Mondays with Mira - Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett

Today's teaching review is brought to you via Yuyi Morales who gave me this book and Sharon Levin who recommended it in an interview for PBA's recent illustration course. Thank you both Yuyi and Sharon :)

It was written and illustrated by the marvelous Emily Gravett, of whom I am now a fan as well, and is a clever combination of lots of factual information about meerkats (and their relatives–mongooses) and an adventure story. Emily combines 1st and 3rd person voices and uses the narrative structure of a week to help hold the protagonist's story together as he goes from one place to another only to...

Well I'm not going to give it away. Lots of tips and pointers in this video. On another note, Tara Lazar, who founded and runs Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo) which is a fabulous resource for picture book creators, decided to have a conversation instead of an interview with me for her blog. We mostly talk about my new venture of becoming a children's literary agent and her experiences of becoming a new author. We had a great time. So if you have a chance after you watch this video (and maybe even comment : ), head on over to www.taralazar.com where she is posting the interview. We got into it so much that it became a two-day post (but each section isn't too long) and we ended with some lovely opportunities for readers. Tara is the author of last week's picture book review in case you didn't put it together or don't know her. She is very lovely and some of what she shares will break your heart (but that might be on Tuesday). Hope you enjoy the video :)