Don’t miss out on this opportunity to enhance your knowledge of picture books. I participated in an intensive literacy workshop this summer at the Highlights Foundation in Boyds Mill, PA. At the helm was Rosemary Agoglia, the Senior Museum Educator at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, along with special guest illustrators Floyd Cooper and Vera B. Williams.
We experienced how to evaluate art using Visual Thinking Strategies, the Whole Book Approach as a story-time model and discussed elements and principles of book design in a session called Picturing Stories.
Vera B. Williams, the Caldecott Medalist, is the author/illustrator of many children’s books including A Chair for My Mother. If you are familiar with the book, you may recognize a similarity between the chair’s cover and Vera’s blouse.
Floyd Cooper uses an eraser to create his unusual illustrations. He takes away color and the results are amazing.
We tried his technique using chalk and gum erasers. 
I was so thrilled with all the new ideas that I learned at this workshop and want to share them to you. I presented the Power of the Picture Book at Gardner’s Book Service in October and will update this post with new dates and locations of future Power of the Picture Book workshops. Participants in my Power of the Picture Book workshop look at art with a fresh approach that will help link literacy and learning to picture books. Discover the power of picture books by exploring the illustrations and the messages they share with readers. I bring over 100 picture books for participants to explore in this hands-on workshop. Schedule this professional development workshop at your school for your staff.
“Everyone who reads with students should immerse themselves in this workshop.” Librarian, SS. Simon & Jude Cathedral School
I parked myself in the front row in the children’s tent and enjoyed inspiring words from award-winning authors about where they get their ideas for their stories. Katherine Applegate wrote The One and Only Ivan in 1st person gorilla! She read an article in the NY Times over 20 years ago about a gorilla in a Tacoma, WA shopping mall. That story is the basis for this Newbery Award winning book. And Katherine recently paired with illustrator G. Brian Karas so watch for the picture book, Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla in October 2014. In the Caldecott winning book Locomotive, author/illustrator Brian Floca tells the story of a steam locomotive similar to the one in a park in his hometown. Lesa Cline-Ransome and her husband, James, write picture book biographies giving them the opportunity to eavesdrop on conversations of famous people. They gave the advice to write about what you know and love and that’s evident in their book Light in the Darkness. Where do they look for ideas? the obituary pages! Richard Peck’s The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail grew out of a trip to London. He saw a mouse darting around an old castle. Why not tell a story from the point of view of the mouse? And so he did. Even Queen Victoria is in the book.
