children's book cakes

Check out these cakes!

Where the Wild Things Are:


Wizard of Oz:


Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse:


A while ago we posted some cakes designed as books. Here are some other amazing ones created for specific children's books.
Thanks to the fabulous Betsy Bird at Fuse #8 for bringing them to our attention, and to Cake Wrecks for posting them!
It would be amazing to see a decorated cake for one of the Simply Read titles! I might try it out!

Owls See Clearly at Night Won!

On Thursday night the finalists were announced for the BC Book Prizes and we are thrilled that Owls See Clearly at Night by Julie Flett won the 2011 Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize!

Congrats to Julie, as it is a beautiful work, and congrats to all those who were nominated.

hedgehogs and mice

These are a few inspirational things discovered on the wonderful blog "We Heart Books".

Hedgehog in the Fog is an unbelievably cute animation directed by Yuri Norstein done in 1975, and there is a book based on the animation which looks lovely as well.

And there is this super cute creation by Myko Bocek Studios



Thanks to We Heart Books for all the inspiration!

pretty art installation

As part of a Finnish environmental art installation, artist Jonna Pohjalainen transformed a bunch of aspen logs into giant colored pencils. It makes me think of our Simply Read Book, When I Was Small, by Sara O'Leary and illustrated by Julie Morstad. Thanks to free people for the link!

simply read stop motion

Check out this lovely little stop motion some friends of ours made all about the magic and imagination in books (in particular--simply "red" ones)

melancholic mermaid book trailer

This super cute book trailer was just made! It features the two-tailed mermaid from the Simply Read book The Melancholic Mermaid. Check it out!

how Maurice Sendak almost illustrated The Hobbit!

In the late 1960's illustrator Maurice Sendak almost had the chance to illustrate The Hobbit -- but it never happened!
It was the 30 anniversary edition of the novel -- but before Tolkien, then 75, would approve he asked Sendak to do a few sketches. He went ahead and created two sketches, one of them (above) of Gandalf and Bilbo.

But when the publisher sent the pieces, the second of which was wood-elves, for Tolkien’s approval, a mistake was made. The editor labeled the wood-elves as hobbits and Tolkien was upset. He replied that Sendak didn't know what a hobbit was and couldn't have read the book. He did not approve of the drawings. The publisher tried to fix this misunderstanding, even going so far as to set up a meeting between the two while Sendak was touring the U.K. in support of Where the Wild Things Are, but the day before their meeting, Sendak suffered a major heart attack. He recovered, but no meeting ever took place, and the project was abandoned.

Thanks to Fuse #8 and I Heart Chaos for the info!

more cute Simply Small stuffies!

Courtney Fearon, the mom whose daughter loves the Simply Small Series by Paola Opal, just finished the last two characters in the series--Saffy and Ollie.
Then she took some photos of all of them together.
They are too cute!