Q&A with Elementary School Students

 

I love to visit schools. I meet many inquisitive students from grades K-5 and there’s never enough time to answer all their questions towards the end of my presentations. I love coming home with their questions to answer on my blog. Thanks to the students and teachers at PS130 Brooklyn and PS120 Queens for their questions!

Q: How often do you actually do the writing?
A: As an illustrator I can paint books for authors other than myself. I’ve illustrated 11 books for other authors. I love to interpret their stories with colors, textures, and form. What I find most fun as an illustrator is the challenge that I cannot change the author’s text. I must rise to this challenge by working inside a boundary of the author's vision, then add my vision in a seamless blend.

Picture books I have illustrated for other authors.

                   

Q: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
A: By designing and painting the books I learn about my inner life through an outward visual medium. During the process of book creation the craft mirrors what is happening in my life at that time. The process helps me see certain life issues clearly. 

Q: Have you ever written for the New York Times newspaper?
A: No, I do not write for the New York Times. However, I am proud to say that my books have been reviewed in that newspaper and my name listed for book events several times. Currently, I’m a Huffington Post blogger and write online essays. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melanie-hope-greenberg/

Q: Who did you work with to make your first book?
A: All my 17 books are trade published picture books so I work with a publishing team. The team includes an editor, an art director, and sometimes another author. My text and art must be approved by the editor and art director. If there are mistakes
I get homework of revisions to work on and bring back. This back and forth goes on until the words and pictures are in perfect shape for your book shelves.

Q: Do you have any friends that help you with your books?
A: Authors and illustrators usually work alone. However, for my book MERMAIDS ON PARADE, I interviewed my friends. I asked why they marched in the Mermaid Parade and one answer became the main character's theme of “Shy Mermaid Coming Out of My Shell". I took photos of my friend’s wonderful parade costumes then painted those costumes into the book. My friends also taught me how to create a mermaid tail, so I added a tail-making craft activity in the book. Yes, my fabulous artistic friends in the DUMBO, Brooklyn community really helped me create MERMAIDS ON PARADE.

Can you find real life friends and their costumes inside the book, MERMAIDS ON PARADE?

Photo credit: Dari Litchman - parent, PS 130 Brooklyn

 

More Q&A with Elementary Students

One wonderful morning I Skyped from my cozy studio in Brooklyn with students at the Passow Elementary School in Franklin Park, Illinois. Thanks to Reading Specialist, Elizabeth Drasutis, who set up the visit, for sending a packet of the student’s sweet notes, plus a list of questions to answer.

Q: How can you imagine all of the sea creatures?

A: It was easy. By using the photographs I took of the public and of my friends at the actual Mermaid Parade. They made the costumes. I just channeled their great creative energies into my picture book. They made it easy to illustrate 100 + characters featured in the book.

Q: How do you get picked to be the illustrator?

A: I send samples of my illustrations printed on postcards to art directors in the juvenile publishing field. The art is kept in their files. They match an illustrator with an author’s manuscript the publisher had purchased. Or, an agent represents your art and makes portfolio rounds to the publishers.

Questions from the older students:

Q: What do you find challenging about being an author and illustrator.
Art is always fulfilling so I’d say it’s the business end that can be challenging. Such as waiting in-between books. Having to prove my talent at all times to new people. Or, being very organized tracking the constant flow of new people and changes within the field.

My Studio

A: How many days does it take to make a book or an illustration?
Some illustrations are simple and some are complex. It took one month to finish my first book, AT THE BEACH. The art was simple to fit the text.

It can also take two weeks to illustrate one scene. The maps I love to create take a long time to finish.



Detail from a map I illustrated for A CITY IS

All art and images are Copyright Melanie Hope Greenberg except the student art.

Author-Illustrator Visits - Teacher Guide and Video

School Season has started again!

"CLASSIC" MERMAIDS ON PARADE selected by New York City's Official Marketing and Tourism partnership organization, New York And Company.


As MERMAIDS ON PARADE gets more popular in New York City and beyond, I presented at a fun event for a children’s museum in upstate NY. That’s where I met writer and mom, Kimberly Kunkel. What a wonderful surprise when she wrote a blog post review with a teacher guide for MERMAIDS ON PARADE. Thank you Kimberly!!

Last but not least, here is a link to a video taken after my author-illustrator visit with second graders at Brooklyn Central Library's Dweck Center.

Please contact me to learn about my in school/library or Skype author-illustrator visits at melanie@melaniehopegreenberg.com.

PS 310 BX Students Send Letters / Q&A

I had a really sweet visit with first and second graders at PS 310 in the Bronx last month. A few weeks after my visit a packet of sunshine arrived on a cold gray snowy winter day. 

Beverly Manasch, the school librarian, sent a note, since the visit my books have been circulating in and out of the library. That is music to my ears. I also received a thick stack of colorful thank you notes from the students who asked me great questions.

 

I love my mermaid legs

Question: How do I make the lovely paint?
I buy tubes or jars of paint called gouache. They are thick paints and they glow. They also vibrate when certain colors lie side by side. I mix hundreds of colors. I use small plastic bins or even aluminum foil or tins to mix the paints. I label each tin with the colors they were mixed with. Once they dry the paint gets hard. With some water on a brush the dry paint comes back to life as a honey mix of pigment to spread on watercolor paper.

Inside my studio

Question: How much time does it take to make a picture book?
That depends how complex the art is. It normally takes 6 months to one year to create the art for the book. Then the art goes to a printer and the pages are sewn and bound into the covers of the book. That process takes another year before you get the book on your bookshelf.

**More student letters from PS 250 BK.
**Click this link to learn about my school visits.
**Autographed books can be purchased here.

Art by the students of PS 310 BX
Photos copyright Melanie Hope Greenberg

Event: February 4 2012 Panel NYPL at 42 Street (the Lions)

It's been a while since I've blogged. Blogging is not a paying job, it's creative fun when I have something relevant to say about books, literacy or about my career. My prior blog postings live on and on in cyberspace to reference and link. Besides, I broke my right wrist and solidly rested over the winter holiday. Luckily, as a lefty, my dominant art hand was spared the fracturing fall. But it took a broken wrist to finally take a "break" in a fast paced business, to step back and see the big picture.

The not paying aspect was part of an idea for a panel. I do not agree that authors and artists are "supposed" to be poor. That type of thinking devalues our art and careers. We need to be saavy in today's publishing climate.


What joy! The panel idea titled, "Connect The Dots" was accepted by Betsy Bird, NYPL's whiz-kid librarian and hostess of School Library Journal's Fuse#8 Blog. If you don't know Betsy's blog, you should. It's the most popular children's literature blog in the United States, written up in Forbes Magazine. What an honor to have this idea presented in such a great public forum as Betsy's Children's Literary Salon held on the first Saturday of each month at the 42 Street Library.


The panelists included Marilyn Ackerman (Brooklyn Public Library), Barbara Auerbach (school librarian at PS 217 Brooklyn), Erica Kylander-Clark (parental blogger), Rebecca Fitting (Greenlight Bookstore), and myself (author/illustrator). We discussed how booksellers, librarians (school and public), and bloggers discover, promote, and discuss great books for kids. How communication between our different occupations can help an author get their name out and show the value of their books to a wider public audience of readers and buyers.


I presented a short Power Point on social network etiquette and how authors and illustrators can grassroots market to work *with* the various occupations to help widen our readership and buying audience.


I announced for the first time that I will train picture book authors and illustrators how to grassroots market to build their platform with my MARKETING WORKOUT. More to Come


After the well attended panel was over, parent blogger Erica Kylander-Clark posted her fabulous ideas for Panel City: Shouting Out About Books! on her blog. Parents reaching out to other parents. How parents can also Connect The Dots by reaching out to the booksellers, librarians, authors and illustrators to learn about the wider selection of children's literature which goes beyond Disney, Dr. Seuss and Good Night Moon.


Panelists Erica Kylander-Clark and Rebecca Fitting, owner of Greenlight Books.

All photos and art Copyright Melanie Hope Greenberg.
Thanks to Michael Santangelo for taking the photos.

My Eric Carle Museum NEA Grant Visit

What an honor to participate in the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art's very first National Endowment for the Arts grant. Read the press release.

The NEA grant brings three author-illustrators, Jerry Pinkney, Raul Colon, and myself to the Donahue School in Holyoke, Massachusetts.


The purpose of our visits is to guide second grade students to write and illustrate personal narratives in preparation for their very own exhibition at the gorgeous Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA in June 2012. The students were going to create 3D collages based on my book A CITY IS.


More about the museum here.

October 19 was Day 1 of my two day visit. I was facilitated by the museum's Curator of Education, Rosemary Agoglia. The day started very early and was spent presenting my author-illustrator elementary school programs in three classrooms sessions. At the end of each session the students shared what they saw in their city. I drew their images on a large pad, breaking down each idea into easy shapes they could draw and cut for collage.
I was very tired after the long day, but by a stroke of good luck I was invited to a meeting with the area's prestigious local authors and illustrators at the Richard Michelson Gallery in Northampton.

Luckily, my hotel was across the street. I signed 60 copies of SUPERMARKET while resting in bed and watching TV. My publisher, Holiday House, was incredibly generous to donate a copy of the book to each student in the second grade. Thank You, Holiday House!!


Day 2 of my visit was in the art room working with Art Teacher, Martha Mulcahy
and the Eric Carle Museum's Public Art Program Educator, Diana Mackenzie, pictured here with Margaret Bartley, Language Arts Media teacher at the Donahue School who helped bring the NEA grant alive.

There were lots of paper materials to choose from both the art room and the museum who donated neon papers and pre-cut shapes.


The young artists got busy.



When a student got stuck I helped out,

but most artists like to work on their own. I observed quietly and offered encouragement watching their art progress.


Here are the results from one day of art work.


After I went home the students followed up with another day on their collages. I cannot wait to see how it will all turn out for their exhibition at the museum.

THANK YOU, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the M.A. Donahue School!

We are close to the Holiday Season. My FREE Coloring Page is a holiday detail from the book, SUPERMARKET. Here it is in the book.


And here is the sketch I used to create the original art. Click on the sketch to enlarge. Print and color! Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!



Photo Credits: Melanie Hope Greenberg Copyright 2011 and Diana Mackenzie/Eric Carle Museum Copyright 2011

School Visits: *Authors and More* in Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas

Hi Texans! It was a great honor to be selected as the artist for the 2011 Texas Library Association's Disaster Relief Fund Raffle. I got to meet so many great librarians at the TLA Conference in the Austin Convention Center. I was even interviewed on the Austin based Cynsations blog.

Thrilled to announce that I am now represented by Authors and More. Click the link to get to their website. Authors and More will represent my author and illustrator visits in the Austin, Dallas and Houston areas in Texas. Authors and More is a full service company providing authors, storytellers, illustrators, and musicians for schools and library programs.

I even have my own page on the Authors and More Blog.

I'd love to present at your school or via Skype.  
My interactive workshops share simple step-by-step visual formulas for picture book creation, writing, art and structure. From idea to published book, bridge art with literacy. Grades K-5. Reading, Drawing, Q&A. 

For honorarium and workshop details contact:
Carole Weitzel carole@authorsandmore.com 
(512) 914-2596 
Click on the links to get to the
Authors and More Website
Authors and More Blog

My donated original picture book art from "Supermarket" on the Jumbotron in the Austin Convention Center at the 2011 Texas Library Association Conference.
Photo credits: Copyright Melanie Hope Greenberg and Jeanette Larson

PS 250 Brooklyn Asks Questions

On May 20, 2011 I gave presentations to second graders at PS 250 in Brooklyn. Ms Steinlauf's class had adorable hand drawn mermaid bookmarks which cleverly had some questions written on them as well. There was not enough time to answer all the questions before the program was over. So I promised to answer their questions on my blog. Thanks PS 250!!

Q: How do these ideas pop in to you?
MHG: Many times I get ideas from what I see or take part of in my own community. My books are about places to eat, or to do laundry, visiting the beach, and even celebrating holidays and traditions.

Q: How do you picture the Book?
MHG: Read and see the process of how I create picture books here.

Q: Have you ever written a song book?
MHG: No, because I have never written any songs. I enjoy making up stories.


Q: Do you write books? How many books did you write?
MHG: I've written 6 of the 16 books I've illustrated that have been published. See all my books here.

Q: Are the things you write are ture (true)?
MHG: Yes! Many of my books are based on what I see or have experienced in real life. Even when illustrating for other authors I paint what I see around me. For example, I marched in a Mermaid Parade. Real New York City views are displayed in A CITY IS. I shop at the supermarket in SUPERMARKET. I've been riding the subway since I was a little girl. ON MY STREET is based on Brooklyn Heights.


Q: What class were you in as a little girl?
MHG: I went to PS 93, PS 119, Jr High School 125, then graduated from James Monroe High School. All the schools were in the Bronx. I skipped the 3rd grade, the last semester of High School and graduated at 16 years old.

Q: Have you ever wrote a book about the bronx?
MHG: I wrote and illustrated a book about my true story of my father's luncheonette in the Bronx. It is called, MY FATHER'S LUNCHEONETTE.

Montessori Students Create Theater from My Picture Book

Katie Kovach and I were introduced via email through mutual friend, musician Alex Battles. She and I later connected on Facebook where I took special note of her alice FOUND photo galleries. Katie, a talented photographer, takes emotionally energetic photos of local bands.


Best of all, Katie and I connect through Arts in Education via my book, MERMAIDS ON PARADE. Katie is the drama teacher for 2-5 year olds at Montessori School of Manhattan. She covers acting, writing, set design, costume design and props. They even work on Shakespeare and opera!


Katie sometimes works with picture books as a source of drama exercises. She said "Your book was perfect because it centers around an event with a specific place, has beautiful illustrations that the kids are drawn to (making it easier for them to note things about the place to include in their designs), and it is local. Several of my students began to tell me about their own trips to Coney Island. And of course the Mermaid Parade in general is so fantastical and dramatic, it's like it's own theater piece".


Enjoy some of Katie's students set designs for MERMAIDS ON PARADE.



Thanks, Katie and Students!

Photo Credit: Alex Battles