Go CORA!

CORA COOKS PANCIT is in the annual best-of-the-year list of the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC), called CCBC Choices 2010. Yay! The complete CCBC Choices 2010 publication featuring books published in 2009 will include annotations and recommended ages for all of the books included, as well as an author/title/subject index, and a commentary on the publishing year. It'll be available in March.



More great news: CORA COOKS PANCIT was reviewed in the November, 2009 issue of School Library Journal!

LAZO GILMORE, Dorina K. Cora Cooks Pancit. illus. by Kristi Valiant. unpaged. glossary. CIP. Shen's. 2009. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-1-885008-35-0. LC 2008045836.

PreS-Gr 3--When Cora's Filipino family cooks together, she's always stuck doing the "kid jobs." Then one day when her older siblings are out and about, Cora gets her chance to bond with Mama in the kitchen. She even gets to choose her favorite dish, so the two of them make a large bowl of noodles, chicken, and vegetables called pancit. Clear expository prose explains how to perform kitchen tasks. For example, Mama tells Cora, "Open the package of rice noodles and put them in this bowl of water." Then she engages her daughter by asking her, "Do you know why we soak them?" These scenes effectively model how adults can introduce children to cooking. The simple, direct style also makes the book equally well suited as a read-aloud and for newly independent readers. The artwork nicely complements the text, as Valiant's warm hues of gold, red, and orange highlight the family's loving relationship. They also capture Cora's feelings through facial expressions. Wide eyes and smiles show the child's joy at cooking with her mother, while a downcast mouth and arched eyebrows illustrate her anxiety that her family won't like her pancit. Although this dish is unique to Cora's culture, children of all backgrounds will share her feelings at being allowed to help cook a meal for the first time. A solid choice for schools and public libraries, especially where family-based programming is popular.--Mary Landrum, Lexington Public Library, KY

Baby Ciana

Ok, I have to show off my biggest little blessing, born a couple weeks ago with a full head of hair!

I'm taking some time off work to play and cuddle this sweetheart all day long, and then I have a couple picture books lined up to illustrate. Ciana is so animated and can go through 50 expressions just waking up; I'm sure my hours of staring adoringly at her will help me to illustrate kids more expressively too.

Newest Picture Book

I recently finished illustrating a picture book called DANCING DREAMS for Accord Publishing that will have Animotion panels making it look like a confined part of the illustration is animated (the older ballerina on stage in this spread). Accord did the same thing with the picture book, BEE & ME, which became a New York Times Best-Seller!

DANCING DREAMS incorporated a lot of styles of dance and was soooo much fun to illustrate. I love dancing. I used to be part of a performance and competition swing dance group. We also did latin and ballroom dancing. I miss all that fun exercise.

Accord offered me another contract for a second picture book with Animotion panels. I've been working on cover sketches, and this one is going to be stinkin' cute! Check back for updates on that.

Guess who's coming soon?

We don't know her name yet. Suggestions?

Peter Rabbit

Oh, those crunchy carrots were so tempting!

This illustration is for Theatreworks USA's production of PETER RABBIT Y SUS AMIGOS, an English/Spanish musical theater production.

Highlights Nov Issue

Skinny? You won't be after you eat a full Thanksgiving meal! I have this illustration accompanying Donna Earnhardt's lovely poem in the November issue of Highlights magazine.

Pumpkin Carving

Took a break tonight to carve a pumpkin. I like how this smily monster turned out.

Illustration Friday - Fast

These are some fast sketches I did of people around me while standing in line for hours a couple days ago.

Highlights Illustrators' Party

Highlights throws an Illustrators' Party Weekend every year. They invited us out to their beautiful headquarters in eastern Pennsylvania and wined and dined us (well, I didn't have any wine because of the baby). There were activities all weekend long including a costume party, bbq, square dance, lamb roast, hayride, pumpkin painting, portfolio time, and so on. I loved meeting so many illustrators and especially my fabulous art director from Highlights Magazine, Cindy Smith. Incredible weekend!


The theme of the costume party was to dress up as our favorite day of the year. I chose World Tourism Day and piled on stuff from all over the world. Casey chose National Kick Butt Day and wore his tae kwon do uniform with a butt-shaped sign pinned to his butt that said, "Kick here!" Only one guy attempted to kick him. I took a few people out with my huge sombrero though.







Near Highlights and Boyds Mills offices. We took the lovely back roads thanks to our handy iPhones.

This is the lake next to our cabin. Gorgeous! We took a paddle boat out for a bit and got our butts wet due to a broken rudder.



Casey and I made the Highlights weekend into a 30-hour weeklong roadtrip and visited friends along the way. It was a beautiful time for driving and being 6 months pregnant was fine for a roadtrip. Baby Valiant did great!

Illustration Contest Win!

This past weekend was the Midsouth SCBWI conference in Nashville for children's book writers and illustrators. I won the illustration contest there - whoo hoo! The Art Director from Henry Holt, Patrick Collins, gave the illustrators text from a couple picture book manuscripts, and we painted a spread from one of the books for the contest. The text on my illustration above is from the picture book, Don't Lick the Dog, written by Wendy Wahman.

The conference was fabulous and I intend to blog some of my notes next week. Right now I'm heading out on a roadtrip to the Highlights for Children Illustrator's Weekend and to visit friends on the way. Highlights magazine hosts an Illustrator's Weekend every year where they invite their illustrators to eastern Pennsylvania to relax, view portfolios, square dance, and get dressed up in crazy costumes. I'm excited!