Two Rhyming,Counting, Dancing Picture Book Review + Two Giveaways

 I'm happy to share two more picture book giveaways both courtesy of Sleeping Bear Press.

THE SNOWMAN'S WALTZ

This beautiful winter story by Karen Konnerth and illustrated by Emily Neilson, is a unique friendship story between dancing snow people and penguins. Yes. You heard that right. Snowmen, snow women, and even a snow child learn how they can dance with penguins. 

Here's the opening page showing the snowmen enjoying themselves.

Suddenly, they receive a great surprise.

Uniforms that all are matching.

Black and white and looking fine.

Purple sky peeks down to see them.

Penguins tramping in a line.

The snowmen don't quite know what to make of the intruders.

They gather together and try to talk it out. But, the snow people waltz to a beat of one, two, three. And the penguins march with a one, two, three, four rhythm. As the adults wonder how they can get together, they watch as a little penguin and a snow child say hello.

Marching, marching all together,

Penguins step and snowmen glide.

 They figure out that together...

Back and forth they bump and waddle

Having fun they slip and slide.

And finish with,

 

A waltz!

The book ends with "The Snowman Waltz" lyrics and music by Karen Konnerth and a finger dance activity.

BAA, BAA, TAP SHEEP

In a fun adaptation of the Baa, Baa, Black Sheep nursery rhyme, author Kenda Henthorn and illustrator, Lauren Gallegos, have created a lively sheep counting book that may or may not help little ones go to sleep. 

The book opens with the sheep learning to dance behind a sparkly curtain. 

The numbers that are pinned to their chest and their practice moves immediately brought Dancing with the Stars to mind. 

Baa, baa, tap sheep, practicing their moves.

Helping out at bedtime. Count their dancing grooves...

 As the sheep tiptoe twirl, tango, and waltz, the children who are imagining these sheep Rockettes picture, 

...Nine sheep, Ten Sheep

Softly swaying. Still.

 Until...

Goodbye, sleep!

One sheep, two sheep,

jitterbug and jazz.

Three sheep. Four sheep.

Faster! More pizzazz!

But even sheep have to call it quits at some point.

And finally, tired children sleep.

Except...what's going on with rap sheep? 

GIVEAWAY

I predict that children will enjoy counting along with their favorite readers and ask for these books over and over again--and I'm giving away both of them! To get in the running, please leave a comment by December 15 along with your name and email address if you are new to my blog. New giveaway rule this time! If you have at least one snowman inside or outside your house OR a sheep I'll enter your name twice. If you have a snowman AND a sheep, I'll enter your name three times. (pictures, stuffed animals, statues, cards pillows, etc. all count). Tell me in the comments what is decorating your house and which book you want to win.

Added feature: This week Kenda, Lauren, and Karen will share parts of the backstories behind these books on the Talking Story Facebook page. 

Congratulations to Glee Dunbar who was excited to win SHE SANG FOR THE MOUNTAINS last week.

Raccoon's Perfect Snowman: A Picture Book Review, A Giveaway, AND an Author Interview!

 Congratulations to Jana Leah who won T is for Thor from last week's blog.

Today I'm happy to share a new picture book by author/illustrator, Katia Wish. Raccoon's Perfect Snowman (Sleeping Bear Press, 2020) will delight the young reader in your life even as it communicates an important message.

REVIEW

Raccoon was very serious about building snowmen.

He practiced rolling, stacking, and decorating and knew that his friends would want his help making their snowmen.

 

But things didn't go as Raccoon expected. 

 Raccoon took out all of his snowman-building tools.

 

When it was time to decorate their snowmen, Mouse wasn't left with much to choose from. 

Raccoon loved his snowman but was very disappointed in what his friends' produced. None of them got it right! With shoulders slumped, Rabbitt, Fox, and Mouse left him alone... and miserable.

Before they were out of sight, Raccoon called them back. He had an idea for a truly perfect snowman. Working together,  they used whatever snow they found, stacked it however they wanted to and lastly, Raccoon told them, 

The new snowman wasn't very clean.

It didn't stand up straight.

And the decorations didn't match.

But it was perfect. 

 

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

CAROL: What role does SCBWI have in your life as a writer/illustrator?

KATIA: SCBWI is huge! All of my contacts, connections, classes, critique groups, and knowledge came from SCBWI. With every new workshop and conference, I gained more and more understanding of what I needed to do to develop my portfolio and improve my writing. 

CAROL: How did winning the 2011 Tomie DePaola Award affect your career? 

KATIA: Winning the 2011 Tomie DePaola Award so early in my career was amazing. Art directors and editors respect and appreciate Tomie’s work so much, so his recognition meant a stamp of approval for my work. Industry professionals noticed and started to pay close attention to the development of my work. It gave me confidence and encouragement to continue working on my illustrations and dummies.

CAROL: What gave you the idea for the story?

KATIA: The book is about friendship and rethinking what “perfect” means. The book is about my childhood memories of building a snowman. It’s such a sensory experience: how the snow changes color in the light, the warmth of the hat, the coldness of the snow, the sounds of the wind, the crunchiness of the snow.

CAROL: What was your publishing journey?

 

KATIA: When you start from a character, it’s quite a challenging experience. You try different stories on, try different directions. What you are doing at that stage is not developing the story yet, but getting to know your character.

This is something my wonderful agent coached me on through all the years I have worked with him. If the story comes from the character, the character is strong, alive, and believable. It doesn’t matter what kind of story the character will live in, it will still be true and relatable and honest.

We went through many many many drafts getting closer to the heart of the story. The first 5-7 drafts were not even close to the final book at all! But with each draft, the true character was revealed.

It’s an exhausting experience to build stories this way, but it’s worth it. If the story relies on one joke or one trick, it will not have re-readability.

When we were ready to submit, we found a great publisher for the story – Sleeping Bear Press. The editor and art director had more suggestions on how to improve the story and the artwork. They came up with the most brilliant solution to the ending of the book. Even though their solution was so obvious and so undeniably best, I didn’t see that solution even through so many drafts of the story. The fresh set of eyes makes a difference for any creative project or any situation in life!

CAROL: What medium did you use and why did you choose that particular medium? 

KATIA: At this point, I work primarily with watercolor and pencil. I start with idea generation, loose doodles, color studies. 

Then I transfer the sketch on watercolor paper and have a lot of washes and build up layers in watercolor. Things still look very ambiguous and not promising. So I have to stay in this uncomfortable stage for a very long time. 

But then in the last 20% of the process, I start adding linework and everything comes to life - characters’ expressions, details, depth. It’s sort of magic how things transform. 

GIVEAWAY

I'm happy to give away this book to one fortunate reader. Please leave me a comment with your email address if you are new to my blog. A winner will be drawn after 6 PM on November 13. 

AND ONE LAST THING...

I've been playing with Lumen 5 and creating short videos for the books I review. Here's the one for Racoon's Perfect Snowman.