I had a great time at City Lit Books in Logan Square, Chicago this weekend! Families joined us for a special flowery story time that started with a reading of Kevin Henkes’ Chrysanthemum. Reading two books is a story time tradition at City Lit Books, and the kids really enjoyed it. I was so excited to read this one since it’s a personal favorite and a great thematic match for my book, The Fanciest Flower, which I read next. Reading both books back to back gave us lots of oppo

This week, I had the absolute pleasure of visiting two schools in Birmingham, Michigan; my old district! West Maple was up first on Monday. I gave two presentations to about 250 students each. The first group I spoke to was made up of kindergarten, first-, and second-graders. The next was third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders. What a fun bunch! Group 1 was absolutely full of energy. We came up with all kinds of silly flowers and characters. Group 2 was extremely kind when we exp

Thank you so much for this wonderful review, Krysten!! I had a great time at Lobbestael and hope to visit again in the future!

I had so much fun visiting the Early Childhood Programming Center in Portage Michigan to read and draw with my youngest audience yet! The littlest littles loved taking a nice close look at The Fanciest Flower and pointing out their favorite food items (cake and cupcakes, obviously) in the dinner party spread. Everyone had a lot of fun dreaming up new silly flowers. I drew puppy flowers, pizza flowers, and even a volcano tiger flower. My favorite thing about this visit was how

My second stop in Portage, Michigan, was West Middle School. The 6th graders I talked to were just as much fun as their peers at North Middle School. I gave them the same presentation, starting with different ways an artist can make money (advertising, licensing work for products, collaborating with content creators, etc.) before moving on to the main topic: writing and illustrating children's books. After reading them my book and telling them a little bit about the process,

I got to talk to my first ever group of 6th graders at North Middle School in Portage, Michigan! I was a little nervous that, as middle schoolers, they might find my presentation (and pants) a little silly, but to my delight they were happy to play along and full of excellent ideas!! I started by talking a little bit about life as an artist. I walked them through different ways I've used my art to make money: working in advertising, licensing for products, partnering with con

I had the pleasure of spending my St. Patrick's Day this year at Lobbestael Elementary in Harrison Township, Michigan. I did two assemblies for about 150 students each, broken up into two groups. The first group was Kindergarten, first and second grade. The second group was third, fourth, and fifth grade. We had so much fun! For the younger kids, I started by talking a little bit about what it's like to be an author and illustrator. I showed them some early work (a book I wro

I had so much fun doing my first in-person author visit at Yacks Elementary in Harrison Township, Michigan! I got to read my picture book, The Fanciest Flower , to the kindergarteners and first graders in their fabulous media center. They loved the story and they were especially impressed by the cartoonishly large prop fork I brought along to go with it. After the reading, the students asked some great questions. My favorite was: “How do you draw the lines perfectly where you

I recently received my first-ever fan art from the wonderful artists at Kent City Elementary! Ms. Bakos read my book, Zilbo’s Forest: What’s Up With That , with her special education class, and afterward the students created their own artwork inspired by the story. They even added word and thought balloons in the same comic style as the book. It’s exciting to see students connect with a story and then turn around and create something of their own. I’m looking forward to them

A little over a month after the publication of my first book, Zilbo's Forest: What's Up With That , I had the chance to visit a preschool class at The Brownstone School over Zoom! I read them the story and then opened the floor for questions. It was so much fun seeing kids react to the book for the very first time. They were excellent listeners and had some truly great questions. Some wanted to know how I came up with the story. Others were curious about how the characters go