ANIMAL PRINTS AT MY ETSY SITE: Perfect Gifts for the Holidays!

 

Illustration from A Killer Whale's World (PictureWindow Books, 2006.

I have recently updated my Etsy site where I feature art quality giclee prints of the cut-paper illustrations from my children’s books. Printed to size (10 x 20 inches for rectangular images, and 10 x 10 inches for square images) they are perfect for framing and to give as gifts.

The prices have recently been reduced. There are 16 different designs available, depicting pandas, polar bears, walruses, eagles, moose, killer whales, kangaroos, koalas, platypuses, wombats, and zebras. Get them while they last!

The art is shipped in a sturdy mailing tube.

Illustration from A Kangaroo's World (PictureWindow Books, 2008)

Two of my self-published books are also available on Etsy: SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL: Growing Up in the 1950s at North East Neighborhood House, Minneapolis, Minnesota and MY FRIEND FROM OUTER SPACE, illustrated by Paige Arnold.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CarolineArnoldArt

SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS, Now Available as a Kindle Book

My book, SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS is now available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. It was originally published by Morrow Junior Books in 1999 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. SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS is illustrated with pictures that I obtained through photo research from a variety of sources including my own collection. Many came from my trip to South America with my family, which included a visit to Patagonia where we saw penguins, guanacos, condors and all sorts of other wild animals. I am happy to have SOUTH AMERICAN ANIMALS 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.

"When a jaguar walks the forest floor, other animals get out of the way. This meat eater is the largest predator in South America. It can grow up to eight feet long. Jaguars hunt at night and can see well in the dark. They feed on alligators, tapirs, and other large forest animals."
Jaguars, monkeys, snakes, birds and many more species make their homes in the vast tropical forests of South America. Other animals, such as guanacos and bears, inhabit its craggy mountain peaks, while penguins and sea turtles migrate annually to is windswept coasts. Still other animals, including several varieties of deer and foxes, roam its open grasslands. This book, filled with twenty-five breathtaking photographs, highlights many of the most fascinating animals of South America.

AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS is Now a Kindle Book

My book, AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS is now available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle. It was originally published by HarperCollins in 2000 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. AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS is illustrated with pictures that I obtained through photo research from a variety of sources including my own collection. Many came from my several trips to Australia, including an extended stay in 1999 when my husband was there doing a research project. I am happy to have AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS 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.


"The continent of Australia is home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife. Tasmanian devil, koalas and echidnas make their homes in leafy forests and woodlands. Other animals, such as kangaroos and wombats, inhabit dry grasslands. Still more species, like the bilbies, live in the hot desert, while along the coast fairy penguins parade to their burrows in the sand. Young readers will discover how each animal--from dingo to glider, quoll to platypus--is able to adapt to its own special environment in the wild." (from the flap of the original book)


REVIEW
School Library Journal
Arnold divides her well-organized text into sections that cover the four diverse biomes that are found on the Australian continent and focuses on particular creatures that inhabit these areas. The two-paragraph text describing each of the 17 animals is encased in a beige block to set it off from the full-color photographic background. Striking, close-up photos complement the author's comments.

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.

Adelie Penguins and Climate Change

Some of the most dramatic evidence of climate change is occurring in the polar regions. 
I recently received an email from a teacher in Newton, Massachusetts, telling me how her first graders are reading my book A Penguin’s World as they follow the development of real live penguin chicks growing up at Cape Royds in Antarctica.  The students are learning about penguins via the internet with science teacher Jean Pennycook who is spending three months in Antarctica.  Students all around the world are able to  learn about penguins and follow the research process through the National Science Foundation penguin science program. The students in Massachusetts share the observations of "their" nest (#8) with their project partner, an elementary school in the Republic of Mordovia, Russia. The female is named 'Mordovia' and the male is "Jackson' after their own school name.

Here is a link to photos of the colony and of the  nests that are being followed this year.
http://www.penguinscience.com/education/royds_nestcheck.php
Here is a terrific video explaining the goals of the penguin science program.  It has great visuals of penguins at their nests, walking across the ice, and diving and swimming in the ocean.
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_videos.jsp?org=GEO&cntn_id=126692&media_id=73765

Art from A PENGUIN'S WORLD Helping to Support Free Expression at BEA

"Penguin's First Swim" from A Penguin's World (PictureWindow Books, 2006)

A book is challenged in a school or library in the United States almost every day. Just this month the Chicago Public Schools banned Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis in middle school classes.

The good news is that the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE)--the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship, is leading the fight against book censorship. Its Kids' Right to Read Project (KRRP), co-founded with the National Coalition Against Censorship, is providing critical support for the students, parents, teachers, and librarians who are fighting challenges in their local communities.

That's why ABFFE has agreed to co-host the 19th Annual Children's Book Art Silent Auction at BookExpo America. Proceeds will support ABFFE's defense of the free speech rights of young readers. The event will be held on Wednesday, May 29, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the River Pavilion of the Jacob Javits Convention Center.  There will also be an online auction. It begins on Saturday, May 18 at 9am and closes on Friday, May 24 at 9pm. It can be found here: http://myworld.ebay.com/abffe. Feel free to spread the word. ;) For more info, please visit the auction's website.

I have donated "Penguin's First Swim" from my book A Penguin's World (Picture Window Books, 2006) to the auction.  It will be available in the online auction. Check it out!
And, if you are planning to attend BEA, please stop by ABFFE.

SOAR INTO READING with BIRDS

Caroline with Red-tailed Hawk, Goshute Mountains, Nevada

I love learning about birds.  My first published book was Five Nests, which came out in 1980 and was illustrated by Ruth Sanderson.  It was an easy-read book about five species of birds and their different modes of parenting.
Birds have been a favorite topic in many of my books and have always been part of my life.  As I child I used to get up early to go birdwatching with my father and for many years my husband, Art, studied birds in his research at UCLA.  My book, Birds, Nature’s Magnificent Flying Machines, focuses on flight and all the ways that a bird’s body is adapted to make it an expert flyer.
The picture above, of me holding a red-tailed hawk, was taken at a banding station on top of a mountain in eastern Nevada when I was researching my book, Hawk Highway in the Sky: Watching Raptor Migration (Harcourt Brace, 1997).  Every fall thousands of birds pass over this mountain top on their way south for the winter.  A few of the birds are caught, banded, and released.  My plan had been to spend a week at the site and take notes that I would later use to write the book.  As it turned out, the banding station was so busy that week they needed my help, so I got to learn what I needed to know by doing it myself.

For my Measuring Your Wingspan activity, go to my post for April 30, 2012.

My most recent bird book is A Bald Eagle’s World (Picture Window Books, 2010), illustrated with my own cut paper art. My older books are out of print, but you can look for them in your library.  My other titles about birds include: 

A Penguin's World (2006) Dinosaurs With Feathers: The Ancestors of Modern Birds (2001) Ostriches (an Earlybird Nature Book) (2001) On the Brink of Extinction: The California Condor (1993) House Sparrows Everywhere (Carolrhoda, 1992) Flamingo (Morrow Junior Books, 1991) Ostriches and Other Flightless Birds (a Nature Watch Book) (Carolrhoda, 1990) Penguin (Morrow Junior Books, 1988) Five Nests (Dutton, 1980)

Projects: Polar Bears, Penguins and More

Two weeks ago I did an author visit at Ecole Bilingue, a bilingual French/English school in Berkeley, California.  (I do not speak French, so my program was during the English part of the day!)  I spoke to the first and second graders and was impressed by their enthusiasm and the preparation they had done for my visit.  As I approached the library, a huge bulletin board display was dedicated to my book A Platypus’ World, which the students had translated into French and the librarian had reproduced.  After my first program, the students presented me with my own copy of the book–my first to be translated into French! (I learned the French word for platypus: ornithorynque.)

The students had also read A Polar Bear's World, A Panda's World and A Penguin's World. Inside the library was a wonderful display of the children’s art projects–roly-poly clay polar bears; cardboard tube penguins, 3-D penguin pictures; salt paintings of polar bears, paper plate pandas, and more.  I really appreciate all the hard work done by the teachers and librarians to help the children be familiar with my books.  By involving the students BEFORE my visit, they not only learned about the animals in my books but were primed for my program and got that much more out of it.  The value of author day is not just in the one day I visit, but in the learning that goes on before and after.  I know the students will be checking my books out of the library for a long time to come and remembering the day that they met me when I came to their school.  I will certainly be remembering them and all their creative art projects!

Penguin Coloring Page

Pair of Adelie Penguins at their Nest

One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons depicts a penguin colony in which several penguins are posing while another is snapping a photo.  The caption reads: “You didn’t have to spring for colored film!"  Penguins in Antarctica are definitely mostly a black and white picture, and color film would seem to be a waste. (This cartoon appeared before the advent of digital cameras.)  My challenge, when I was illustrating my book A Penguin’s World was to find ways to insert some color into my illustrations.  When I could, I silhouetted the birds against a blue sky or the deep blue of the ocean. The main other color in the book is the pink of the penguins’ beaks and pink feet.  When you color the picture above, see if you can think of any other ways to add color to the scene.
Go to my webpage for A Penguin's World to download the coloring page for the penguins.  You'll also find directions for making a paper bag penguin puppet.
You can also learn about penguins and how they have been impacted by climate change in my new book A Warmer World.

Animal Cards for the Holidays on Etsy

Animal Cards at www.Etsy.com/shop/CarolineArnoldArt

It’s time to think of Holiday cards, and what could be more perfect than scenes of animals in winter!  If you go to my Etsy shop, CarolineArnoldArt, you can find cards with polar bears, penguins, pandas, and other animals that love the snow. Send them to your friends for the holidays! Cards are blank on the inside so you can write your own message.  Sets of cards also make perfect gifts for the animal lovers in your life.  Making the art is the first step in creating my cards. Each piece of art is a cut paper collage which I then scan to make my cards.  Each card is then printed and packaged by hand in my studio.  I use a thick 100% cotton rag paper to make gallery quality prints. If you can’t bear to send the cards, they are beautiful framed.  Happy Holidays!

Etsy Anniversary

February marked the one year anniversary of the launching of my Etsy gallery, CarolineArnoldArt, offering cards and prints of my book illustrations. I now have 74 items listed, 48 cards and 26 prints, and plan to add more in the future. I am sometimes asked which of my images are the most popular. Platypuses, koalas and wombats are surprisingly popular. Perhaps it’s their exotic nature. After that, pandas and penguins seem to be well liked. Their black and white markings certainly lend them to decorative designs. That said, all of the animals get plenty of views. Etsy has been an ideal way for me to market my artwork to a wider audience. I’d love to hear what you think of my Etsy site!

Art Show Opening

The show at the Blue Dot is up! The opening reception was a great success attended by friends, family, art lovers and neighbors of the Blue Dot. We had a craft table for the children, who created some very colorful penguins and koalas with crayons and cut paper. The show will be up until November 5th. If you live in the Bay Area, stop by and see it and enjoy the delicious food at the Blue Dot. It is open for breakfast and lunch and features yummy home baked pastries and excellent coffee. The Blue Dot is at 1910 Encinal Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501.