Merry Christmas!

Hope your holidays are filled with peace and love.

My angel

It's hard to put into words, but those of you who have experienced the loss of a pet will understand most.

My little Brandy...I'll see her again someday.

Central Mass Magazine!

There's a neat new article about me! It's in the current issue of Central Mass Magazine, you can download a PDF of it at: http://www.centralmassmagazine.com/

Here's a little picture I made:

Painting....

I'm painting finals for a book I've been working on all year. It's been a loooong journey, and it's nice to be in the home stretch at last!

Américas Award Event

After a loooong train ride we arrived in DC for the Américas Award ceremony! Most of my photos came out a bit blurry, so here are the best of them:











It was lovely to meet fellow authors and illustrators Margarita, Sean and Jennifer. Many family members and friends attended as well, including my wonderful Mom! My husband was awesome as travel guide - taking charge while I tried to not be nervous about my speech.

The organizers did a lovely job, VERY special thanks to everyone involved in making this a lovely trip.

When I saw all the honor books set up on a table at the Library of Congress, I was awed. So many beautiful books! I'm very, very honored to be part of this.

Josias, Hold the Book - Américas Award

My book, "Josias, Hold the Book" written by Jennifer Elvgren has been awarded the Americas Award!

Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. By combining both and linking the Americas, the award reaches beyond geographic borders, as well as multicultural-international boundaries, focusing instead upon cultural heritages within the hemisphere. The award is sponsored by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP). The award winners and commended titles are selected for their 1) distinctive literary quality; 2) cultural contextualization; 3) exceptional integration of text, illustration and design; and 4) potential for classroom use. The winning books will be honored at a ceremony (tentatively October 6, 2007) at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Américas Award Winners JOSIAS, HOLD THE BOOK by Jennifer Riesmeyer Elvgren. Illustrated by Nicole Tadgell. Honesdale: Boyds Mills, 2006. 32 pgs. ISBN 1-59078-318-2

Toni Trent Parker Multicultural Children's Book Festival!

On Saturday, May 5th from 10-3 at the University of Connecticut, Stamford!

Along with Kevin Clash, Tonya Bolden, Gloria Pinkney, Javaka Steptoe, and MANY other cool people, I'm going to be there, too!

Reading, signing, drawing for kids, whatever sounds like fun!

Hope to see you there!

Updating

It's getting close to that time of year again...my agent's March mailing! As with any promotions I do, it's always very hard for me to choose which pieces of art to include.

The purpose is to attract new buyers, remind previous buyers that I'm around and interested in doing new work. The art is supposed to be my best, and is supposed to show what I can do, what I do well, and what I want to do.

It's recommended that I show children and adults of different ages, ethnicities, engaged in a variety of different activities, emotions, settings. This is always so hard for me! I often think my work is not good enough.


And then there are some pieces that I'm not allowed to show until they appear in the print publication, sometimes all the way into 2008! By then, I definately won't like it anymore, and will probably (hopefully) have improved significantly enough that I wouldn't want to show it. I think. Maybe.

Anyway...back to work!