Come join me at Forest Park in St. Louis, MO for Arthur’s Picnic in the Park! Sponsored by KETC Channel 9, this family fun festival will feature your favorite PBS characters, and several St. Louis-based storytellers, authors and illustrators. As part of the Literacy Roundtable, I will be reading from my second book, A Swim through the Sea, from 12:40 – 1:10pm at the Share a Story Tent. All five of my books will be for sale in both hardback and paperback. See you there!

What a busy summer!

When I visit schools to talk about my books, I am sometimes asked if I do any art that isn’t published. Here’s a chance to see what happens when I’m not illustrating or writing.

This summer I finished a huge “extra-curricular activity.”

I began the Caribbean Coral Reef Mural at the Principia Upper School in the when I was a high school senior in the spring of 1994. It covers an entire hallway in the Biology Department. My Biology and Marine Ecology teacher, Ted Munnecke helped me get approval for the project. By the end of the summer, I finished the mural and went off to college.

During the summer of 2001, Principia renovated the Upper School’s entire science department. To comply with a new school building code, a fire door was installed partway down the hall – in the middle of the mural. Some lockers were also removed, and the remaining space walled over. The current head of the Biology Department, Preston Larimer, invited me to come back and fill in the blank spaces and fix some damaged areas. It was an exciting opportunity, since painting that mural my senior year was one of my favorite parts of high school. Well, I thought I could get version 2.0 finished before school started in the fall of 2001, but here it is, a week before school starts in the fall of 2003. Oops. Took a little longer than I expected. Check out these photos of the finished mural! I added scientific and common names next to all the species, so the mural can function as a giant field guide for the students. I also added a few new animals and plants, although I did not change the composition of the original mural at all. There was some research involved, too. I wanted to make sure that I planted each animal and plant in its appropriate habitat. So an animal that lives in a cave or crevice would be shown hiding in such a location. The update took about 200 hours. I had a great time.

I am writing from Kobe, Japan right now! I have been talking with students and teachers about making books for 11 years and this was my first school visit tour outside the U.S. I am staying with my cousins, who have lived here for the last 6 years. I spent one day at Marist Brothers School and two days at the Canadian Academy. Both are international schools, so I spoke in English. It was wonderful, because I got to meet kids from all over the world. My husband and my parents came with me, and we loved seeing the cherry blossoms in bloom. My aunt Cecile gave us a tour of several historic sites including Kinkankuji and Himeji Castle, while my cousin Catherine (high school class of 2004), took us to the Amusement (a giant video arcade), the Kobe Zoo, and Freshness Burger. I learned the true meaning of graciousness and courtesy when I spent an afternoon talking about my books with a group of Cecile’s English students, who just happen to be some of the most powerful women in Japan. They made me feel so welcome! I learned that kindness and good will can be communicated even if you don’t speak the same language.

Well, I am off to the airport, where I will fly to Ripon, Wisconsin for a Saturday young authors conference, and then to Fairfield, Ohio where I will spend the whole week. Then back to St. Louis – home at last!

After much anticipation, the newly redesigned XyzAnt.com goes live! (New site designed by Serafini Studios.)

Announcing the publication of Saguaro Moon: A Desert Journal! This is the story of Megan, a girl whose family moves from the Midwest to the Sonoran Desert. What new wildlife will she discover? What new friends will she make? The Sonoran Desert has more interesting life forms than you might suspect…