Deborah Freedman's Blog, page 2
March 6, 2024
It's Time for Storytime!
My calendar is filling up with Partly Cloudy storytimes, and I’m kicking things off this weekend with River Bend Bookshop:
Saturday, March 9, 2024: River Bend Bookshop, West Hartford, CT, RSVP here
Sunday, March 10, 2024: River Bend Bookshop, Glastonbury, CT, RSVP here
Other storytimes are listed on my events page; check back there for details and updates.
I’d love to see you some time!
January 25, 2024
Word of the Day
Today's “Word of the Day” on Dictionary.com is pareidolia [ pair-ahy-doh-lee-uh ], noun, “the illusory perception of meaningful patterns or images of familiar things in random or amorphous data, as a face seen on the moon.” As in,
“As I stared at the clouds, I experienced pareidolia and saw a bunny shape formed by their fluffy contours.”
I’ll have to add that one to my vocab list for Partly Cloudy!
January 10, 2024
The forecast for Partly Cloudy is looking sunny...
Reviews are starting to appear for my next picturebook, Partly Cloudy, to be released on March 5, 2024. Many thanks to every advance reader who has shared their thoughtful words—
★ “There is so much to learn about clouds!” marvels one bunny. And indeed, so much to learn about the world and how we perceive it. Cirrus-ly great .” — Kirkus Reviews , starred review
"... a story of dual perception that both catalogs cloud types and contrasts two ways of seeing the world... Creative imagination and scientific intelligence need not be exclusive, suggests this gently educational book that resists simple caricature." — Publishers Weekly
“With beautiful art to fill tiny eyes, great wording to fill tiny heads, a neat plot twist and loveably adorable characters, this picture book puts the awe in awesome . An easy one to hand to aspiring meteorologists, curious minds and all who could use a moment to just look up.” — Ernio Hernandez, bookseller, River Bend Bookshop
And I’m thrilled that Partly Cloudy is also a Junior Library Guild Selection for 2024!
December 27, 2023
Peace to All
I wish you all peace, health, and contentment through the coming year—See you in 2024!
Image above from , Viking, March 5, 2024. “Cirrus-ly great,” says Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review. ⭐️
December 12, 2023
An Entire ⭐️ for Partly Cloudy
⭐️ Thank you, Kirkus, for this early, STARRED, and "cirrus-ly great" review for Partly Cloudy! ⭐️
October 11, 2023
What if... what if... what if...
What is that worm doing, underfoot? That bird flying overhead? Where did the parts of my house come from? Could a character be too shy to appear in its own book? What if… what if… what if…
They usually begin with a question, the books I write, their ideas springing from wonder...
From my latest email newsletter, some thoughts on picturebooks. Find links to my archive (& sign up!) here.
September 6, 2023
Poetry NOW? But it's not Poetry Month!
I blame it on my late Aunt Mary Ann Hoberman, that I’m picky when it comes to children’s books in verse.
Do you know her clever books? To me, they are master classes in cadence and imaginative wordplay, yet still written for the child she never stopped channeling.
Mary Ann always stressed the importance of poetry for children, how hearing, reading, and memorizing it—all year round—modelled the joyful possibilities of language…
Link to the rest here. For more like this, browse and sign up for my occasional newsletter!
August 1, 2023
Welcome to... some interviews!
Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and I have been honored to tour some blogs, chatting about our new collaboration, Welcome to the Wonder House.
We chatted with author and poet Irene Latham, at Live Your Poem—
Every new book is a fresh start for me, a new challenge to relish. Though until now, I have had to create these challenges for myself! So when Welcome to the Wonder House landed on my desk, it was a wonderfully welcome surprise...
And writer & illustrator Jena Benton, at her blog, Simply 7—
... I really just let my mind drift while I read the poems, doodling down thoughts along the way. The Wonder House is an allegorical house, so I didn’t want to get too literal. I decided to simply let the pages be its walls and doors, allowing each “room” to feel expansive and reflect how, as the last line of the book says, “the wonder house is our whole world.” ...
Many thanks to Irene and Jena for hosting us!
July 22, 2023
Mapping the Wonders of Our Childhood
"...We remember the childhood hours that shaped our sense of wonder. The poems and artwork in WELCOME TO THE WONDER HOUSE are woven from our map of personal experiences, from the moments of awe and wonder that crystallized our understanding of the world..."
You can read the rest here. Many thanks to the Nerdy Book Club for hosting Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and me!
July 16, 2023
In case you missed it...
Thanks to all who helped celebrate the publication of Welcome to the Wonder House last week—I hope you enjoyed the online conversation as much as we did! If you missed it, you can still watch it here.
Meet the creators of WELCOME TO THE WONDER HOUSE, a beautiful poetry picture book collection that will spark wonder and shows readers how to kindle it in themselves.
Join and esteemed librarian, Betsy Bird, as she hosts a discussion with authors and celebrated poets Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlich, talented illustrator Deborah Freedman, and editor extraordinaire, Rebecca Davis, who serves as the editorial director of Wordsong.
