One of These Things Is Not Like the Others

Some early character sketches for a story I'm working on with a friend.  (click to enlarge)

Yeah, a real story, with a real friend too.  The story is called "I'm Not Afraid of Bunnies" and it was written by Rick Walton.  I'll keep you folks updated on the progress of this book.  I'm already having fun with it and I've only just begun sketching.

Monster Drummer

Requested by a 5th Grader named Joe.  Here you go, Joe.

Animal Math - New Creative Writing Prompt for C.K.C.

Let's get to it.

Yeah, I like animals doing silly things.  When I'm stuck for something interesting to draw or write I usually try to take something normal and add something unusual to change it up.  Interesting stories often follow.

I find this prompt to be especially fun on the illustration side of things.

For an example of this type of story come to fruition, check out David Shannon's "Duck on a Bike." It's super fun.  And I LOVE David Shannon's illustrations.

Help Support a Worthy Cause

This is one of the best Eagle Scout projects I have ever heard of.  So I thought I would bring it to people's attention.  Support the charitable project if you have the time and a few extra dollars.

http://www.matthewseagleproject.blogspot.com/

Magic Toaster Response

Tiff just had her class write responses to the Magic Toaster creative writing prompt.  Pretty much all of the stories were fantastic but there were a few stand out illustrations that I wanted to share with you.

Sock Monkey Toaster is totally rocking.

This is an amazingly well put together (and legible) comic for a 5th grader.  Betrayal!

And this Rainbow Toaster makes me laugh.  Probably because I hear a slide whistle sound effect in my mind when I look at the second panel.

Tiff's class is getting really good at this.  They've had a lot of practice.

Holiday Coloring Pages

Tiff asked me to make some holiday/seasonal coloring pages for her class.  So I whipped up these:

While Tiff was making copies before school this morning another teacher asked her if she could use the coloring pages in her class too.  Then another teacher saw them.  I think at least 5 teachers are using these same coloring pages in their classrooms this week.  Fantastic.  The more the merrier.

I'll put these up on the C.K.C. website as soon as I can find a better way to browse them on the site.  For now you can just drag and drop from here on my blog.  Enjoy.

Will Strong Recommends - Bookie Woogie

A blog you should know about:  http://bookiewoogie.blogspot.com/

The Bookie Woogie blog is one of the most clued in reviewers of children's lit around.  Why is that?  Because the reviews are done by actual children (with some assistance from their illustrator father.)  Isaac, Gracie, Lily and Elijah (assisted by Aaron Zenz) post conversational reviews that give some fantastic insight into what kids really like in their books.

If you create stories or illustrations for children I highly recommend their site.

Also check out Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty for some fantastic art created by these kids.  Super creative and fun stuff there.  Honestly it's one of my very favorite blogs.

New Content at Creative Kid Central

I just updated the Creative Kid Central website.  There are two additions to the Lesson Plans page.

First we have Vocabulary Comics.

And then we have Making Language Arts Fun (with Rick Walton).  Thanks Rick for letting me link to the fantastic content on your website.

Apart from that I added a page for coloring pages.  Right now it has all of the monster name tags that I did for Tiff's classroom this year.  Though, they are too hard to preview.  I need to make it easier to browse the different pages.

Wow, links all over the place.