shadrieka Check out the Nov. 1st issue of Booklist to see a lovely review of BIRD 🙂 “In this beautiful picture book for older readers, Elliott and Strickland tell a moving story in spare free verse and clear mixed-media pictures of an African American boy who loves to draw. At first Bird’s mentor is his older … Read more
I’d like to send a special congratulations out to our good friend, Jonathan Bean for being chosen as this year’s Boston Globe-Horn Book award winner for his picture book, AT NIGHT. You can hear his acceptance speech here.
One of the fun things about being in the NYC book business is getting to work with creative people directly. Here is a cover design that I designed with Zetta Elliott. It is for her young adult novel, A WISH AFTER MIDNIGHT. You can see this and other work by Zetta here.
I e-mailed my dummy last week to Candlewick and didn’t hear back right away. I took this as nothing too unusual. I know how busy editor’s and designers can get. A week later the designer that I will be working with e-mailed to check on the status of the dummy. I realized they didn’t get … Read more
Last night I attended the I AM A MAN exhibit at MoCADA – The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art. Charly “Carlos” Palmer, a very talented painter residing in Atlanta, GA., was showing alongside Hank Willis Thomas, Russell Frederick, Rah Crawford, Radcliff Bailey, Leroy Henderson, Fahamu Pecou, Jefferson Pinder, Terrence Jennings and Juan Sanchez. I … Read more
A pic of me and my 83 year old aunt for ya. It was her first time seeing a digital camera. Her reaction when I took the pic and flipped it over to show her the image on the screen…”Shut yo’ mouth!”
It’s two in the morning. I just finished the sketch dummy for my next book, WHITE WATER. To be published by Candlewick 2009. Yawn! YAY! While visiting Atlanta for my best friend’s wedding I was able to hop on over and get a few pics of Opelika, Alabama, where the story takes place. I never … Read more
Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for “The Vagina Monologues”, wrote the following about Sarah Palin. Drill, Drill, Dril I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar … Read more
a starred review! My editor sent me a glowing review last week from KIRKUS only to find out a bit later that it was actually a starred review! We all did a little dance. Yay. This is what KIRKUS said: Elliott, Zetta (Starred) BIRD Illus. by Shadra Strickland Nicknamed Bird at birth, Mehkai idolizes his … Read more
It’s almost time! I received my first copy of BIRD in the mail last week. I can hardly believe it’s a real book. The cover and book design was beautifully done by Susan and David Neuhaus at Neustudio. To join in our excitement and book happenings you can join Bird’s facebook page, and of course, … Read more