Thank you Mr. Wyeth

Recently I finished a painting for a new book jacket. I was very inspired by the work of N.C. on this one.

Percy Jackson Art Show

(pictured here; Jennifer Besser (Editor, Disney•Hyperion), me, Peter Glassman (Owner, Books of Wonder)


This past Saturday we had a very nice opening at Books of Wonder in NYC displaying all the artwork from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. There was a huge turnout and lots of great questions from the audience. Thanks to everyone who showed up and made the event so special. It was a real thrill for me to see all the art framed and on the wall, and to meet all the fans of the series. It was a super cold saturday, and it was even cold inside (that's why I am still wearing my scarf!) so I was thrilled that people braved the elements and came out.
The artwork will stay up for a while, so if you are in the neighborhood be sure to check it out. A small limited edition signed set of prints have been made and you can purchase them through Books of Wonder while they last. You can preview them all here.

Latest Artwork and News January 2010

Happy New Year! Here are some of the latest paintings I have completed for some middle grade novels. The first two are for a series called THE CENTURY BOOKS by P.D. Baccalario. The final painting is for the paperback version of a book called THE MIDNIGHT CHARTER by David Whitley. (I loved this book! It's like Jonathan Stroud's The Bartimeous Trilogy meets Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. I can't wait to read the next one in this trilogy, which I am supposed to get in a couple days.

In the meantime, I am very excited to announce that I will be illustrating a middle grade fairy tale written by our new Ambassador of Children's Literature, the one and only...Katherine Paterson. The book is called The Flint Heart, originally written by Eden Phillpotts in 1910. Katherine and her husband John have brought new life to this wonderful story which feels to me like a wonderful combination of Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. The Publisher, Candlewick Press will be creating a highly illustrated version of this wonderful tale, which I have the honor of illustrating.

The Kane Chronicles

Well the word is out, and so is the new art. Here is the painting that I recently did for Rick Riordan's latest series; The Kane Chronicles. There is some more info on the Wall Street Journal Blog, and a website.

PERCY JACKSON ART SHOW

Come on out and join me for a cool art exhibition hosted by my favorite NYC bookstore, Books of Wonder.
When: January 30th 12-2pm
The super awesome editor of the Percy Books, Jennifer Besser will be there as well to answer any of your questions. Should be fun!

Percy Jackson Deluxe...continued

Here is another painting from the Lightning Thief Deluxe Edition. It depicts Percy leaving Mount Olympus towards the end of the book. You'll notice the design on the elevator doors is based on the end pages I designed for "The Last Olympian".
I recently took my three year old daughter to the top of the Empire State Building and when we got out on the roof, she kept saying "But I want to go ALL the way up to the tippy top." I can only assume she meant climbing the needle like King Kong, but maybe she meant even further...to the 600th floor!

Percy Jackson THE LIGHTNING THIEF Deluxe Edition

I am pleased to announce that the Lightning Thief Deluxe Illustrated Edition is now available. I just went over to Books of Wonder in NYC where both Rick Riordan and I have signed copies. Very cool!

Books of Wonder Event

Had a great time at the recent Books of Wonder event this past weekend. Here are some pics.


Left to right: Jerry Pinkney, me and Art Spiegleman.


Left to right: Jerry Pinkney, Art Spiegleman, Francoise Mouly, Charles Santore, Laura Cornell and Brett Helquist.

Left to Right: Charles Santore, Laura Cornell, Brett Helquist, Holly Hobbie and me grinning profusely.

The Kane Chronicles

Well, now...I can talk about it.
I am currently working on the artwork for Rick Riordan's new book, The Red Pyramid (Book one of the Kane Chronicles). I am very excited about this because not only do I get to create the jacket art, but I was able to design the logo which was revealed this week in Publishers Weekly as well as Rick's own unveiling at the Texas Book Festival where he took home the prestigious Bookend award for his contributions to literature by a Texas author.
Now, I am sure I won't be able to post anything about the artwork for a long time to come, but the excitement is building. His last series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which I did all the cover art for, has sold over 7 million copies in the U.S. alone!
Needless to say, I am thrilled and honored to be part of his next series, The Kane Chronicles.

Percy Jackson Boxed Set

November 3, 2009 is going to be a Percy day! First there is the release of this cool Boxed set of Hardcover books, and also is the release of the Deluxe Edition of the Lightning Thief with eight new color illustrations I did for the interior. Pretty cool!

Boxed Set
Deluxe Lightning Thief

Today is the Day to find the Way

Today, September 30th officially marks the launch of my latest picture book, Fu Finds the Way. I am at my desk listening for cries of joy, fireworks and sounds of celebration, but alas it is quiet outside my window.
I will be doing several signings in the NYC area in November.


In other news I had the pleasure of meeting David Small as he was signing his new graphic novel "Stitches" at Powerhouse Arena last night. I also met his lovely wife, Sarah Stewart (Author of "The Librarian", "The Gardener", "The Money Tree" and several others) It was a great night, and I was lucky to get our very used copy of "The Librarian" signed by both David and Sarah.

Keplers review of Fu Finds the Way

My new book was recently reviewed by Keplers. Did I mention that Keplers happens to be one of my Dad's favorite bookstores?


Fu Finds the Way - Kepler's Staff Review
This is an awe-inspiringly beautiful book that will beckon you to hold it tenderly in your hands and give it your full attention. Indeed, before the first
word is read you will be well on your way to "the way."

Young Fu is out in the rice fields quite distracted by his fantastic daydream when he accidentally flings a clod of mud onto the face of a fearsome warrior
named Chang. Incensed, Chang challenges young Fu to a duel. Terrified Fu grabs his father's sword and runs to seek training by the Master. But all the
Master has him do is pour tea! And then he orders Fu to pour tea again "with purpose," and again "with flow" and again "with patience." When the hour
of his assignation with Chang arrives, Fu, quite exhausted by his sleepless night pouring tea, forgets his sword but finds himself still holding the teapot.

What will he do? Pour Tea of course! Fu's loving tea ceremony has such intense focus and beauty that all else becomes irrelevant, including Chang's ire.
In our often frenetically multi-tasked lives, reading this book provides a peaceful and centering experience that explains the concept of single-focused
attention to the moment-a concept that is beyond the grasp or experience of so many of our children given the relentlessly wired, hyper-texted, multi-
calendar lives our families navigate every day.

Kentucky Conference

I recently got back from Louisville where I was a guest speaker at the Kentucky Reading Association Annual Conference. They held another great conference this year and I was happy to be part of it. I met some wonderful teachers who were really passionate about getting their students to read. I also had time to talk with Floyd Cooper about his work, as well as having drinks with fellow SCBWI'er Candie Moonshower.

New Studio!!!!

I am very excited about the new studio that my wife and I built at our country house. It used to be a commercial kitchen and a bedroom, and before that it was a dining room (back in the late 1800's). We had to hire contractors to put a new roof on because the old one was leaking, but the rest of the work we did ourselves. I even made my own moulding with some old pine boards and a router. The bookshelf in the library is a simple pine box, and I added sheets of stained beadboard to the back and some old oak moulding I found to dress up the front. It still needs some work, like a new floor and moulding and some other things, but we couldn't be happier.
We also had time to finish work on a library. I still can't believe I have a library now! Here are some pictures, and a nice shot of my daughter helping with the painting.

The Books have arrived!

I just got my hands on a few copies of my latest book, Fu Finds the Way, (Disney•Hyperion Sept 30) and I am thrilled. The printing was spectacular and check out what it looks like when you take the dust jacket off! Its a red silk cover with a gold stamp that I designed in the center.
Getting advance copies of my books always gives me a thrill. It's like Christmas!

PERCY JACKSON

Lately I have been pretty busy. As you may know, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief movie is in production (see the trailer here) and the final book in the series "The Last Olympian" has recently come out, so the folks over at Barnes and Noble have been doing a slew of promotion using the artwork from the covers.
Check out this cool "Last Olympian Gift Card"
They have also created some cool trivia cards.
As well as this nifty journal.

But one of the most exciting things for me was the opportunity to illustrate a Deluxe Gift Edition of "The Lightning Thief". I had to put all my other projects on hold to work on it, but in the end it was totally worth it.
The book will have eight full color paintings of scenes from the book and will be cloth bound and come with a handsome slipcase. The best part is that I am told it will be available this November, just in time for that perfect holiday gift for the Percy fans!
I plan to do some promotional videos, but here is a small taste of what is to come... stay tuned.

Obama gives out "The Lightning Thief"

I came across this article yesterday. The first family was at Fort McNair on June 25th to stuff 15,000 backpacks with books for children of military personnel. The two books given out were "The Penderwicks" by Jeanne Birdsall, and "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan (with cover art by John Rocco!!!!). Pretty cool.

New jacket painting

This one is for the follow up to Jake Ransom and the Skull King. Don't know if I can tell you the title yet, but it has something to do with a sphinx. The painting hasn't been approved yet, but the art director liked it, and that's good enough for me.

Working on a picture book right now, and it's a wordless one. Still in the book dummy stage and I can't wait to start working on the final art. Just got notes back from my editor and, as expected, they were good ones. Now back to the drawing board.

IRA-Minneapolis

I just returned from Minneapolis where I had a fabulous time signing books and giving presentations. I saw some old friends and met many new ones. The folks from Disney•Hyperion were there in force and had a great booth set up for us. I forgot my camera, sorry no pictures. Signed books in the Anderson Bookshop booth with Patrick Carmen and Judy Schachner and they were fun table mates. We had quite a slew of folks come by to have books signed and they sold every last copy of Wolf! Wolf! and Moonpowder.
The last night we had terrific dinner at the COSMOS restaurant and I enjoyed talking, eating and drinking with Ally Carter, LeUyen Pham, Alan Sitomer, Gordon Korman and Jaime Adoff.

Now back to reality...time to get my butt in my chair and get some work done.
Hope to see you at BEA at the end of the month!

April-May news

It has been a while since I've blogged, facebooked, twittered (no, I don't twitter)...whatever, so I figured it was about time I let you know what I've been up to. Since I last blogged, I have been working on a new picture book that I hope to complete this summer. I will post some things when it's done. Also I have been gearing up for the release of my newest picture book, Fu Finds the Way, which releases in September. My publisher (Disney•Hyperion) and I have created a very cool poster which is a whopping 18"x24".

I will be signing posters at the upcoming International Reading Association Conference next week in Minneapolis. I will also be giving a talk with the legendary children's book creator, Gerald McDermott, and I am very excited to meet him.

Besides the poster for "Fu" we have created this very cool postcard, actually 4 postcards in one. Be sure to stop by the Disney•Hyperion booth at Book Expo America in NYC on March 29th as I will be there signing galley copies of "Fu Finds the Way".
Here is the postcard: