A Very Good Day

I was invited to join the Picture Bookies Showcase a few weeks ago (thanks Bookies!) and this week's theme is "A Very Good Day". Well, I had one today. Boy howdy, did I. My first author/illustrated book ABC Safari was released last week after an unfortunate delay involving Chinese New Year ('nuf said). But books were shipped and this morning I did my first reading of ABC Safari at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC. It went very well, thanks in part to about forty packages of Zoo animal crackers and the help of my two assistants who had the day off of school (they are my 9 and 11 year-old kids but when they are on duty they insist on having titles and a salary, benefits, and are in negotiaiton for a 401K). I did have to bribe them with books - what else - and it worked beautifully. When he got bored my son curled up with a big thick fantasy novel and my daughter looked at puppy bookmarks and picked out a good looking mermaid novel. I got a Richard Peck book for myself and I'm absolutely giddy to start it. I read to the group, loudly, because it was a preschool story hour, gave out the treats, sold and signed a good few and returned home.

Two big boxes from Sylvan Dell Publishing were on my front porch. My books! Mine. You can buy it!

Today's mail brought three letters from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and I have been bestowed with one or two, perhaps even three awards for magazine illustration but I think maybe there is a mix-up since two of the awards were for the same piece. But still! I'll take one (or two).

It's a good day! Sunny. Got the yard sort of shaped up this weekend. Green things are happening. Letters have been opened. Books have been released! And I had a really good hair-day (thanks Joe).

My Even Day is done!

Yesterday I finished the art for My Even Day by Doris Fisher and Dani Sneed, Sylvan Dell Publishing, fall 2007. This is a follow up book to One Odd Day and it's about - you guessed it! - even numbers. It is a fun and funny book.

Sending off the art for a book is so final! There's no going back and fixing things. It is hard to let it go.

The perfectionist in me sees drawing errors, the things I phoned in, the things that I didn't think through thoroughly, poor choices in color and composition. I see the faults through the eyes of an artist. What I need to do is to see it through the eyes of the reader - a child, an educator, a parent. The things I got right in this book are the same things I got right in One Odd Day. I made the pictures fun to look at. One Odd Day has received plenty of good reviews on the writing and on the entirety of the book but I am going to paste parts of the reviews that speak specifically to the art. It is a reminder to me about what I am really trying to acheive.

"...The colorful, busy spreads have child appeal." DeAnn Okamura, San Mateo County Library, CA School Library Journal - December 2006

"...engaging and lively illustrations." Sylvia Firth, Children’s Literature – 2006

"...Knee-slapping illustrations." Nancy Attebury, CLCD & Children's Literature - November, 2006

"...boisterous, bright illustrations grab your attention and make you want to flip the page to see what odd things happen next." Jennifer Reed, Wee Ones Magazine - January / February 2007

"...illustrator Karen Lee adds visual humor to the story." JudithNasse, JudithNasse.com - March 2007

"...The illustrations are adorable and will catch any child's attention while reading the book." Catherine Ipcizade, Families.com

"...delight in the large, colorful, exuberant illustrations of Karen Lee." - Marvin Terban, Author and Teacher, 2005 SCBWI Member of the Year, Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, NY- June, 2006

St. Baldrick's - Help Cure Childhood Cancer

My son's friend and fellow scout has been recently diagnosed with Lymphoma. Connor is in treatment and doing well but his family and friends all feel the need to do something more. They decided to help raise money to find a cure for childhood cancer and to show support for their son who has lost his hair by joining St Baldrick's. On March 24th at 1:30pm at the Hibernian Pub in Cary, Connor's parents Jamie and Tyler, another scout father Tom Butalid, and a few other friends of their family will shave their heads! You can find out more about how you can contribute to this fund raiser by this link to St. Baldrick's.

Join me in wishing Connor and all children battling cancer the very best.

Come Hear Some Kicking Bluegrass

My husband Tim Lee and his band Lost County will be performing at the Holly Springs Cultural Center with the Cadillac Stepbacks, presented by Friends of Bluegrass. This family friendly concert will be March 24 at 7 p.m. Holly Springs Cultural Center, 300 West Ballentine Street, Holly Springs. $6 Friends of Bluegrass members, $8 public, 567-4000, http://www.etix.com// http://www.friendsofbluegrass.org/

Meet Ian Sands

Come meet my friend author/illustrator Ian Sands as he reads from his book Pony Wombat and the Second Ark at the Chick-fil-A RTP Kids Night 103 Residence Inn Blvd., Durham. He will be reading from his book at 5:30, 6:00, and 6:30 pm. Plus there will be tatoos!

Ian's the next big thing - so come see him, buy his first book, and eat some chicken.

ACC March Madness

One thing about life in North Carolina you come to learn is that everything revolves around the ACC tournament. My husband Tim Lee is an illustrator for the Raleigh News & Observer and did this cover for the sports section front in yesterday's paper. He's been very, very popular around here today. These are ACC coaches for those that don't know/care, and Tim did an amazing job with this.

Odyssey of the Mind

Last weekend was the regional tournament for our Odyssey of the Mind team. My daughter has been a part of this team for two years now and this year I joined them as coach. It has been a fantastic opportunity for my daughter. What surprised me was how much it gave to me! It wasn't always easy - not for the kids and not for me - but what challenge ever is. One of my jobs as coach is to push the kids to try harder, dig deeper, never settle for the easy answer. This works for me too.

Quick synopsis of what Odyssey of the Mind is - Odyssey of the Mind is a competitive creative team of children. They are grouped into age divisions. Each team is made up of seven individuals, our division is grades 3 -5. The tournament has two parts; a performance and a spontaneous problem. The team chooses one of five specific long term problems. They have about five months to conceive, develop, write, choreograph, engineer, build sets and props, make costumes, and refine their performance - entirely ON THEIR OWN. They have eight minutes to perform during the competition. The other aspect is spontaneous. They are taken into a room alone and given a prompt, either hands-on, verbal or hands-on/verbal, and must give the maximum quality, creative responses they can.

Our team chose the "I'm Only Thinking of You" problem. Their challenge was to perform a humorous skit about a self centered character that deceives others to do something that benefitted itself and say "I was only thinking of you". It does this twice successfully but its true nature is revealed the third time. There must also be a surprise. My team developed a story about a place called Technoland where all the inhabitants were critters and small technology. Our main character is Fatso Rat who is in disguise as Com Cat, a computer cat. He tricks the Cell Phone Mouse, the Computer Mouse, and tries to get cable from Tell A. Vision, the not-too-successful fortune teller. All this was narrated by the hard drive Wire Old Owl who has short term memory loss, and is policed by Spider Web Cam (my daughter!). Our surprise was that the self centered character was really the unassuming Cursor, the cursing computer cursor.

These are kids folks! They came up with this all on their own. We came in third out of seventeen teams and are eliminated from the state competition. I am extremely proud of these kids (and the other two teams from our school one who took first place and is going on to the state tournament)) and awestruck by their creativity. I will have a big hole in my life now that we are done for the season...until next year!