Hi everyone!
I’m so happy to share the cover for COWHIDE-AND-SEEK! Here’s Bessie…
Illustrator Jess Pauwels did such a wonderful job. I love Bessie! (Oh, can you see the cow in the picture? She’s hiding behind the tree… š
I just found out the book will be available on May 7, 2019.
Or you can preorder at:
AmazonĀ |Ā IndieBound
Thanks so much for celebrating with me!Ā š
It has been a big year for the Dillard family. In a short span of five busy days, we graduated all three of our sons — our oldest from college and our twin sons from high school. And I guess you could say our family conversations have also āgraduated.ā Weāve gone from the early years with talk of playgrounds and farm animals to teenage topics like sports schedules and driverās licenses to our current discussions on things like dorm life and 401(k)s.
As I take notes for this weekās blog post, Iāve been thinking back to when my own kids were picture book age. At the time, we were living in Lewisburg, a small, central Pennsylvania town. Our friendly borough was surrounded by rolling hills of farmland, and it was almost like living in the pages of a picture book. We would take the wagon to the farmerās market every Wednesday. There were mornings of big wheel races down the sidewalk to preschool and afternoons of snowball fights at the bus stop. And there were picture books. We had stacks of them all around the house, ready not only for bedtime reading but also for any spur-of-the-moment storytimes, which happened quite often.
It was during this time that I created COWHIDE-AND-SEEK. I wasnāt even writing yet, but I woke up one night around 2am with the idea of a cow character who accidentally leaves her farm and (unknowingly) creates chaos wherever she goes. I loved it so much that I jumped out of bed and quickly wrote it down so I wouldnāt forget. The next day, I started writing.
My kids were Bessieās first readers. And out of all my manuscripts, Bessie was always their favorite. Over the years, they witnessed how the story grew and changed, revision after revision (after revision!). So now, it seems fitting that as my kids graduate and move on to bigger things, my empty nest will soon be happily busy with my new ābaby,ā a picture book that they helped inspire, nurture, and celebrate alongside me. xoxo š
Welcome to my blog! I call it Tell Me a Story because there are two areas in my life that involve story ā writing and teaching.
On the writing side, I have my very first picture book, COWHIDE-AND-SEEK, coming out in Spring 2019. Itās about a cow, Bessie, who hears her farmer counting his cows and mistakenly thinks heās starting a game of hide-and-seek. When I saw the illustrations for the first time, it was like finally meeting an old friend. Itās hard to explain, but I thought, āYes, thereās Bessie. So nice to see you!ā š I will share the book cover here as soon as I can. Jess Pauwels did an amazing job with the illustrations.
On the teaching side, Iām in my second year as a preschool librarian, which means storytime all day long. (Love it!) One piece of advice that writers hear is to read in the genre that you write, so Iāve definitely got that covered. But the preschool job is helpful to my writing in other ways, as well. Iām surrounded by the people I write for, and they are filled with āstory,ā too. Whether describing a favorite vacation or even something simple like what they did that morning before school, the kids give me a wonderful window into what their lives are like. What makes them laugh? What makes them sad? What is so important that they have to sprint across the playground to tell me?
One of my youngest students called me the ābook teacher,ā which sounds like the perfect job to me!
Tell me, do you have any favorite picture books? How about the children in your life? What are their favorites and why do you think so?
