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Happy: Holidays and New Year

I hope you’re doing okay after a long year. I’m on winter break for a few more days - lucky to be reading, drawing, and watching fake fireplaces on Netflix. A few things to share here . . .

A List

It’s been a weird reading year for me (low on middle grade fiction, high on re-reading old faves), but it felt good to get together with pal John Schumacher and decide on our favorites of the year. We counted down our top twenty K-6 books, regardless of format. This year was a first: the top three were all graphic novels.

(I also talked about the year in children’s books with Colby Sharp on the latest episode of The Yarn podcast.)

A Short Film

One of the best picture books of 2013 was Bluebird, by Bob Staake. So I was delighted to see that it has been turned into an animated short. Beautiful, just like the book.

A Drawing

Sometimes it’s fun to try and draw the most simple thing possible. This is the moon rising over the house.

A Star

Blue Floats Away, the picture book I wrote and Grant Snider illustrated, got a starred review from Kirkus. Looking forward to sharing this book when it comes out on March 23rd.

Thanks for reading! If you like FROM THE DESK OF 100 SCOPE NOTES, forward it to a friend.

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-Travis