AFRICAN ANIMALS is Now a Kindle Book

My book, AFRICAN ANIMALS is now available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. It was originally published by Morrow Junior Books in 1997 and is out of print. The cover has been redesigned but the text and full color photos inside are the same as in the original book. AFRICAN ANIMALS was my 100th published book! It is illustrated with pictures that I obtained through photo research from a variety of sources including my own collection. Photo research is a bit like being on a treasure hunt and as I searched for just the right photos to illustrate this book it brought back memories of my trip to Africa twenty-five years earlier. I am happy to have it now available to new readers as an e-book. You can read it with a Kindle app on various devices (I use my iPad) or on your computer.

REVIEWS
School Library Journal, March 1997
Superb full-color photography, simple but intelligent language, and excellent organization make this a standout in the growing field of nonfiction for the very young. Almost two dozen African species, mostly mammals, are brought to life and placed in the context of their environs. A brief introduction to this lush continent, and a final note about extinction will get children (and the adults reading to them) thinking about their own place in the world. Animals are grouped by habitat (grasslands, forests, and deserts), and basic locator maps show the extent of each area on the continent. . . .Occasional questions provide a natural segue to open discussion. . . . This is a book that youngsters will want to return to again and again. Share it with story-time groups or suggest it for one-on-one reading.

Booklist, March 1997
Prolific wildlife writer-photographer Arnold takes a lucid look at 20 African animals. arranged by habitat (grasslands, forests, and deserts), the book features color photographs of such wild beasts as zebras, warthogs, and gorillas. . . . They show close-ups of the crocodile's sharp teeth, the dark markings on the cheetah's nose, the python's scaly skin, and the leopard's rosette-shaped spots. Given the brevity and simplicity of the text, it is surprisingly informative. Basic characteristics are cited along with questions to the readers: "How would you like to sleep in a tree at night?" Well done.

FESTIVAL OF BOOKS, Tucson, Arizona

Festival of Books, Tucson, AZ

I spent the weekend of March 12-13 as a participant in the fabulous Festival of Books in Tucson, Arizona, a literary extravaganza held on the campus of the University of Arizona and attended by more than 100,000 people. This was my first time at the festival and I was amazed at the sea of white tents spread across the campus with books, food, activities for kids, storytellers, entertainment, science projects and more plus dozens of talks and author panels held in adjacent auditoriums and classrooms.

With Jill Wadsworth, host and moderator of my Illustrator Studio workshop

All of my official events were on Sunday and were in the children’s area near the Education Building. I participated in two panels, conducted an illustrator’s workshop and did a book signing. I also had the opportunity to read to children on the Story Blanket. Throughout the day I was accompanied by my wonderful guide and host Jill Wadsworth, who made sure that I was in the right place at the right time and who moderated my art workshop.

With Tom Uhlman and Mary Kay Carson

My first panel was a discussion called Desert Science and Scientists, with author/photographer team Mary Kay Carson and Tom Uhlman, creators of many Scientist in the Field books, including books about bat scientists and national park scientists. We talked about the challenges of doing research and different approaches to writing for different age groups. It was moderated with good questions from Morgan Apicella.

Art project: putting stripes on the zebra

My next event was Illustrator Studio: Cut Paper Art Brings Animals to Life. After viewing a power point presentation of my technique the participants created their own cut paper art using my zebra template. Typically I do this project with kids, and I was surprised at the variations produced by a mostly adult audience. One person cut her zebra in half and another made a plaid zebra with orange stripes!
After my story blanket time I had a some time to wander around the festival on my own, which was a good opportunity to take a closer look at some of the children’s books and to listen to Sandy Ogelsby, a storyteller with wonderfully dramatic Native American animal tales.

With Cheryl Blackford and Glenda Armand

My last event was a panel, Publishing Do’s and Don'ts with fellow nonfiction authors Glenda Armand and Cheryl Blackford moderated by author Michelle Parker Rock. The room was full of aspiring children’s book authors who were eager to hear about our paths to publication.
The festival also included opportunities to meet and socialize with other authors, including a reception on Saturday evening at Gentle Ben’s restaurant followed by a dinner for the children’s book authors at Pastiche. The vast array of children’s programs was coordinated by Kathy Short and ran smoothly with the help of an army of cheerful and helpful volunteers. The executive director of the festival is Marcy Euler. It was a pleasure to be invited as one of the authors featured in this amazing event.

At the signing table in the book tent

School Visit Projects in Long Beach

Yesterday I had a terrific author visit at St. Joseph's School in Long Beach, CA. Ten years ago I visited the same school so it was especially nice to be able to return. The children and teachers were a very enthusiastic audience and asked great questions. 

Librarian Christy Lund did an amazing job of preparing the students for my visit--introducing my books, visiting my web page, organizing the book order, and doing numerous projects with the kids.  Some of the first graders put stripes on the zebra using the template from my web page.
 

I am always amazed at the variety of stripe arrangements that children come up with for this project!  Other first graders made charming paper plate pandas which had been hung up to decorate the library walls.  Kindergarten children colored penguins and pandas using a rainbow of colors.  I thank Christy and all the students, teachers, and principal at St. Joseph's for making this a very special day.

Author Visits and Workshops in North Carolina

"Put the Stripes on the Zebra" by TDS Kindergarteners

Last week I had two very nice author visits in North Carolina.  On Monday I spoke to a group of enthusiastic fourth graders at McDougle School in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, who were just embarking on their non-fiction unit for the year.  In my presentation I emphasized how my process writing nonfiction books is very much like what they do when they write a story or a report.  On Tuesday I spent the day at the Triangle Day School in Durham giving presentations and workshops to Kindergarten through Sixth Grade.  Each of the four sessions included a project.  With the sixth graders, who are studying ancient cultures, the students divided into small groups and prepared lists of items for the "trash can archeology" activity, a kind of virtual dig.  The fourth and fifth graders created "mixed up animals", inspired by the Hodag in my book The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers and then used their animals as the main character of a short story.  The two groups of younger children made cut paper zebras.  I am always surprised how individual each zebra becomes, even though all the children start with the same materials.  Of course, in real life no two zebras have exactly the same stripes!  At the end of the day I got a tour of the school, which included a stop in the art room where the students were just completing their pictures of Babylonian art and a visit to the science lab where I saw three baby quail that had just hatched in the incubator.  I had a full and fun day and was impressed by all the great projects the kids were doing.

Project: Finger-Painted Animals

Hand-printed and finger-printed animals

A week ago I did an author visit at Fullbright Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles.  When I arrived, I found the auditorium filled with wonderful art inspired by my books, ranging from dioramas of African wildlife and zoo maps to camouflaged tigers and polar bears to a butterfly tree.  The curtains on the stage were decorated with a menagerie of animals–zebras, giraffes, an elephant, a chimpanzee swinging from a branch–all cut out and finger-painted by the pre-K students at the school.  The children had made the zebra’s stripes by dipping their fingers in black paint and drawing lines across the zebra’s body with their fingers.  The spots on the small giraffes were fingerprints of brown paint.  The large giraffe’s spots were created with hand prints.  All of the animals had manes made of glued on strips of yarn.  Glued-on googly eyes completed the creatures.  I was delighted to see the individuality in the animals and the creative use of materials–letting the children use their fingers as “brushes”.  While many of my books lend themselves to projects for older children, here is an excellent example of how my books can be used with younger children as well.
I thank Najma Hussain, the librarian at Fullbright, for introducing the students and teachers to my books, for preparing them for my visit, and  for organizing the day.  It was a successful and fun day for everyone! 

My Art Process: From Sketch, to Collage, to Giclee Print

My cut-paper collage illustrations are created by first drawing the animals, using photographs as a guide. I then cut paper into the necessary shapes before assembling and gluing the pieces together. I prefer using heavy colored paper that I buy at the art store, but I will use anything I can find if it is the right color. I like the thickness of the art paper which, as pieces overlap, gives a three-dimensional quality to the illustrations. In a few cases, if I cannot find the right color of paper, I use my printer to create the color I need. My illustrations are the same size as the printed pages in the book.

      I like using cut paper collage as an illustration technique because the pictures are bright and colorful and the art allows me to convey information about the animals and their environments that I could not do in any other way. I can make the animals big or small, change their positions, and place them exactly in a visual environment that best shows where they live.
      I chose the cut-paper collage technique for my Picture Window Book animal series because the books are intended for children in the primary grades. The bright colors and large scale of the illustrations make them ideal for beginning readers or for reading aloud. The pages are big enough that children in the back of the room can see the pictures when a teacher or librarian is reading the book aloud.  Facts at the beginning and end of the book and in sidebars provides addition information beyond the main story.
     To make fine art prints from my illustrations I use a printing process called giclee, a French word meaning "sprayed".  Giclee prints are created from the original artwork by making very high resolution scans and then printing them with a professional quality printer onto fine art paper with archival inks. The technique allows for an extremely high level of detail and a print that is very close to the original art.  Even though the paper of the print is flat, it reflects the three-dimensional quality of the layered paper of the original art.
     You can see and purchase my prints at my online gallery at www.etsy.com/shop/CarolineArnoldArt .  All prints are limited editions and are signed and numbered.

Books Give You Someplace to Go

I don’t read the comics on a regular basis, but last week I opened the newspaper (I still get an actual paper newspaper!) to the comics page and saw a wonderful cartoon. Dennis the Menace is seated under a tree with his pal Joey listening with rapt attention to Gina reading a book. This in itself caught my attention because Dennis is usually pictured getting into some kind of trouble. Instead, he is caught up in the magic of books. The caption reads, “Reading is fun. It gives you someplace to go when you can’t go anywhere.” I couldn’t agree more. Books can transport us to far away places both real and imaginative. We can run with zebras in Africa, float high in the clouds, or encounter magical creatures with Harry Potter. As a child, I traveled vicariously to France with children whose professor father was spending a year in Paris as I read the book Family Sabbatical by Carol Ryrie Brink. Books expand our world through both words and pictures. Books helped me dream that someday I could go someplace and see for myself some of the things I had first encountered through reading. A few years ago, I did go to France and climbed the Eiffel tower just as the children did in the book I read long ago.

School Visit Tip

Recently, I was asked by my friend Alexis O'Neill to contribute a tip for doing school visits for her blog School Visit Experts.com. Here's my tip: Create coloring pages, activity sheets, and other “hands on” projects that can be downloaded from your website and used in the classroom to build up knowledge and interest in your books before or after your visit. Include this information in a packet sent to the librarian before your visit. I love going to schools and see walls of cut paper zebras created from the template on the web page for my book A Zebra’s World. No two zebra’s are ever alike!
In the photo above you can see the wonderful zebra mural made by the students in my brother's third grade class in Novato, CA. I love the way they created a whole African scene.
If you are an author or illustrator, check out the many other useful tips and resources on the School Visit Experts site.