Friday Studio Links - Featuring...

The Studio of Holli Conger!

Wait until you step through this door! 

You are about to enter a space all about style.

 

 

I'm not talking about "this space could be featured in a decorating magazine" kind of style. (Although it could!) I'm talking about personal, functional, "this is my art" and "this is where I make it" kind of style. This space is all about personality!

Welcome to the studio of Holli Conger. A girl who creates. And create she does! Her eclectic, whimsical style can be found in magazines, on greeting cards, CD covers, and packaging. Holli not only illustrates children's books- 11 of them so far this year, she is also a successful licensing artist, does killer typography, and has become a huge inspiration to others by documenting her creative journey on Becoming An Illustrator.

 

Holli has a style that shines though no matter what is is working on. This goes for he studio too. Check out the process of how her studio was built here. And be sure to follow Holli's Blog and visit her Website.

Check back on the first Friday of each month for a new Studio Tour. 

Follow this link to see previous Studio Tours.

Before Classics Were Classics

Here's a article that will get you thinking. Many books considered masterpieces today, received brutal reviews when they first came out. The list in this article mainly has novels, but you will find a few children's books. One being a book that is now a classic example of the best in illustrated picture books...Where the Wild Things Are.

Publisher's Weekly, 1963

“The plan and technique of the illustrations are superb. … But they may well prove frightening, accompanied as they are by a pointless and confusing story.” — Publisher’s Weekly, 1963

One year later...

 

In 1964, the American Library Association awarded Mr. Sendak the Caldecott Medal, considered the Pulitzer Prize of children’s book illustration, for Where the Wild Things Are. "In simple, incantatory language, the book told the story of Max, a naughty boy who rages at his mother and is sent to his room without supper. A pocket Odysseus, Max promptly sets sail...There, Max leads the creatures in a frenzied rumpus before sailing home, anger spent, to find his supper waiting." 

—The New York Times.

 nearly 50 years later...

“Each word has been carefully chosen and the simplicity of the language is quite deceptive.”

— School Library Journal

#1 Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963) "Arguably the single greatest picture book ever created." – Hotspur Closser — Top 100 Picture Books #1: Where the Wild Things Are 

 and 19 million copies, and counting, later...

"A signed first edition of "Where the Wild Things Are," the classic children's book by late author Maurice Sendak, has fetched an eyebrow-raising $25,000 on online book retailer abebooks.com, thus making it one of the most expensive children’s books sold in recent memory." 

 — New York Daily News

"Abe Books spokesman... Richard Davies told the Daily News that for "Where the Wild Things Are" in particular, it was rare for these books to go for so much because a lot of the 1960s editions were mass published. To date, 19 million copies of the Caldecott Medal-winning book have been sold."

— CBS News June 1, 2012

Wednesday Links

Check out what books are winning awards!
NY Times Best Illustrated Children's books

Check out contests and book giveaways.
Cynsations
Anastasia Suen's Blog
The Apple (Teachers only-Winner gets 35 Autographed Copies of Jack of All Tails by Kim Norman for their school.)

Check out a great round-up of holiday books.
Wild Rose Reader

Remember to support the industry.

IBBY and Poetry

In honor of International Children's Book Day* and National Poetry Month I'm sending you off to a few of the blogs I frequently visit that just posted leads on some awesome children's books. Enjoy!

Brooklyn Arden
Chicken Spaghetti
Cynsations
A Fuse #8 Production
Just One More Book!!
Kids Lit
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Wild Rose Reader

*Thanks go to Elizabeth for the lead.