This week, Mo Willems throws his hat into the ring; Sharee Miller celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Emma Mills takes the cake; and the Pumphrey brothers launch their debut picture book.
Man of Many Hats
Mo Willems, who recently served as the inaugural Education Artist-in-Residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, appeared in the Big Apple Circus on January 16 as the Guest Ringmaster. Coincidentally, renowned juggler and instructor Hovey Burgess, the circus scholar at Big Apple Circus, was one of Willems’s teachers at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Guests had the opportunity to win a signed copy of the latest installment in the Pigeon series, The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! (Hyperion). Here, Willems gets ready to take center stage.
A Celebration of King
To commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, author-illustrator Sharee Miller held a reading of her picture books Don’t Touch My Hair! and Princess Hair (Little, Brown) at the Grace Reformed Church of Flatbush in Brooklyn, N.Y. Hosted by the Prospect Lefferts Garden Neighborhood Association, Miller addressed an audience of 50 people and gave art lessons to readers, who learned to draw the protagonist of Don’t Touch My Hair! A signing followed, courtesy of Greenlight Bookstore. The day’s events also included a collage craft station, sing-alongs of historic march songs, and a q&a on the 1963 Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Ala.
She’s So Lucky, She’s a Star
Last Saturday, Emma Mills dropped by The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, Mo., in honor of her latest novel, Lucky Caller (Holt). The contemporary YA features a high school senior, who must produce a ’90s-themed radio show with her ex-best friend and a few strangers in order to pass their radio broadcasting class. The Novel Neighbor presented Mills with a cake that featured the book cover, pictured here. A signing followed.
A Stamp of Approval for the Pumphreys
Earlier this month, brothers Jarrett (l.) and Jerome Pumphrey visited BookPeople in Austin, Tex., to launch their debut picture book, The Old Truck (Norton Young Readers). The book follows an old truck as it parallels the life of a brown-skinned farm girl. To celebrate the fact that the illustrations were created from more than 250 stamps, guests were treated to an interactive stamp activity.
