Read Every Day Lead a Better Life

My entry is one of the ten finalists! Go here to vote!
http://opinio.scholastic.com/opinio/s?s=5869

Thank you!

Aspiring artists were invited to interpret Scholastic’s global literacy campaign, Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life.

To enter the contest, participants were asked to illustrate their own vision of the message Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life., emphasizing the importance of reading in the lives of young people.

Scholastic will judge and post the top 10 submissions to the corporate blog, On Our Minds @Scholastic for public voting on Wednesday, June 8. Public voting will be open until 9am ET on Monday, June 13, 2011. The Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. Illustrators Contest winner will have his or her artwork featured on www.scholastic.com/readeveryday and win a deluxe set of signed posters created exclusively for Scholastic by the twelve children’s book authors and illustrators participating in the auction:

This is my entry… fingers crossed!

2010 Cybil Award Winners

The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for the year’s best children’s and young adult titles. Nominations open to the public on October 1st and the winners were announced on February 14. Click on the link to see if your favorite won!

2010 Cybil award Winners

Love is in the air

Happy Valentines Day from the Doodle Diner!

My New Book

I’m so excited to show you a sneak peak of my first illustrated book!
The book is a bedtime story full of sleepy, cuddly creatures of all kinds.

Look for it in early spring of 2011!

www.robertabaird.com

Free Gift Tag Printable Sheet

If you head over to my personal blog, I have a gift for all of you diner readers! I created a printable gift tag sheet. I printed one out myself and used a nice thick gloss paper and they turned out pretty nice, if I do say so myself! Have a look at what you could be attaching to your gifts this year. Enjoy!

{Finished Tags, 2010}

{Printed Sheet, 2010}

of Whos and snowmen

When someone asks me what my favorite holiday book is, at the risk of being cliché, I just have to say (hey that rhymes), it just has to be How the Grinch  Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. This book has been part of my holidays since I was knee high to a who, and whether it be the book or the animated television show created in the 60’s, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without the grinch and max with his one reindeer antler.

I’d also like to add another book that has charmed me. I love Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner mostly because it was a present from my husband, who knows I have a thing for all things snowman. But I also love the funny, lively, whimsical illustrations. It mostly takes place at night (hence the name) and the lighting that Mark Buehner is able to pull off with his brush strokes is nothing short of magical.

The rhyme is very charming and fun to read out loud to kids, but it’s not the book’s strength. But put the rhyme together with tobogganing, hot chocolate swilling snowman images and you’ll have yourself a few giggles and some mighty warm heart cockles.

The Lump of Coal

I have many favorite holiday books and here is one of my favorites.  I ran into this little treasure a few years back.  I am a great fan of Lemony Snicket’s sarcastic dark humor.  This book that is illustrated by Brett Helquist is about none other than a lump of coal.  Great humor, but also a great moral and ending.

What’s Your Favorite Holiday Book?

‘Twas the nightmare before Christmas, and all though the house,
Not a creature was peaceful, not even a mouse.
The stockings all hung by the chimney with care,
When opened that morning would cause quite a scare!
The children, all nestled so snug in their beds,
Would have nightmares of monsters and skeleton heads.’

My favorite holiday book includes not one, but two holidays in it! With plenty of freakish presents and a skeleton dressed in Santa Claus clothes, it’s going to be a spooky holiday!

Burning

Mama always said that “The way to a man’s heart was through his stomach.”   So when Charity invited Oscar over for Thanksgiving dinner, she found out pretty quickly that she was in trouble!

Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2010

Take a peek at this. The New York Times Book Review posted this article announcing the 10 best illustrated children’s book of 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2010/best-illustrated-childrens-books-2010/list.html

The judges included Robert Sabuda, Elizabeth Bird, and David Barringer. What an interesting and variety collection of books.

T.