December Hedge-a-gram

It's December, and hello to all of you. If I saw you on the book tour, thank you for coming to have your book signed. It meant a lot to me and I loved hearing tidbits about which books you liked, and why, what you have enjoyed on my home page and especially the drawings and ornaments that you brought! I work all year long on my artwork in a quiet studio - it makes it all seem wonderfully real when I meet the boys and girls, teachers and students, grand moms and grand dads -- it makes me want to create even more books.

My new version of The Gingerbread Baby is mostly done - the jacket is getting the display type - Dave Gatti, a calligrapher is doing the type. Gunta Alexander who works as a designer at my publisher is working on the design of the book (how the pages and type fit together). I have two pages left and the end papers which I'm going to make look like gingerbread. In case you don't know what end papers are, that's the paper that joins the pages of the book to the case. Its often a solid color, but I'm going to make mine extra fancy.

I loved meeting so many children on the book tour who where already authors. Many of the teachers I met told me about talented students, students that really try hard. I hope all the children know how much their work is valued, and now excited your teachers are about you.

Lastly, I can't say enough about the librarians and teachers that stood in line to have their book signed. You care so much about books and the children discovering them. Thank you. We're in awe of you.

Bye, til next year.

Love,

Jan