I am delighted to share that I Am a Dragon! has been named to the Pennsylvania Center for the Book's 2024 Baker's Dozen: Thirteen Best Books for Family Literacy!
Here is the list
( I am in such a good company!):
- “10 Dogs” by Emily Gravett
- “ABC and You and Me” by Corinna Luyken
- “Bear with Me” illustrated by Kerascoët, Sebastien Cosset and Marie Pommepuy,
- “The Concrete Garden” by Bob Graham
- “How to Count to ONE (And Don't Even THINK About Bigger Numbers!)” by Caspar Salmon and illustrated by Matt Hunt
- “I Am a Dragon! A Squabble and a Quibble” by Sabina Hahn, published by HarperCollins.
- “If I Was a Horse” by Sophie Blackall
- “The Kitten Story” by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Brittany Cicchese
- “Mr. S” by Monica Arnaldo
- “Night in the City” by Julie Downing
- “Ruffles and the Cozy, Cozy Bed” by David Melling
- “Simon and the Better Bone” by Corey R. Tabor
- “You Go First” by Ariel Bernstein and illustrated by Marc Rosenthal
A character concept drawing of a pirate vampire character I created for a collab writing project that died. His clothing and even his hair borrowed aspects from various jelly fish as inspiration. " The snap of inky sails catching the wind punctuated the subtle wooden creaks of the Sea Nettle as it slid over glossy black waves. The night was oppressive. With the moon obscured by clouds, the ship, with its doused lamps and its dark wood was nearly invisible as she crept closer to her prize. Tallis stood on the forecastle, one foot propped against the railing, his hands supporting a spyglass. He drifted the lens between the lights below deck, counting each of them and making note of any movement on the upper deck and in the rigging. A single sailor was at the helm. Another was lazily standing beside him, possibly engaged in conversation that distracted him from his watch. This was to be expected, not many would dare to disturb such a well-equipped vessel of the Luthen royal fleet. Nettie's crew was lesser in numbers, but they were experts in what few on the high seas could manage. Tonight, would be a quiet strike. Open combat spelled unnecessary danger for his crew."
Konishi Mansho (1600 - 1644), the last ordained priest to serve in Japan during the prohibition era of the Tokugawa Shogunate (think of the Shusaku Endo novel, "Silence", which was adapted to film by Martin Scorsese in 2016). Exiled from his homeland in 1614, he eventually made his way to Rome and enter a convent to be ordained as a priest. He would later to his home country to minister to the persecuted Christians there, only to be arrested and martyred in 1644. I tried to mimic a traditional ink painting style to invoke the melancholic feel of this homecoming journey.
