Monday, January 25, 2010

create a Pollock





Time Magazine listed JacksonPollock.org on the Top 50 coolest websites and it's easy to see why. You move your mouse to splatter virtual paint and click to change the color. To create a hard copy, right-click on the "canvas" and select Print. So much fun!

foggy music


Click here to download from our website and listen to two awesome tracks from Foggy, 4th book in the Windy Series by Robin Mitchell-Cranfield and Judith Steedman.
These two tracks are instrumental pieces -- great music by Cowbell (Brady Cranfield).
The first track "It's a good day" will be the first on the CD and the second "In the Fog" will be the third. There's going to be 5 in total; two with vocals. We'll be posting the full CD soon! This is just a tease!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

crazy crayon colors



This little graphic depicts the growth of Crayola crayons color spectrum since 1903. Found it over at So Fawned, a nice blog about kids stuff and design. Supposedly the number of crayon colors available doubles every 28 years!

staircase slide



This is amazing. I want one big enough for adults to slide down too! Check out the cute Ohdeedoh designs for kids for more!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

classic swedish illustrator



Ever since publishing a prose-retelling of The Kalevala, we've been interested in doing more Finnish and Swedish publications. So I was thrilled to read this article about the genius Swedish illustrator Gustaf Tengrenn. Thanks to Betsy Bird over at Fuse #8 for the link.

scrabble rings

Anything to show off how much you love words is awesome. Look at these cute scrabble rings!
These ones are from Rock & Rose. But if you're in Vancouver you can get some handmade ones from Lazy Susan.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010






If you're in Vancouver tomorrow night, Jan 21... come by Sitka Surfboards to see a show of Ben Frey's artwork, 7:00pm-12:00am.

It's a free evening of art, music (with guests Aidan Knight and Colin Nealis) and drinks!

Ben's the talented illustrator of one of our upcoming books, Runaway Alphabet by Kari-Lynn Winters, which is coming out in 2010.





sneak peeks part 1


I'm so excited to see this book from the press. It's "Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet" by Julie Flett. I love these two images in particular. What do you think?

Saturday, January 16, 2010

book bags








For any stylish book lover - a book purse. Awesome. Made by rebound designs. I'm torn between Harold and Anderson's Fairy Tales.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Thursday, January 14, 2010

one reason Boston is so cool



A beautiful picture book set in Boston. There are statues in Boston of Mrs. Mallard and her 8 ducklings in the Public Garden.
ALA Midwinter conference is in Boston and we just got here!

pretty photos




Thanks to freepeople blog for the link to such pretty photos by jinjoo hwang. Makes me think of photo-versions of Rothko. They'd make sweet endpages for a book.

Monday, January 11, 2010

cute umbrellas







Around the world it's cold, but in Vancouver it's rainy, rainy, rainy. We had such fun dreaming up all the umbrellas and gumboots that Ashley Spires could illustrate for Ella's Umbrellas.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

dragons love butterflies


These amazing collage images are from Stephen Parlato's "Dragons Love." Can't wait to see him at ALA! The butterflies reminds me of this quote: "Just when the caterpillar thought life was over, it became a butterfly."

Friday, January 8, 2010

simply uplifting



"What is a book, without pictures or conversations?" - Alice
Finally us mad hatters at Simply Read have started a blog of art, books, music, videos, design, quotes, contests, polls & anything & everything that inspires us.