INK Sisters Write

Dear Alison, Thank you for your post about Vera B. Williams . Her last art show in Narrowsburg, NY left a lasting impression on me. One I know I've shared with you. Vera's scribbles and doodles and daydreams remind me of my middle daughter. My eleven year old's notebooks, folders, and walls (yes, walls too) are as much as part of her identity as a creative as her hands and feet. At her root, she imagines and reimagines worlds, and we, as parents, let her. But your post spoke to me in another way.  I love how you read to your son each night, and it reminds me of my own son, now thirteen and the evolution of our reading relationship. Sure, my son still  sits and listens to the picture books I read to my daughters but I no longer read his books aloud to him. We react to them instead. Sort of a mother/son book club.   When he was in fifth grade, he brought home  Kick  by Walter Dean Myers from the school library.  ...

Dear Kim, Are you ready for our first picture book author in #AuthorApril? F is for Mr. Floyd Cooper . Every time I say his name I picture him at my side whispering, "Call me Coop." He's said that to me half a dozen times and yet I still call him Mr. Floyd Cooper because his work calls for that level of respect! Below Mr. Floyd Cooper's picture is an introduction that I wrote for a workshop called The Picture Book Academy . Mr. Floyd Cooper was one of our guest illustrators at the event. F is for Mr. Floyd Cooper That night my introduction read: Mr. Floyd Cooper is a ridiculously talented illustrator. I will say ridiculously talented because damn, he is!  [Show book covers and a few inside images. After the oohs and ahs settle continue.]   He has won numerous awards. Though, in my humble opinion, not nearly enough for his genius. But that alone isn’t what makes him ridiculously talented, oh no.  He is funny and caring.  Modest and f...