of the pirasaur crew bring the digital cartoons to life.” All together, they call it, “A rip-roaring read-aloud for storytime or small group sharing.”

You can order Pirasaurs! online here.

The Quickest Kid in Clarksville, a picture book written by Pat Zietlow Miller and illustrated by Frank Morrison, was nominated for North Carolina’s Children’s Book Award. Every year, the school children of North Carolina nominate their favorite picture and junior books. Members of the North Carolina Children’s Book Award committee choose about ten books from the nominees. This year, The Quickest Kid was one of those chosen books. During the upcoming school year, children will read the nominated books and vote for their favorite. We’ll find out who won in March!

To see all the nominated books, check out the Children’s Book Award’s site here. The Quickest Kid in Clarksville can be purchased online here.

The School Library Journal has compiled a list of “Some of the Best Picture Books of 2016 Thus Far (Mid Year Summary),” featuring picture books published this year that they believe stand out. Three of our illustrators were included on the list. The chosen books were:

• Don’t Call Me Grandma, written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by Liz Zunon
• Where’s the Elephant? by Barroux
• K.G. Campbell‘s Dylan the Villain and Who Wants a Tortoise

Congratulations, Liz, Barroux, and K.G.! You can read the full list of recommended books here.

Vanessa Brantley Newton’s newest picture book, Mary Had a Little Glam, written by Tammi Sauer, has been receiving lots of great attention! The rhyming picture book tells the story of glamorous little girl Mary, who helps all the children in her school learn about glamour, fashion, and fun. The picture book has been praised by reading blog Mile High Reading and featured on the site Picture Book Builders.

Picture Book Builders ran a feature on Tammi Sauer and Vanessa, in which Vanessa  and Tammi discuss their inspiration for the story and the importance of diverse books, and included some of Vanessa’s adorable sketches for the picture book. They also ran a giveaway for a free copy of Mary. Check it out here!

Mile High Reading praised Mary in their review of it on their site. They were impressed by the book’s rhymes and wrote that “Vanessa Brantley Newton’s delightful, multicultural illustrations pair well with the fun rhyming text written by Sauer.” Read the full review here.

Mary Had a Little Glam can be ordered online here.

Illustrator Michael Slack‘s latest work is the picture book Pirasaurs!, which tells the tale of a crew of pirates that are also dinosaurs, and their tiniest new recruit. Pirasuars! doesn’t come out until August 29th, but until then you can listen to his interview on the podcast All the Wonders, in which he discusses his inspirations, art, and how he comes up with his characters. Plus, look out for the pirasaurs to commandeer popular book blogs leading up to the book release. They’ll be featured in specially created gifs on selected blogs.

Preorder Pirasaurs! here.

Picture book author/illustrator Elise Gravel‘s upcoming picture book, The Cranky Ballerina, is attracting lots of positive reviews and attention. Recently, Elise was interviewed by picture book themed website, Picture Book Builders. Elise discusses her own experiences with ballet, the inspirations behind The Cranky Ballerina and it’s characters, and how she chooses the trademark bright, fun colors in her illustrations. You can check out the full interview for yourself here!

The Cranky Ballerina can be pre-ordered online here. It will be released August 9th!

Elise Gravel‘s forthcoming picture book/comic book, The Great Antonio, is a semi-biographical story of the famous Montreal strongman, Antonio. Kirkus praised The Great Antonio for it’s mixture of fact and fancy, Elise’s characteristic simple, fun illustrations, and the tall-tale effect of the story. They call The Great Antonio “A tribute as heartfelt as it is joyous and a fitting way to remember this larger-than-life performer,” and gave it a starred review.

You can read the full review on Kirkus’s site here.  The Great Antonio will be released this upcoming October, and you can pre-order it here.