starry starry night

This is a lovely, inspiring idea to spruce up a child's room. Use a star punch to cut out stars from a window shade and create a lovely night sky in the bedroom.


Thanks to Color Me Katie for the idea!

Picture This, Pussycats!

This exhibition by Vancouver artist and illustrator Rae Maté features original illustrations on canvas and paper from her three children's books, including her latest, Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been, as well as playful "portraits" of cats and crocodiles.

Where: Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery, 950 W. 41st, Vancouver
Opening Reception: Thur Nov 3, 2011 • 7-9 pm
Artist in attendance • Free Admission
Exhibit continues to Sun Dec 4, 2011

Singing Away the Dark on North by Northwest

This previous Sunday, North by Northwest, the CBC radio show hosted by Sheryl MacKay, featured Caroline Woodward talking about her beautiful book, Singing Away the Dark!
Listen to the show here and find out more about what inspired Caroline to write this story.

summit for the small

The Mouse City Summit, an event planned by Small Print Toronto, is about the most adorable and intriguing event this fall, and makes me wish I could fly to Toronto to attend.
The idea is for kids aged 2 to 8 to gather for a day to imagine and create what an entire city created specially for fictional mice would look like. The kids will be given recycled materials and inspiration, too, in the form of the well-known children's book Phoebe Gilman's Something from Nothing and the fable City Mouse/Country Mouse, and
You can find out more about the event at Small Print Toronto here.

Of course, an event like this makes me think of our newest book, and a beautiful one, When I Was Small, by the amazing team Sara O'Leary and Julie Morstad. It is all about imagining what it would be like to be very very small.
Look at the beautiful cover and illustrations:












Check out as well Sara O'Leary's great blog and Julie Morstad's great website!

Word on the Street!

Come check out Word on the Street, Sunday 25, 2011.
In Vancouver we have Dan Bar-el performing Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been? at 11:00.


In Toronto we have Michael Moniz reading his book, Wazzyjump.

Get cozy in fall with Simply Small

Our new Simply Small titles are hitting the shelves any week now, and Rokko is especially cute and cozy for fall.
Check out the lovely autumn colors.



The Simply Small series is all about baby animals who are too small to do the things they want to do.
There really are very small animals out there in nature! Check them out!

This is the Pygmy Marmoset, the smallest monkey in the world.


This is the Bee Hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world.



And, of all things, this is the world's smallest cat. Mr. Peebles. He is two years old, lives in central Illinois, and is only three pounds.


More cute tiny animals here!

Mermaids Book Launch

Hope you've been having a delightful summer!
We have another launch for a lovely picture book: Mermaids by Cynthia Heinrichs and illustrated by Jumin Lee.
More about the book here.

When: September 10, 7 pm
Where: Christianne's Lyceum, 3696 West 8th Avenue
www.christiannehayward.com

Goodies and refreshments will be served!

Hope you see you all there!