Thank you to all of the talented picture book imaginators for sharing their whimsical creations with us!


















































Thank you to all of the talented picture book imaginators for sharing their whimsical creations with us!
Thank you to all of the talented picture book imaginators for sharing their whimsical creations with us!
Thank you to all of the talented picture book imaginators for sharing their whimsical creations with us! That wraps up all of the first-time picture book reads for me in 2022, which comes in at over 122 past my goal, and an average of nearly 2 picture books read a day.
Thank you to all of the talented picture book imaginators for sharing their whimsical creations with us! Many from this collection come from Larrikin House, a publisher of humorous yet honest books for all.
Thank you to all of the talented picture book imaginators for sharing their whimsical creations with us!
To think I previously only journeyed through 100 picture books each year. I’ve now surpassed my goal of 365 picture books! This collection of books features Halloween and Thanksgiving themed stories with diversions built around talented imaginators such as Gris Grimly, Carolyn Crimi, and Michael Rex.
In this assortment of books, the following receive the coveted 5-star treatment:
The picture book parade continues to stomp through the year. Normally it would have taken me an entire year to read through 100 of these dazzling masterpieces, but now with a clear goal of at least one picture book per day, I’m roaring above expectations. There are so many great books out there, and we’re fortunate that the creators persisted long enough to bring them to us. Many from this collection cemented my love for the medium, rekindled my affection for Beach Lane Books, and helped me discover new favorite creators in Bob Shea, Kelly Dipucchio, Minh Lê, and Jessie Sima. Of the lot, the following were my personal favorite 5-star books:
Kids don’t know what they’re looking for. They just want to have fun while they learn and grow. Neither fishing nor reading need a purpose. Sure both take a dose of patience, but much like each new page brought an interesting picture, each reeling delivered an element of surprise. And it didn’t hurt that Grandma and Grandpa had a knack for catching perch off the thousand islands.
As an adult, I never caught anything, and thus found fishing to be rather dull. I equated a dead fish as success. I failed to realize fishing was much like reading. You shouldn’t pick up a book hoping it will change your life, lead you to riches, or motivate you to open Iran’s largest juice bar. Instead, read to enter a parallel universe through someone else’s eyes. Enjoy the act, and if in the end you haven’t caught anything, you’ve atleast spent a morsel of time peacefully adjusting to your surroundings (the fish can disagree with ‘peacefully’).
Perhaps my absence at the fishing pond is due to how I’ve never been much of a reader. I’ve always wanted to tear through the pages of a colorful book, but often 10 pages in I’d become lost, tired, or compelled to take advantage of the 24 hour drive-thru window.
With everything I do, I need a purpose. Since writing is my sole (99%) reason for breathing, reading has recently become an integral consumer of time.
Now when I read I bring along my fishing pole: the hi-liter. Sitting back, looking at the world the author presents me, I’m content catching the quotables from a text much like a fisherman catchs a fish. But there’s need to reel in a prize-winner or any ‘fish’ at all. I just sit my pole by my side and if I get a bite, I highlight that juicy ‘creature’ to digest later.
Recently, I finished Haruki Murakami’s Blind Willow Sleeping Woman, a post-modern collection of surreal short stories. While I enjoyed the hours shaking on a train and snuggled in bed reading it, the dessert arrived when looking back at all of green highlighted parts. In addition to fulfilled enjoyment I now have a collection of word parades to hang on my metaphorical wall. But these ‘fish’ were caught by someone else, namely Murakami. Thus the grandeur, wit, and wisdom of his sentences mock me as a writer and thus inspire me to pen better.
They say a writer reads, and this is true. If you haven’t been inspired, you’re are learning, despite if you consciously know it or not. But if you have yet to catch something, you haven’t sat by the pond long enough. Remember, the prize is in the act, not the catch.
Be on the look out for future ‘Fisherman’s Net’ posts where I’ll display the catches from a recently read book.
Keep fishing imaginators!
I’ve learned that amassing a lengthy to-do list only wastes the time you could have spent on accomplishing something. It’s better to begin working naturally and then once you’re aware of your drive to succeed, setting, and time limitation, then set small goals on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. For instance, I’ve created a PDF checklist for CRAVEWRITING in which I have to post 10 new entries each month. Given how I wrote 30 in November, 10 posts has proven to be a reasonable and achievable goal.
When looking at my 2010 reading list and the scores of un-read novels collecting dust on my desk, I felt the urge to compile a list of books long enough to blanket Rapunzel’s hair. Luckily my brain posessses the ability to re-think. While it would feel heroic to pick off titles from the list one-by-one, the reality is that I would probably never finish it. I don’t know about the rest of your imaginators, but I like the feeling of completion, especially since I get to blast the Superman theme song from my speakers. Plus, who knows what ‘must-reads’ I’ll encounter over the next year. It’s inhumane to ask myself to name each and every title I must scour over the next 365 days.
So I opted to look beyond the books and into my soul. I asked myself, “Why do you read?” Wait a minute, I read? I then re-phrased the question to “Why should you be reading?” There, I got it.
Well, let’s see. I read for many reasons. Specifically, I read to…
Then I perused my GoodReads account and analyzed the types of books I read. I graciously ommitted the recipe and travel books. While they belong on the shelf, and satisfy Reason-To-Read #5, I figured I should stick to literature. Consequently, the types of books I am (should be) reading are listed below and in paranthesis are the Reasons-to-Read they satisfy along with descriptions and books on deck to read.
In conclusion, outside of picture and chapter books I would like to say that I read one book per week in 2011. Thus I have a loose goal of 52 books for the year. But as long as I continue to satisfy my reasons-to-read and am covering a fair amount of material in each area I will walk into 2012 an accomplished reader (writer) with the Superman theme song deafening the neighbors.
To all you imaginators out there, happy reading in 2011!