Picture Books For A Change

Some of you may remember that the last time I was in Vermont I tried to visit The Flying Pig Children's & Adult Bookstore, but it was closed. Again. Well, one of the owners, Elizabeth Bluemle, was interviewed in Publishers Weekly about her new book My Father the Dog.

The Flying Pig seems to be very well-known. This is inspiring because the store is tiny. I mean really tiny. And it's located at a cross-roads well outside Burlington. I've never actually found Charlotte, the town where it is really located. By the way, in Vermont it's pronounced shar LOT.

Thanks to The Misrule Blog for the link.

I've been reading about The Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems for quite some time and finally stumbled upon a copy today. The story didn't grab me, though I can definitely understand why a very young child would be attracted to this tale of a lost treasure found. What did blow me away, though, were the illustrations. All the people in the book are cartoons that are superimposed onto photographs of the real world. So it appears that these cartoon people are...um...real...because they're wandering around in the real world.

I must admit, that was very cool.