Drawing Ice Sculptures; Preorder Gift; Recent Reads; Chasing the Sun
Drawing Ice Sculptures
Less than one month until my picture book A Little Like Magic hits shelves! It’s hard to believe publication is right around the corner. It’s been three years since I wrote the first draft, two years since the story found a home at Rocky Pond Books, and one year since I completed the final art. It’s been a journey! A book journey.
Every book journey is different, with its own unique challenges and moments of joy. One of the greatest joys of making A Little Like Magic were the ice sculptures—imagining them, researching them, and, above all, drawing them.
Here’s a time-lapse peek into my ice sculpture drawing process:
A Little Like Magic includes lots of ice sculpture drawings, loosely inspired by the amazing real-life ice sculptures carved by talented, daring ice sculptors with chisels, die grinders, chainsaws, and other tools. Their work truly is a little like magic. Need proof? Check out these photos and videos:
“10 Levels of Ice Sculpture: Easy to Complex” | Wired (YouTube, 13 min)
“Chainsaw ice sculpting with a world champion” | Oregon Public Broadcasting (YouTube, 28 min)
A Little Like Magic comes out October 15, 2024 from Rocky Pond Books / Penguin. Add it to your TBR list on Goodreads!
Special Preorder Gift! Free Signed Art Print
Reminder! If you preorder A Little Like Magic from Anderson’s Bookshop, you’ll receive a free signed art print featuring my favorite spread from the book. This offer is only available through October 14, 2024, so if you’re interested, remember to preorder soon!
Recent Reads
Here are a few recent kidlit titles I enjoyed this month, along with a micro-review:
Cornbread & Poppy / by Matthew Cordell (early reader)
Cozy, adorable, gentle, charming (a new personal favorite!)
Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider / by Jessica Lanan (picture book)
Fascinating, dramatic, surprising, beautiful
How This Book Got Red / words by Margaret Chiu Greanias, pictures by Melissa Iwai (picture book)
Cute and engaging with an important message
Found Dogs / Erica Sirotich (picture book)
Super adorable counting book for little dog-lovers
Fox at Night / Corey R. Tabor (early reader)
Funny, cute, clever (like all books in the Fox series)
Random Doodle: Chase the Sun
Each year, the Arctic Tern makes an epic journey, migrating from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle and back again. That’s more than 50,000 miles round-trip, the longest known annual return migration on Earth. This incredible seabird is often said to be “chasing the sun.” I love that phrase.
In these waning days of summer, I often feel like I, too, am chasing the sun. I’m sad to see summer end. But, I’m looking forward to seeing yellow trees again and doodling Halloween cats and other creatures. What are you looking forward to this fall?
A final note: The Public Domain Review finds the coolest (and weirdest) stuff. Their collection “Flowers of the Sky” features illustrations of comets, meteors, meteorites and shooting stars spanning almost a whole millennium—in chronological order. If you have a moment, it’s totally worth a look!
The Autumn Equinox is Sep 22. Wishing you a happy fall season filled with colorful leaves, golden sunsets, pumpkin seeds, and good apples.
Thanks for reading!
Sarah