THIS SITE HAS MOVED. Inkygirl posts are now part of DebbieOhi.com.
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Debbie Ridpath Ohi reads, writes and illustrates for young people. Every once in a while she shares new art, writing and reading resources; subscribe below. Browse the archives here.
I tweet about the craft and business of writing and illustrating at @inkyelbows. If you're interested in my art or other projects, please do visit DebbieOhi.com. Thanks for visiting! -- Debbie Ridpath Ohi
If you enjoy books for children and young adults, then I encourage you to go visit the Nerdy Book Club blog, if you haven't already. I enjoyed Donalyn Miller's recent post about how to increase book access for all children. Enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I was inspired to drawing the image above. Although the tips in the article are geared mainly toward educators, I found them informative and motivating for book creators as well.
With the third book in the series coming, I asked Kevin to tell my readers about his MiNRS series as well as offer some advice for young writers. Thanks to Kevin for answering in the video above!
I met Julie Duffy when we both worked for the same company out in Philadelphia. Julie is a writer and the host of StoryADay.org, a creative writing challenge that happens each May (and yes, you're invited!). I asked Julie to tell us about StoryADay May, how it got started and how it works. I love the subtle placement of books in the background, heh (thanks, Julie!):
You never know what will come out of a broken crayon (#48 in series). I decided to take a video of how I created one of my broken crayon drawings, and I gave it away on Twitter - congrats to Ann Schimmoler, who won the final result (I am still waiting to hear from Ann so I can mail the doodle to her).
See my Broken Crayon Page for more art, resources for educators and info about my upcoming broken crayon book with Linda Sue Park and Simon & Schuster.
Jarrett Lerner writes books about farting robots, belching knights, and other serious matters. You can find him online at jarrettlerner.com and on Twitter at @Jarrett_Lerner. You can also often find him at the mgbookvillage.org, which he cofounded and helps run. He lives with his wife, his daughter, and a cat in Medford, Massachusetts.
I first encountered Jarrett on Twitter, where he is an enthusiastic champion of kidlit. When I asked him about ENGINERDS, I loved that he made sure to give credit to the illustrator, Serge Seidlitz, who did the cover and spot illustrations inside the book. Yay for authors who appreciate their illustrators!
Thanks to Colby for answering Three Questions for me today!
I love Colby's classroom tour, especially hearing the stories behind some of the art! Did you know that Deborah Freedman created the header for The Nerdy Book Club?
Colby's advice for young writers: Start out by copying the people you love. Doing this can help you eventually find your own style and voice.
What he's excited about now: independent bookstores. Colby described the amazing things he sees indie bookstores doing and encourages us to make sure we use some of our book buying power to support these community bookshops.
Colby is one of the most positive and enthusiastic people I know, especially when it comes to helping kids find the books that help them fall in love with reading. I was honored to be one of the contributors to the just-released THE CREATIVITY PROJECT, published by Little, Brown Books For Young Readers.
Synopsis of THE CREATIVITY PROJECT (Little Brown Books For Young Readers, 2018):
"Colby Sharp invited more than forty authors and illustrators to provide story starters for each other; photos, drawings, poems, prose, or anything they could dream up. When they received their prompts, they responded by transforming these seeds into any form of creative work they wanted to share. The result is a stunning collection of words, art, poetry, and stories by some of our most celebrated children book creators. A section of extra story starters by every contributor provides fresh inspiration for readers to create works of their own. Here is an innovative book that offers something for every kind of reader and creator!"
I've been using social media since before the term existed and though I am far from expert, I have learned a great deal along the way. I'm going to start posting some social media tips for authors and illustrators on my blog from time to time, in hopes of helping some of you avoid the (many) mistakes that I made.
I am THRILLED and HONOURED to announce that I will be illustrating a picture book by Linda Sue Park. The announcement appeared Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf last week while I was out of town: Announcement in Mar. 22, 2018 issue of Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf
Things have been crazybusy lately, so I've only had a chance to post about this now. And of course I NEED to post about this, because how often am I going to have a chance to say that I shared a stage with the amazing JUDY BLUME?!? Needless to say, I was a wee bit excited:
I rarely post about books on the craft of writing because there are so many good ones, and I was also being inundated by requests from publicists and authors to review their books for Inkygirl readers. To reiterate: I lack the time or inclination to be an official book reviewer, so please do NOT put me back on your lists. Thank you. :-)
Don't you love the gorgeous cover of The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful? Written by Nancy Tupper Ling, this upcoming picture book is illustrated by my friend, Andrea Offermann, and it comes out from G.P. Putnam's Sons Books For Young Readers on Sept. 18, 2018. Andrea was kind enough to share the process behind the cover design process....
Saturday, May 5, 2018 at 9:08 AM
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