Show & Tell

Sorry kids, I skipped out on the Kugelhopf. I’m sure it’s fantastic, even though it has (ick) raisins in it. I’ll be back on the TWD wagon next week!

In the meantime, I decided today would be a good day for Show & Tell.
Most of you don’t know me. Where I live, where I went to school, what I went to school FOR. (I am wondering that myself, sometimes!) But, here’s a little tidbit about me…

I went to college and studied Art. Mostly Art History, with a double in English. That makes me especially good at…..Jeopardy. That’s about all. Lots of you seem to think it has helped my cookie decorating skills, too. So thanks for that. It was a great $50,000 spent. I am good at icing a cookie. But here’s another thought…

I made this book.

I don’t know what spurred it, as I made it in 2006, long before Seven was born. I hadn’t written or drawn anything since college let out in 1997 (I think I just dated myself) and then all of the sudden, a children’s book popped up out of nowhere. I wrote and illustrated it in less than a week.

Jon and I are big travelers, as you may have gathered from all of the MKMW posts. And we have a dog named Koosh, and she has a stuffed whale. Something made me want to combine all of that, and what emerged was a children’s book that introduces little guys to a different part of the world by following along with Koosh and her whale, Beluga. In the book I did, I took them to Paris. They went to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Notre Dame and more. I thought if nothing else, it would give kids an insight into what cool things there were for them to see in the world. I had grand intentions of making it into a series, with the characters going off to Rome, or Tokyo, Ireland, London…all over. That way, if the parents were going to take a trip, this might serve as the child’s Travel Guide…and get them excited about the trip.
I even went as far as printing up dummy color copies with the intent of sending them to publishers. That’s as far as my brainchild got me. I never mailed a single copy. (Publisher? Hello? Anyone? Bueller??)

I did, however, upload it into Shutterfly and printed off a small book. I chose the 5×7 book because it was so cheap, but if I had it to do over, I would have chosen the hardbacked printed story book. They didn’t have that feature when I did mine, as that story book is pretty new.
Here is a link to the book I made (just click on the pictures). I would love to hear feedback from any of you. Really. Tell me it sucks, tell me you love it. Just tell me something. And, if you like it alot, or just really like Paris and want to have a kids book about it, let me know and we can work something out! (what I am saying is, don’t order it though this link. Email me first and maybe we can do something better.)

Or, if you REALLY love it, but Paris isn’t your thing, inspire me to go somewhere else. Venice, you say? What do you want them to do there? The Rialto? The Campanile? A gondola ride?