The Adventures of a South Pole Pig

A big box arrived at my doorstep the other day. I thought it was a Christmas gift that I had ordered for the kids, but when I saw that the return address was Harcourt Houghton Mifflin, I knew it was a present for me!

THE ADVENTURES OF A SOUTH POLE PIG, by Chris Kurtz is the very endearing story of Flora, an adventurous and optimistic pig who wants more out of life than simply to live in her pen :-)

Pub date is January 8 and it can be pre-ordered to ship on that day here.

You just gotta love a pig named "Flora"!

Soaring

I did this little painting to make into a thank you card to send the art director at Harcourt Houghton Mifflin.

It's not really from anything in the book (The Adventures of a South Pole Pig), but I loved the idea of Flora (the pig) soaring into the sky with a red balloon!

Building an ARC

Yesterday, I received my Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of THE ADVENTURES OF A SOUTH POLE PIG. A chapter book by author, Chris Kurtz and published by Harcourt Houghton Mifflin.

I did the cover and 23 black and white interior illustrations. Publishers send out these advance copies of the book to reviewers, librarians, bloggers, and various big cheeses in the kids' publishing world for comment. There are still uncorrected typos, it's paperback, and the page layouts are a little wonky. 

But, it's so wonderful to see these characters come to life and live in a book!