International Children's Book Day

Even though all of our titles come from countries other than the U.S. it is a very special day when we can highlight our books that speak about or take place in a land that is somehow different than the ones we're used to seeing in a children's book.

Here are just a few of our books that take place in unique places in our world:

From France

My Father's Shop

From Taiwan

On My Way to Buy Eggs

From Japan

Girl from the Snow Country

From Australia

Are We There Yet?

From Australia

Ziba Came on a Boat

From the Netherlands

Little Fish

Make Up Your Own Holiday

This Wednesday, March 26th is the official Make Up Your Own Holiday day. That's right. You can now celebrate whatever you would like!

Cat Tails (and Tales)

Cat

Figaro, The Cat Who Snored



My Cat Copies Me


Dog Days of Summer


Apollo



Benny

Lucky, A Dog's Best Friend

Samsara Dog



Happy Birthday Coco



Saving Sinbad!



The Costume Party

Mom's Choice Awards

The 2008 Mom's Choice Awards were officially announced yesterday. Two Kane/Miller titles were included among the great list of finalists.

Congratulations to both Satoru Onishi and Tina Burke!

From Australia
It’s Christmas
by Tina Burke

2008 Silver Recipient: Seasonal, Holidays & Festivals


From Japan
Who’s Hiding?
by Satoru Onishi
2008 Gold Recipient: Basic Concepts

BLOG CENTRAL

Author, blogger, consultant, and teacher, Anastasia Suen has just completed yet another fabulous project. Blog Central is her latest creation and she's done an amazing job putting together this directory for all things kidlit related.

Where does she find the time?

World Frog Day

F
IN
D TWE
NTY TW
O FROGS I
N THIS BOOK

The endpapers in Paul Needs Specs are arranged like an eye chart since the book is about a young boy's vision problems. Based on author Bernard Cohen's personal experience of needing glasses as a child, this tale is narrated by Paul's sister as she explains Paul's dilemma and how it is they were able to remedy the situation.

Paul Needs Specs

Along the way, illustrator Geoff Kelly hides twenty-two frogs in the psychedelic, eye-bending (literally) illustrations. The cover of the book shows Paul not very happy, but as his sister explains, Paul's new glasses (specs) create a whole new world for Paul to explore.

International Ask a Question Day

It's not as if we have all the answers, but there certainly are several questions we address in our children's books. Here are several:

¿Quién se esconde? (Libros del Mundo)	¿Quieres Jugar? (Libros del Mundo)
Are We There Yet?	Could a Tyrannosaurus Play Table Tennis?

Duck's Key, Where Can it Be?	What's Going On?
Who's Hiding?	Why?

National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day

Normally, I don't recommend to anyone that they open an umbrella inside, but today is National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day so I do encourage you, instead, to open a book about rain or umbrellas (or luck?).

Yellow Umbrella is of course the book I'm referring to from the Kane/Miller list. One of our first picture books from South Korea, and one of our titles with the most awards, this beautiful wordless picture book, with accompanying musical CD, is the perfect way to spend a rainy day or a quiet story time that involves listening in a whole new way.

From South Korea

By Jae Soo Liu
Music composed by Dong Il Sheen

My son opens his Spider-Man umbrella inside our house often (and usually while wearing rain boots and Spider-Man pajamas) but so far he hasn't broken any bones - knocking on wood - or had anything happen where I would consider him having bad luck. I'd be curious to learn if anyone truly believes in these superstitious ideas anymore. I know I still practice them...

Happy Birthday David!

Today, March 12th, David Bedford, author of The Team series, celebrates his birthday! David wasn't always a writer, but the two soccer teams he played for, Appleton Football Club and Sankey Rangers, never won any games, so he thought a career change might be in order. He lives in England.

Jukebox Trailer

One of Kane/Miller's highly creative friends has put together an amazing, musical trailer to highlight our latest nearly-wordless picture book from France. Jukebox, written and illustrated by David Merveille, the picture book covers a wide variety of musical genres, many of which are included in this video teaser.

Would you like to share this video with other music lovers? You can link to it here.

Happy Birthday Felice!

Felice Arena - Australian author and illustrator of Sally and Dave, A Slug Story - celebrates his birthday today! Felice (pronounced Fe-LEE-chay), will be visiting the East Coast of the U.S. during the next week. If you haven't already seen the video where he reads aloud from this great tongue-twister of a picture book, don't miss it. You can view it on his biography page found on the Kane/Miller author's pages. Cheers!

Happy Birthday Darrel!

Today is a very special birthday celebration. Today, March 7th is Darrel Odgers' birthday. He is co-author of the magnificent Jack Russell: Dog Detective series. There are currently seven titles available with #8 coming out in the Fall. Embark on the adventure today!

Do Not Pass Go!

If you say the phrase, "Do not pass go!", 9 out of 10 individuals will know what you're referring to. Actually, I just made up that statistic, but with the number of spin-off editions of the original Monopoly board game, children of all ages will most likely come across one or more versions in their lifetime.

Bookopoly is about the only version that I can see myself wanting to play (aside from the Gourmet editions).

Instead of the usual properties, you buy, sell, and trade classic works of literature. Collect bookstores and trade them for libraries!

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

I hop on a plane tomorrow morning to head to San Jose where Kane/Miller will be exhibiting at the CABE (California Association of Bilingual Education) conference.

I will be working on this week's newsletter while on the road which will include highlights from a book event that Kane/Miller co-sponsored this past weekend as well as featuring some of our authors and illustrators who will be celebrating a birthday in the next week.

Don't miss my follow-up from yesterday's meeting with one of our Australian authors and be sure to visit Felice Arena's website which has been recently revamped.