REMEMBERING CHILDREN'S BOOK ILLUSTRATOR ERIC CARLE (1929-2021)

Renowned children's book illustrator Eric Carle, most famous for his book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, passed away this week at the age of 91. In honor of his passing I am republishing my article written after a visit in 2017 to an exhibit of his work at the High Museum in Atlanta.

Picture Book Art Exhibit at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

Colorful caterpillars greeted me as I entered the High Museum of Art through the revolving doors and made my way downstairs to view I See a Story: the Art of Eric Carle, a fascinating exhibit of author/illustrator Eric Carle’s work. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a children’s classic, was published in 1969. The exhibit shows various factors in the creation of a lifetime of work since then. It is a delight for both adults and children.

The Very Long Train (a wordless picture book)

The art is hung low enough to be at eye level for most children and in the corner of the room there was a bin of Eric Carle’s books available for reading. Children could also play a “seek and see scavenger hunt” following a guide they could take home. For adults, and artists like me, it was fascinating to get a glimpse into Eric Carle’s working method. 

Sampling of art supplies

One display showed a sampling of papers, brushes and tubes of paint and another display had a photograph of him applying the paint to the paper with a broom to create unique patterns. 

Dummy page from Friends

I was particularly intrigued by samples of his artist’s dummies–the label noted that each book goes through many dummy stages.

Illustration from Have You Seen My Cat?

To date, Eric Carle has published 70 books for children, all illustrated with his signature style of art–cut paper collage created from pieces of colorful painted tissue paper. They are amazing. The exhibit at the High Museum of Art ended February 12th. You can see more art by Eric Carle at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA.

WRITING A TRAVEL DIARY: Keeping Memory Fresh

Hidden Lake, Glacier National Park

Before email and texting, people wrote letters and diaries to record their thoughts and experiences. While I have never kept a daily diary, from a young age I have always written a diary or log on summer vacations and trips. These early letters and logs are among my first travel writing. Recently, I rediscovered the diary I wrote when my family visited Glacier National Park on a family camping trip in 1961. My entries note both our activities of the day–hikes, swimming, picnics, a flat tire en route to Waterton Park in Canada--and more mundane issues such as the weather and what we ate. (In one entry I describe making peach cobbler over the campfire. In another, I tell how I burned all the lamb chops for dinner!) You can read a selection of my entries at my travel blog The Intrepid Tourist.  For me, my Glacier trip diary is both a memory jog and a reminder of the importance of writing things down when they are fresh. I never know when sometime in the future those words of the moment might inspire a new story.
 

Monarch Butterfly Eggs in My Garden

Monarch butterfly eggs on a milkweed leaf

Two days ago I saw a monarch butterfly hovering over the milkweed plants that are growing in containers on my patio. Then I saw her land on a leaf, stay for a moment, then leave. She did this several times. After she left and I turned the leaf over I saw several small white dots--monarch butterfly eggs! In a few days, they will hatch into tiny caterpillars. The caterpillars will eat the milkweed leaves and, in a few weeks, turn into butterflies--the amazing process of metamorphosis. No matter how many times I see it, it always seems miraculous.

Monarch females usually lay a single egg on a milkweed plant, often on the bottom of a leaf near the top of the plant. Eggs are only about the size of a pinhead or pencil tip and are off-white or yellow, characterized by longitudinal ridges that run from the tip to the base.

Note: Monarch butterflies are increasingly endangered because of the disappearance of the milkweed plants that the caterpillars depend on for their food. 

Monarch butterfly on a wild milkweed plant in Wisconsin

Butterfly symmetrical painting craft

 

With thanks to the Craft Train for this fun project making butterflies with symmetrical wings.

All you need is black paper, scissors, paint and Q-tips! Every butterfly you make will be unique. Click on the link for directions.

SCBWI Reading List Celebrates Asian Pacific Islander Heritage

 

Look for my book EASTER ISLAND: Giant Stone Statues Tell of a Rich and Tragic Past

Celebrate Asian Pacific Islander Heritage

This month, SCBWI celebrates the voices of and about Asian and Pacific Island heritage. On this list, you will find OwnVoices books, cultural retellings, historical events, modern stories and more. So, grab a book and celebrate Asian Pacific Islander Heritage!

 

Look for my book EASTER ISLAND in the Nonfiction list. 

Giant stone statues on Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui) reveal a rich and complex history. Few places in the world are as mysterious or intriguing as Easter Island, a tiny, isolated volcanic outcrop in the Pacific Ocean. When Europeans first stumbled on Easter Island in the 1700s they found a rocky, treeless coast lined with rows of giant stone statues, and a quiet farming and fishing community. Since then, this remote island has raised many questions. Who were the first inhabitants, and where did they come from? And why did they create such giant stone structures? Answers to many of these questions have been uncovered by archeologists or found in legends and family histories. This book, illustrated with brilliant color photographs, gives a clear and concise account of one of the most fascinating places on earth.

  

Great Reads. Important Themes.
Looking for the perfect book for your reader? We have that!
Each month, SCBWI features books written and illustrated by its members. And every month highlights a new theme that will foster discussions, activities, and enjoyment!
Storytelling done right.

THE AFRICA TRIP, 50th ANNIVERSARY: Celebrating 10 Years of My Travel Blog

The 10th Anniversary of The Intrepid Tourist  

Exactly fifty years ago this week, in April 1971, I arrived in Kampala, Uganda for a four month stay in East Africa, while my husband Art participated in a field course in animal behavior.  Still my most memorable travel experience, a repost of the blog I wrote for the fortieth anniversary seemed a fitting choice to celebrate ten years of The Intrepid Tourist. My plan when I first launched The Intrepid Tourist was to share some of my own travel writing, but it has expanded over the years to include the photos and travel adventures of friends and family as well, for a total of more than 500 posts to date. I am deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to the blog and for all my dedicated readers.

Trip of a Lifetime, East Africa, 1971
 In 1971, Art, along with four other graduate students at Rockefeller University in New York, embarked on a four month field course in western Uganda.  I didn’t want to miss out on a chance to go to Africa, even with a year-old baby (our daughter, Jennifer) to look after. One other student wife went along on the trip and we became traveling companions. During the first six weeks of the course, while our husbands were doing research in the Kibale forest near the town of Fort Portal we traveled in Kenya and Tanzania.  Then, for the second half of the course, conducted in Queen Elizabeth National Park, we were able to join our husbands. (To read the full post about the trip, go to The Intrepid Tourist.)

Impact on My Life as a Writer
As a wife, I was not involved with the course itself, but without it I would never have had the opportunity to go to Africa. At the time, I had not yet begun to write books for children, but my experiences seeing wildlife, meeting people who lived and worked in Africa, and just being there has been important for many of the books I’ve written since then. In a larger sense, the trip also greatly impacted my world view. Before then, I had never traveled outside the United States and had no idea what it was like to live in a third world country or in a place so rich with wildlife. From the time I was a child, I had always dreamed of travel and adventure. The trip to Africa certainly fulfilled that dream. When I do school presentations and kids ask me what was the most exciting place I’ve ever been, the answer is always the same–Africa.

My memories of the three months in Africa are vivid, reinforced by the hundreds of photos we took (some appear in my books) and by letters and diary entries. My parents eagerly awaited my weekly letters, vicariously traveling Africa with me. My father typed all the letters, making them legible, and put them into a book. A few excerpts are in my post at The Intrepid Tourist. I used my diary mostly to record animal sightings, brief reports of the events of the day, and our dinner menus. One entry says we ate stewed waterbuck, from meat given to us by a park ranger!Now, fifty years later, as I reread my letters and entries in my diary, I am reliving the Africa trip once again.

My Africa Trip Diary

 

HOW MANY LEGS ON YOUR BUTTERFLY?

Like most insects, all butterflies have six legs. However, at first glance your Painted Lady Butterflies may only look like they have four! The Painted Lady butterfly, like many other butterflies in the family Nymphalidae has two more legs that are tucked up tight against its body, just beneath the head. These are known as "vestigial" legs. Nymphalidae or "brush-footed" butterflies are known to have these two vestigial legs in addition to their four normal ones. This doesn't mean that these two legs are useless, however: many species including the Painted Lady have sensory hairs on these legs which help them smell and taste!

With thanks for this information from The Butterfly Pollinator, the online newsletter of Insect Lore.

You can order caterpillars from Insect Lore and raise your own painted lady butterflies. 

Learn about raising painted lady butterflies in my book Butterflies in Room 6.