The Best of Friends: Max and Zoe

When Max was introduced in 2004, he starred in early readers as a kindergartner. Well, Max is back in a new early chapter book seres. Now he is in second grade and shares the spotlight with his best friend, Zoe. Max and Zoe have a great friendship that many kids can relate to. They do everything together. From going to the library to playing soccer, these two are always busy. Each Max and Zoe story has a strong character education tie and is written at level.

For the last seven years Max has been a part of my life. I've had my good times and bad times with him, but overall we're on good terms, and I'm happy to be working with him again. :)

More Katie Adventures!

As the editor of Fran Manushkin's Katie Woo series, I am always excited to see what sort of adventures Katie will have next. Fran delights her readers with Katie's stories, and these latest four books are no exception. Here's a peek:

Katie Woo, Where Are You? The Woos are shopping at the mall. Mom is looking for a dress. Dad is looking at lawn mowers. And Katie is looking for a lost boy. But if she's not careful, Katie might get lost too!

Katie and the Class Pet: Katie loves taking care of Binky, her class's guinea pig. But the fun ends when poor Binky gets lost. How will she ever tell her class the bad news?

Katie Woo Has the Flu: Poor Katie. She is under the weather. Her tummy feels weird, she can't go to school, and she's stuck eating boring toast and soup. Being sick is the worst!

Katie's New Shoes: Katie's shoes are getting too small, making her toes hurt. It's time to go shoe shopping. There are lots of fun shoes out there, but only shoes with pizzazz will do!

"Houston, we have a problem."

After 30 years, NASA's space shuttle program is nearing an end. Atlantis launched from Florida this morning with success. I'll be honest, I'm not really a fan of space or space travel. It doesn't really excite or interest me. In fact, I got my worst grade ever in college astronomy (yes, I'm still bitter). However, I will never forget where I was when the Challenger exploded. And while I may never understand why someone would want to travel to space, I can still appreciate the significance of the program to our history and our culture. In fact, I may just have to rent Apollo 13 or Armageddon this weekend to celebrate.

Summer

After a long weekend full of tons of family and friend-time, beaches, picnics, and ice cream, it's hard to come back to work. But work we must, and luckily for me, I've got lots of fun projects going on. Even better, finished copies of our Fall 2011 books are starting to show up in the office! While no one wants fall to come too quickly, at least there will be plenty of great books to keep us company when cold weather returns.

I hope everyone is enjoying summer!

Chicago!

I just got back from a wonderful trip to Chicago for the HOW Design Conference. What an amazing, exhausting and inspiring experience! It was a huge conference, with a couple thousand designers in attendance. There were over 30 speakers, including Gael Towey, Chief Creative Director of Martha Stewart Living magazine and her husband Steven Doyle, who designed the Martha Stewart Living logo (he carved the letters by hand, I should add, which is amazing!). I could go on for paragraphs about all of the great design work I saw, and the inspiring sessions that I attended, but instead I will leave you with a few photos.