Cover reproduced by arrangement with Henry
Holt and Company. All rights reserved.

Sheep Blast Off! launches.

Cover reproduced with permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

A mysterious spacecraft lands in their pasture, and the sheep blunder into orbit. Can they return to Earth safely? Find out in Sheep Blast Off!   It is listed in the Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year 2009.

Sheep in a Jeep  is now available in a lap edition, a large-format board book.

Click here for a conversation with WOW! Women on Writing about writing picture books.

Click here for Raccoon Tune activities from the Library of Michigan.

Raccoons in the Spotlight

I'm so pleased that Raccoon Tune was chosen as the 2008 Michigan Reads! children's book!
I enjoyed visiting libraries around the state to tell the story. I've read a lot about how important early reading and conversation are to children's development. Michigan's program is about actively engaging young children to enjoy reading. Look here for more about the program.  The 2009 book is Debbie Diesen's The Pout-Pout Fish.

It took 18 years to finish Raccoon Tune! I thought I had a good idea, but I got stuck. I put it away for so long I couldn't remember the main point of the plot. After a while, I worked it out. A tune kept going through my head as I tried to get the rhymes arranged.

When it was published, Howard Fine's moonlit pictures added to the adventure. Then something more happened--the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra commissioned Joshua Penman to write a concert piece based on my book, and his music is much more complex than my tune. The piece, narrated by Amir Levi, brought trash-can-lid percussion and a variety of musical styles to a family concert--to rousing applause.

Hear a sample from Josh's work!
Raccoon Tune music ©2007 by Joshua Penman. Used by permission. All rights reserved.