Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Flora's Very Windy Day Round-up!

I'm a bit tardy with this post, but I wanted to take a moment to trumpet the arrival of Flora's Very Windy Day by the incomparable Jeanne Birdsall. Flora was one of those books that was a joy to work on from start to finish. I jumped into this book after spending a year in the downtrodden Dust Bowl, so spending my days drawing two kids being tossed about in the wind was certainly a treat.

Speaking of treats, Jeanne Birdsall is joining me at the wonderful Children's Book World for the Official Flora Launch Party on Saturday, September 25th at 2 pm. Hope you can join us!


(An early sketch of Flora)

Reviews have been pretty glowing so far. Here are some clips:

As realistic as the mixed feelings it captures and as fanciful as a conversation with a rainbow, the first picture book by Birdsall, author of The Penderwicks (2005), blends homely and fantastic elements as naturally as a child at play... A fine picture book with a fierce, bold and (deep down) compassionate heroine.
- Booklist (STAR)

Phelan's illustrations are simply wonderful: His line floats and traces the air currents, his colors are subtle but strong and he captures Flora's multiple emotions and Crispin's silent toddlerness in every rosy-cheeked image. Emotionally true from cover to cover.
- Kirkus (STAR)

This gem of a book will resonate with older siblings everywhere.
- School Library Journal

...crisp and delightful...
- Publishers Weekly

And there's been some great reviews from the blogosphere including What We Read and What We Think and A Patchwork of Books!

Don't forget 9/25 at Children's Book World. Stop by and say hi to Jeanne and me!

3 comments:

Dee said...

They're beautiful. Makes me almost wish for fall...almost.

Lauren Castillo said...

I had the pleasure of looking through this book last month, and LOVED it! Beautiful work Matt, and congrats on such wonderful reviews! :)

Casey G. said...

have fun at the book party, if we lived in PA we would be there! The book is beautiful, picked it up when we were at the bookstore.