Lane Smith Love Letter and John, Paul, George and Ben

I have been so busy preparing for tonight's extraordinary FREE webinar with Macmillan's Kristie Radwilowics about 10 Things Every Picture Book Writer or Illustrator Should Know at 5.30PM Pacific (registration right here) that I've left it to the last minute to make and upload my video review of Lane Smith's book John, Paul, George and Ben, with a little shout out to his new illustrated middle grade Return to Augie Hobble. So to make up for being late, I'm going to do a double feature with a golden oldie but goodie video of another one of Lane's books, one of my all time favorite quiet books - Big Pets.

But first I want to tell you a little about why I love Lane Smith. It's not just because he contributed a really generous and helpful interview sharing his techniques and all sorts of other goodies for our Craft and Business of Illustrating Children's Books interactive e-course starting next Monday the 21st - wow ( quickie heads up Early Bird specials are ending tomorrow)! Or because he's one of the greatest illustrators of all time helping to usher in the contemporary postmodern approach to children's book illustrating with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolff (written by Jon Sczieska) that has helped open the field wide open, but because the man is both brilliant and absolutely lovely. When you see some of his books, you'll get a sense of why he's so easy to love. Here's a sweet pic of him with his frequent collaborator Jon Szcieska although he is doing much more of his own writing these days.

So now for our double feature! First up is John, Paul, George and Ben, followed by the radically different The Big Pets!

And lastly I wanted to give a shout out to Lane's brilliant middle grade debut Return to Augie Hobble, which is so funny, and deep, and soulful, and magical that it was just too much to do well in a quickie shout out so am referring you all to this page on Lane's website with more info about this extraordinary book.

One of the things that I love to do for course contributors is make them a little pressie by finding out what their favorite animal is and then make them a wee quirky painting of that animal. Lane shared about how he and his wife, the equally brilliant Molly Leach, love feeding birds and listed a bunch that he especially likes so here's the one that I chose because of it's graphic nature. I hope he likes it. It was a little intimidating making art for one of the world's greatest illustrators but I was terribly brave and he's terribly kind.

Love that Lane Smith. Hope that you do too!

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Mira Reisberg has helped MANY authors and illustrators get published. She has worn just about every hat in the industry including art director, editor, illustrator and author, and literary agent. Mira holds a PhD in Education and Cultural Studies with a focus on children's literature. She is also an award-winning children's book illustrator and writer. And most of all she loves nurturing her own and others creativity.