For all you do, moms around the world, this one’s for you! Happy Mother’s Day!

A special thank you to Carter Higgins, our motion graphics designer, for creating this wonderful video.

Sincerely,
Picture Book Month

Picture Book Month logo by Joyce Wan

Friends:

I am Dianne de Las Casas, a children’s book author and storyteller. I specialize in picture books. This is the story behind the success of Picture Book Month.

In October 2010, the New York Times published an article that declared “Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children.” It set the children’s book world on fire and it set me on fire. In September 2011, I had the idea to create a campaign, an international initiative designating November as Picture Book Month. I enlisted the aid of several movers and shakers in my industry and created a marketing plan. I wanted Picture Book Month to be repeated year after year so the first year in existence was very important.

A timeless logo was created by Joyce Wan, a picture book author and owner of a stationery company. I created a hook: “November is Picture Book Month! Read * Share * Celebrate!” My web designer and I built a website. The website, www.picturebookmonth.com, featured an essay a day about the importance of picture books by “Picture Book Month Champions,” prominent people in the field – authors, illustrators, bloggers, and literacy experts. I reached out and found major partners like Children’s Book Council, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Better World Books, and Scholastic. I wrote a press release that was sent to all the children’s book industry media. Digital badges were made so that people could put them on their websites. A Twibbon was created for Twitter and Facebook. A Twitter hashtag (#PictureBookMonth) was created. The website featured a month-long theme calendar, activities, and printables for librarians and teachers. Professional videos were produced by motion graphics designer, Carter Higgins. All of this was done in less than a month!

My co-founders (Katie Davis, Elizabeth Dulemba, Tara Lazar and Wendy Martin) and I began shouting it out on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Christopher Cheng, from Australia, became our international liaison. The initiative struck a chord and became a movement. It took hold on Twitter, Facebook, and all over the kidlitosphere. The movement became so big that it was written about in School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Huffington Post, and… OPRAH! http://www.oprah.com/blogs/November-is-Picture-Book-Month A story about Picture Book Month was featured on Life Lift, The Oprah blog. By the time it hit Oprah, the movement had gone viral and went worldwide. I was getting emails, photos, and videos from around the world with schools and libraries holding Picture Book Month celebrations. You know you have a cause and a movement when the “me” becomes a “we.” Picture Book Month was also written about in Jamaica, Philippines, Australia, Canada, and India, to name a few countries. Go ahead and Google “Picture Book Month.” You’ll get a few million results.

To create a cause like this you need a few things in place. The first and most important thing is a genuine passion and a love for your cause. Secondly, others need to share that passion. Next, you need to have a balance of what I call “news makers” and “news reporters.” The news makers are the “celebrities” people want to read about. The news reporters are the people who evangelize the cause. You must also have a strong network. Without this network to spread the news, there is no news. Your vision must be backed up by a solid plan. Finally, be prepared to work. Movements need leaders and leaders must work.

I have already lined up Picture Book Month Champions for next year: Sergio Bumatay III (Philippines), Doreen Cronin (USA), Toni DiTerlizzi (USA), Brett Helquist (USA), Tom Lichtenheld (USA), Bruce Whatley (Australia), Karma Wilson (USA), and Paul O. Zelinsky (USA), to name a few. 2012 promises to be even bigger and better. It will be even more international in scope, bridging picture books and picture book lovers around the world. We are collaborating with companies and organizations to create a HUGE month-long celebration of literacy. If you would like to be involved, please fill out the contact form on our website.

November is Picture Book Month! Read * Share * Celebrate!

Warmly, Dianne

Dianne de Las Casas

About Dianne de Las Casas
A champion for literacy, she is founder of the international initiative, Picture Book Month, which was featured in Life Lift, The Oprah blog. She is the author of several children’s picture books including The Cajun Cornbread Boy (Pelican Publishing; 2009), Madame Poulet & Monsieur Roach (Pelican Publishing; Fall 2009), Mama’s Bayou (Pelican Publishing; Spring 2010); The Gigantic Sweet Potato (Pelican Publishing; Fall 2010), There’s A Dragon in the Library (Pelican Publishing, Spring 2011), The House That Witchy Built (Pelican Publishing, Fall 2011), Blue Frog: The Legend of Chocolate (Pelican Publishing, Fall 2011) and Dinosaur Mardi Gras (Pelican Publishing, Spring 2012).

She performs arts-in-education programs and residencies at schools, libraries, festivals, museums, and special events. Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and many other media outlets, de Las Casas is a sought-after international professional development workshop leader. She is a frequent presenter at IRA, ALA, AASL and other literacy and education conferences. An enthusiastic advocate of literacy and arts-in-education programming, Dianne de Las Casas continues to make the story connection with thousands of children every year, reaching and teaching through the wonder of stories.

Holler Loudly by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Why Picture Books Are Important
One of my earliest summer memories is of sitting on the carpeted floor of a bookstore and pouring over Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963). I was wearing a leotard and tights (no doubt just before or after a dance class) and I wanted that book. The bookseller tried to explain to my mother that it was considered quite wonderful, despite the alarming-looking illustrations and cranky child protagonist.

I don’t know if the bookseller cited its history of acclaim or profound impact on youth literature. But my mother still said no, mentioning something about it not being a good fit for good little girls. That part I remember. It was so important that I be a good little girl.

For weeks, my fingers itched for the story. Finally, it was time to go back to school. Upon my arrival in the library, I ran for Sendak’s masterpiece. And fell more deeply in love.

I was never a Wild Thing like Max. I was a good little girl.

I also grew up to become both a picture book writer and a horror novelist.

I write about some very wild things. And my mother is very proud of that.

-Cynthia Leitich Smith

Cynthia Leitich Smith

About Cynthia Leitich Smith
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the bestselling and award-winning author of such picture books as Jingle Dancer, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu (Morrow, 2000) and Holler Loudly, illustrated by Barry Gott (Dutton, 2010) as well as the Tantalize series for teens (Candlewick, 2007-). She makes her home in sunny Austin, Texas and is well known for her popular children’s literature blog, Cynsations: http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/ You can also find her on the web at www.cynthialeitichsmith.com.

Purchase Holler Loudly by Cynthia Leitich Smith from Better World Books, a Picture Book Month partner. You are “doing good” with every book you buy from Better World Books.

Sounds Spooky by Christopher Cheng

Why Picture Books Are Important

Picture Books – they are the cycle of life and can last for the whole of a person’s life.

From the moment a baby is hatched they start sensing their world. The sounds of the words from a new Picture Book being read to them (even while not yet hatched) can calm, quieten and soothe the young one. It provides a beautiful bond between parent and child. As they start to visualise they see the magic of the illustrations, the way the colours run; the way the objects of their world can also be seen in pictures.

As a toddler they learn to communicate imitating the sounds they hear being read to them from that slightly-worn Picture Book and the picture – word relationship really begins. They can read the book, even copy the pictures and tell the story in their own language.

At school the children share, joke, chat and discover new meanings in the words and pictures from that well-worn Picture Book. They too can tell the story… and they can IMAGINE. They can say “What about me”… or… “I can do that”.

And then the adult with their old Picture Book, returned to them by their parents, can discover it once more. Now that adult can revisit their favourite childhood Picture Books (and many new creations too) with their own babies, toddlers, children, grandchildren, neighbourhood kids, nieces and nephews, telling the stories, sharing the pictures and passing on the magic to a new generation of readers, and soon to be lovers, of Picture Books. And that Picture Book that was new and then old, is now new and reborn…

…to start again the cycle of life.

-Chris Cheng

Christopher Cheng

About Chris Cheng
Christopher Cheng inhabits Australia and is the award winning author of picture books, historical fiction and non-fiction titles for children. He is the Co-Chair of the SCBWI Board and Regional Advisor for Australia and New Zealand and Director Digital Publishing for PaddleDuck Learning. He is often heard to announce that he has the BEST job in the world!

Sounds Spooky (see www.sounds-spooky.com) is his latest picture book creation. He blogs about all sorts of things to do with kids books here (link to chrischengauthor.blogspot.com) and his cyber home is www.chrischeng.com

Purchase Christopher Cheng’s book, Sounds Spooky, here.

Library Gingerbread Man by Dotti Enderle

Why Picture Books Are Important
Recently, a friend powered up her iPad and showed me what she called, “the future of the picture book.” It came with bells and whistles and buttons. The story was embellished with instantly gratifying choices for the child, rewarding them with such things as a hopping kangaroo or a character spiraling off the screen in a whirlwind. And of course it was audio enhanced – a recorded voice reading the story and instructing the child on when to turn the page. This type interactive book certainly has its place, but it’s a journey taken alone. Aren’t journeys typically more fun when shared?

While it’s true that picture books are brain food, nourishing a child’s creativity, it’s the bonding that I find so important. Picture books are meant to be read aloud – a journey for two or more. When I was a little girl, I loved sitting on my mother’s lap while she read the Little Golden books to me. Some of those illustrations, and how I related to them, are still with me, as well as her soothing voice as she read them. It’s that closeness that means so much. Remember taking that journey on a parent’s knee or curled next to an older sibling? Or with someone you trusted, like a teacher or librarian or caregiver? Children today should never be denied that loving interaction with a grown-up through the pages of a picture book.

-Dotti Enderle

About Dotti Enderle
Dotti Enderle is the author of numerous books for children and educators. Her picture books include The Library Gingerbread Man, Gingerbread Man Superhero, Grandpa for Sale, and The Cotton Candy Catastophe at the Texas State Fair. She loves being a contributor to literacy, feeling that picture books are a portal to imagination and the first steps in building a love for reading. Visit her at www.dottienderle.com.

Purchase Library Gingerbread Man by Dotti Enderle from Better World Books, a Picture Book Month partner. You are “doing good” with every book you buy from Better World Books.

Reading is Fundamental (RIF)

Why Picture Books Are Important
As Reading Is Fundamental visits with parents across the country to share how parents can contribute to their children’s education, we very often are with parents who do not feel confident speaking English, who do not read English and more often than not feel powerless to assist their children with the skill most critical for the children’s education.

But a picture book can be what brings parents into that education process. The book can bring smiles to not only their children’s faces but to the parents’ faces as well. No longer must the parent have a command of the English language; no longer must they be proficient readers even in their native language. They can use their voices in the pure joy of conveying story stimulated by the pictures.

I am reminded of families that thanked RIF staff as tears came down their faces at the conclusion of a “Family of Readers” training shared in two languages. When quizzed as to their obvious deep and emotional gratitude the parents noted “You are the first to share with us we have worth in our children’s education.” While not said to them explicitly, they had implicitly taken away from the media reports on school status/ranking in the name of school reform, from school announcements, from the less than complete communication with the schools that their children must quickly assimilate into complete and proficient English speakers, readers, learners and nothing must stand in the way, (and then implied) “not even their parents.” Our training sessions had focused on the use of picture books with their children… and one parent proudly through her tears said to a RIF trainer “You give me the gift deep inside me to help my child; you open this picture book we can share.”

One book, one choice, one child at a time.

-Carol Rasco

About Carol Rasco
Carol Hampton Rasco has served for ten years as president and chief executive officer of Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. Prior to RIF, Rasco served as Senior Adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education, Richard W. Riley, and director of the America Reads Challenge; and she worked for four years in the White House as domestic policy adviser to President Clinton. Originally from Arkansas, she served as the chief policy adviser in the Arkansas governor’s office for ten years and has taught in the public school system and worked as an elementary school counselor.

Kiki's Blankie by Janie Bynum

Why Picture Books Are Important
Every Saturday on our family’s weekly trip to the public library, my little kid arms stretched and strained with the load of picture books I hauled to the checkout desk. By Sunday evening the paper and ink were devoured, the pictures slurped up, all colors and textures absorbed. Surely picture books are the sixth Basic Food Group.

Pictures provide for us a visual language long before we’ve mastered any reading skills. And as a budding reader, Max, Harry the Dirty Dog, and Dr. Seuss took me places my big red tricycle could not.

Picture books offer portals into worlds beyond that which we authors and illustrators can probably even imagine—compared to the flexibility of much younger minds. That’s part of the beauty and humility of creating picture books—knowing that we only provide the departure point for the leaping imagination. When a pre-reader picks up a book and “reads” it by interpreting images, extrapolating events and story—or creating her own—she expands her world and strengthens her imagination, laying a foundation for basic critical thinking and future story creation. Once she learns to read the words, the contextual connections to images, the rhythm of the prose, the beauty of the meter and rhyme, all supply the young reader with an incredible array of tools with which to build her imagination, her mind.

-Janie Bynum

Janie Bynum

About Janie Bynum
Janie has been chewing on words and drooling on pictures for many years. An author and illustrator, she creates books for young children using traditional and digital media. Her first books, Altoona Baboona and Otis (Harcourt), were published over ten years ago. Her most recent picture book, Kiki’s Blankie (Sterling), will be published as a board book in March, 2012. Janie is represented by Scott Treimel in NYC.

Purchase Kiki’s Blankie by Janie Bynum from Better World Books, a Picture Book Month partner. You are “doing good” with every book you buy from Better World Books.

Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin A. Ramsey and illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Why Picture Books Are Important
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does that say about the power of a picture book? The picture book is essential in the array of tools for the soldiers of literacy. It is the gateway to the enrichment of life through literature.

But above all else, the picture book is a gift. From us to you a witty joke, a happy feeling, an emotional chord struck deep within, a bit of history not known before, an unsung hero, empathy for others different from ourselves, the joy of art, a good story, a kindled memory, an igniter of sparks for curiosity and imagination!

A picture book is voice for the voiceless, for the broken, the discarded, the forgotten. Yes, the picture book is a gift. A gift of truth.

-Floyd Cooper

Floyd Cooper

About Floyd Cooper
With more than 80 children’s books published and more than 2000 book-cover illustrations, Floyd has established himself as a master craftsman of children’s literature and illustration. He has received numerous awards and praise for his work, including three Coretta Scott King Honors, NAACP Image Award, The New Jersey Center for the Book Inaugural Award, A Jane Addams Peace Honor, Simon Wiesenthal Gold Medal 2011, IPPY Gold medal 2011, Pennsylvania School Librarians Outstanding Illustrator 2011, numerous Bank Street College Book of the Year Honors, Parent’s Choice Honors, and starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and School Library Journal.

The illustrative technique Floyd uses is called oil wash on board. He paints an illustration board with oil paint, and then he does something unusual. With a stretchy eraser, he erases the paint to make a picture! He calls this method of painting a “subtractive process.” He likes to demonstrate this technique for kids to show them “that there can be different approaches to age-old problems.”

Purchase Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin A. Ramsey and illustrated by Floyd Cooper from Better World Books, a Picture Book Month partner. You are “doing good” with every book you buy from Better World Books.

YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! by Peter Brown

Why Picture Books Are Important
Picture books are dangerous and should be kept far away from children. They will only increase the number of curious, intelligent, creative children in the world…and those are just the kinds of children that cause the most headaches for us adults.

Children LOVE poring over the pages or picture books, exploring the relationships between words and pictures, and noticing every little detail. But before you know it, they’ll also be noticing every detail in the world around them. I’m not sure we want such curious children running around… they may discover things we don’t want them to see. Stay away from my doily collection!

And if a picture really is worth a thousand words, then the average picture book is worth at least 32,000 words (do the math). That is a ton of words! Books with so many words and pictures will inevitably lead children to ask a LOT of questions. Do we really want children asking so many questions? What if we don’t know all the answers? Children could end up looking smarter than us!

Worst of all, those imaginative stories and artsy illustrations in picture books might inspire children to be creative. Sure, every study has shown that art helps children do better in academics and life. But what if a picture book inspires children to make papier-mâché at home? They might ruin the carpet!

But if you really want more curious, intelligent, creative children in the world, then go ahead and give them picture books. Just don’t come crying to me when those children turn out to be more interesting than us.

Author’s Note: The preceding words were written with a heavy dose of irony, a terrible trait that I must have learned from a picture book.

-Peter Brown

Peter Brown

About Peter Brown
Peter Brown writes and illustrates books for children. Which is no easy task. Many of the toughest critics, and smartest people, are under the age of ten, and they are not afraid to speak their minds. This all scares Peter very much. So he tries to make children’s books that challenge his readers, that combine clever stories with whimsical artwork, and that inspire interesting conversations. Publicly, children seem to approve of Peter’s work. But he’ll never know what they say behind closed doors. Peter’s bestselling and award-winning picture books include The Curious Garden, Children Make Terrible Pets, and YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! He hopes you approve of his books, especially if you’re a smart child. Peter’s website is: www.peterbrownstudio.com

Purchase YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! by Peter Brown from Better World Books, a Picture Book Month partner. You are “doing good” with every book you buy from Better World Books.

Road Work Ahead by Anastasia Suen

Why Picture Books Are Important
Picture books are important because they allow a child to hold a world in his hands. The child is in charge of this world, unlike the rest of his life. He can read the book quickly or slowly. He can make the story his own and retell it any way he likes. With a picture book, the child becomes a co-creator. This is how dreams are born and leaders are grown. It all starts with a picture book.

-Anastasia Suen

Anastasia Suen

About Anastasia Suen
Anastasia Suen is the author of 133 books for children and adults, a Booklist columnist, a literacy blogger, and a children’s literature consultant who has taught kindergarten to college.

Purchase Road Work Ahead by Anastasia Suen from Better World Books, a Picture Book Month partner. You are “doing good” with every book you buy from Better World Books.