Selina Alko came to visit my class at SVA this week as a guest speaker: very exciting! She talked about her process of working on books and was a real inspiration for my students, particularly because Selina herself took my class about seven years ago! She brought along the dummy that she did back then. It become a book, I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother, but only after many changes and revisions when she subsequently worked on it with her agent and editor. Selina proves that hard work and patience, openness to new ideas and input, in addition to enormous talent and creativity, all pay off. Congratulations on her newest book Every-Day Dress-Up.

Each day of the week the little girl in this book dresses up as a different great woman in history. I wish I had had this book when my daughter was little. She loved dressing up. She definitely would have loved Saturday's heroine, Maria Tallchief, the great NYCB ballerina. But I'm guessing another favorite would have been Monday's Amelia Earhart, because we have several cousins who are pilots who my daughter really looked up to. Friday's Julia Child and Sunday's Frida Kahlo, are personal favorites of mine... Great concept carried out in Selina's distinctive style. Check out her book trailer and her website.

My class recently had a "field trip" to see the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators. An annual event, this is the #1, always fantastic exhibition celebrating children's books. Selina's book is in the show. And it is great to see books by some other people who have also been in class at one time or another: Sean Qualls (Freedom Song the Story of Henry “Box” Brown and Giant Steps to Change the World, Hyewon Yum (The Twins’ Blanket), and Joyce Wan (We Belong Together). Way to go!
The show is on until December 29th: a MUST see! (info here)