My first picture book, The Elephants’ Guide To Hide-And-Seek is two years old this month! To celebrate here’s a pic of me when I was 8 years old with another bright yellow book that I made then for my school’s young author contest. I won an award for my grade and decided someday I wanted to be a published author. Yay for dreams that come true!
Spine Poems
A few poems I posted on Twitter lately that I made using the spines of picture books. Enjoy!
Dear diary,
I want to be the night gardener,
outside,
finding wild sidewalk flowers
stuck over and under the snow,
just because.
Wherever you go
Please bring balloons
Just in case you want to fly
Up, down, and around—In the sky
At nighttime
Like a dandelion Under the lemon moon
Imagine if you had a jetpack—
Whoosh!
Higher! Higher!
Faster! Faster!
Yes, let’s run wild reaching for the
moon,
stars,
life on mars—
The most magnificent thing.
Happy World Elephant Day!
Happy World Elephant Day! This is a picture from many years ago of of me and my son Oscar in Sri Lanka at an elephant orphanage. We lived in SE Asia for a few years when he was small, we traveled a lot, and to keep him engaged I sought out lots of experiences that would delight a kid. So we had a lot of elephant adventures. This is mostly how I fell in love with elephants and came to write my book, THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK.
During this particular adventure in Sri Lanka, we learned that elephant dung is great for paper-making! Seeing as I’ve made lots of paper in my lifetime and even often use my own handmade paper in my art, this was particularly interesting to me. The reason elephant dung is great for paper making is that it’s full of munched up fibers—kinda like the elephant’s digestive system acts as a pulp beater. Gross, but cool!
The photo album in these pictures is one of my handmade travel journals, I used a batik I bought in Sri Lanka for the cover, and a lot of the papers inside are elephant dung papers I bought there. Also that cute little elephant stuffie is one I bought at a fiber store in Columbo.
I also wrote a blog post about elephant dung paper-making way back when I went to Sri Lanka. Here’s the link.
My nephew sent me a pic of himself tuning in!
Yay for a successful virtual launch party!
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who attended our virtual launch party for THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK! So wonderful to see so many new and familiar faces there. If you missed out, I’ve posted the video below for your viewing pleasure.
The highlight for me was being inspired by all Gladys Jose had to say—I’m thrilled to have had the chance to make this happen with you Gladys! And we even had elephants attending!
My son Lars dressed up!
If you attended (or watched the video later) and would like a bookplate signed by both Gladys and me, send me a message by April 24, 2020 to let us know (US residents only). We’d be happy to send you one! (note they may take a while but we will send if you ask). Books can be ordered anywhere books are sold but here’s a link to my local indie, Village Books—they can ship at media rates (in some cases only 99 cents!).
Download our activity kit—Gladys says the Elephant game was an instant hit with her daughter!
The activities for kids we mentioned during the launch are all posted here on my website, including:
A fun activity kit made by our publisher
Our virtual hide-and-seek game, where you can share silly creative hide-and-seek pics
A link to a Pinterest page with elephant crafts of all kinds
A link to a curated playlist of silly and wonderful elephant videos
Follow us on social media:
Check out Gladys’s webpage to learn more about her other books
Kjersten Instagram: @kjerstenhayes Twitter: @kjerstenhayes
Gladys Instagram: @gladysjoseillustrates Twitter: @gladysjosedraws
A huge shout out to Joni Sensel for reaching out and offering to help us with tech support. Joni is an incredible writer for all ages. I’m especially a fan of her work related to creativity and grief. Check out her website here.
This image only captures one screen’s worth of attendees—loved seeing how many showed up!
If you want a signed bookplate, let me know by April 24. Happy to send one!
Thanks again to everyone for helping us celebrate our joyful book during a difficult time. Especially because the world is unsure and hard right now, I hope you find some time to play in the middle of it all.
Wishing you enormous fun!⠀
Happy Book Birthday to THE ELEPHANTS' GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK!
Today is the book birthday for THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK, written by me, art by Gladys Jose, and published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. Hooray! It’s a funny tongue-incheek book about getting in the game despite feeling awkward or unsure.
I learned to write funny books in part because humor has always calmed my own nerves. Laughter helps. So especially during these times, I hope this happy funny book finds some kids and brightens their day.
Cheers!
Also check out my book birthday twitter thread about the making of The Elephant guide.
And maybe I’ll see you at my virtual launch party!