“Selena is a slightly chubby and not-inherently graceful girl with plenty of bounce and a determination to succeed…should inspire youngsters who like to dance but are not natural swans…Armstrong-Ellis’s gouache and colored-pencil illustrations add comic touches… many children will recognize themselves in this agreeable offering.” excerpts from School Library Journal

“The text flows smoothly in rhymed couplets… the energetic illustrations, done in gouache and colored pencil, recreate the bustle of ballet class, the quiet practices at home, and the onstage chaos …(in) this engaging picture book …” from Booklist

“Lesléa Newman presents an inspiring story about the importance of perseverance….Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ colorful paintings convey Selena’s love of movement—the sheer joy she experiences through dance…A fun, frolicsome tale” from Bookpage.com – read the full review here.

And here are a few more online reviews:

Childrens Literature

Books 4 Stars & Up

Picture books and Pirouettes

Kindred Spirit Mommy

Many thanks to those hard-working bloggers and web folks for taking the time to review the book!!

BUT I just have to share the negative one from Kirkus, hahaha -

“Selena’s round face and round derriere displayed in her stage bow… are not likely to be seen in any serious ballet school… Selena’s constant mix-ups are balanced by her determination, an admirable quality but not one that would overcome her deficits in any real-world ballet situation…”

Whoa. So apparently, if you are not inherently destined for a career in ballet, you might as well not ever take dance classes! No matter that you love dancing and are having a good time! Sheesh. It is people like that who made sure I never learned Highland dance when I was a kid – the teacher told my parents that my sister and I were too old to learn for competition and wouldn’t take us in the class. We just wanted to dance!

You can find Yeti here!

Also, Miss Tutu’s Star is in the stores and also available for purchase here! If you like the book, please feel free to leave a sparkling review

First of all, Deborah Lee Rose, who wrote the 12 Days series, has written a book called “Twas Right Before Recess” and I have been asked to do the illustrations for it, yay! It is about a spelling bee, and reading, and all that good stuff.

Second, and most exciting for me, is that my story “Ten Creepy Monsters” has been accepted by Abrams, whee! A book about monsters and not kids! Not that I don’t like kids, but I do love monsters….  I have a year to complete the art for monsters, and another couple of months to have the spelling bee finished, so it will be a busy year, but that is a good thing!

And finally, Miss Tutu’s Star is available for pre-order now on Amazon. You can find it here!

In etsy news, I have listed a new muppet print – Gonzo (the Magnificent) You can check it out here.

And I have also listed one of my higher-end sculptures on etsy – I’ve never tried listing a fairly expensive item like this before, but other people do so I thought I’d give it a try. Up now is a Slug Angel of Love,

and soon I will be adding the Slug Angel of Doom. Who knows, maybe they will sell! Stranger things have happened.

Thanks to everyone for coming to visit my daughter Erin and me at the spring open studios at Salmon Falls Mills! We had a great turnout, and were even interviewed by a nice fellow from artspider.net. I hesitate to post this because I sound pretty dumb, but here it is, ugh, haha!

ArtSpider visits the Mills at Salmon Falls, May 2010 from ArtSpider: L. Graykin on Vimeo.

And that’s all for now, folks! I’ll try to be better about this… but that’s what I always say……..

Need I say more?

In not so happy book news, three of my books have recently gone out of print, boooo. That means that I can’t order them anymore, so if you see a copy of Prudy’s Problem, Happy Bees, or Seymour Slug, snap it up!  It may be your last chance!

In more happy book news, things are looking (dare I say?) positive for a new story I have written called “Ten Creepy Monsters.” I am waiting to hear from my editor, but his initial reaction was good…

Upcoming events include a school visit next week, and our spring open studio day in May – May 8th to be exact. Mark your calendars.

In Etsy news, my “Yeti Loves His Lederhosen” was featured in their “keep it weird” section – thanks, guys! You can check it out here. Yeti got a lot of hearts from that, yaay!

I just got back from The Big City, where I saw the Tim Burton exhibit at MOMA -fantastic! I loved seeing his early influences and  how he took off on his own weird tangent. And of course the movie props were great!

Inflatable Boy, with non-inflatable girl

We also went to the fabulous Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It was a lovely sunny day, and there were actually flowers blooming outside! After all this dreary rainy weather we’ve been having up here in the northeast, it was a welcome sight indeed.

A carpet of english bluebells

And to top of off a great trip, our hotel was right down the street from my favorite building – the Chrysler Building. A lovely sight day or night!

The Chrysler Building at night

Finally, I just have to throw in this cute cat picture of Tom watching a little black toad on tv!

Tom watches a toad

Once again, I will try to be more active in my posting!

yes, I have been making bears, bears and more bears! They are finally on their way to Manhattan where they will appear in the Tedde shop at Bryant Park. If you are in the city, stop in for a look-see!

So there is the biggest reason, aside from general laziness, haha. In publishing news, I have FINALLY finished the cover for Miss Tutu’s Star, yaaaaay!!!! A relief to have my part of that project finished, for sure. You won’t find it on the shelves until next fall, but look for it then. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you when it comes out!

The Open Studios at the Mill at Salmon Falls is this weekend, so I’ve been struggling to get things done for that, agh! This year’s ornament is an elephant, Enid and her Precious Peanut. They will be few and far between (see reason above) but I have tried my best to get enough done for people, and here are some preview photos:

My daughter Erin will be selling her cute wares there too – check them out here!
For more information about the mill and the artists there, you can visit their website: millartists.com.

In other news, the lovely Brooke featured my muppet prints in her blog a couple of weeks ago. Check it out here. Thanks, Brooke!

Next is a shot of the three of us honorees – Denny Elliott, Ginny Bradley, and myself. You can’t see that on the plaque it says that I went to the University of Maine for sociology rather than zoology…

And last, but not least, is a picture of my groovy cool award clock! Now look closely at the inscription – I haven’t taken Latin since high school, but even I know that it should be “alumna” instead of “alumnus“… Pretty amusing coming from a scholarship dinner award! Maybe they didn’t actually know to whom they were giving the award. They did spell my name right though, so that is something!

In other news, I still have the cover to do for Miss Tutu’s Star – still waiting for my editor to look at the sketches I sent a month ago. I guess they must not be in a huge hurry! In the meantime, I have a huge order of bears to make for tedde, and I really have to start on ornaments – agh! This year’s designs will be elephants and bears. And I would really like to get back to doing some oil painting… And I am heading back out to Ohio next week to see the Elder P’s. So there you have it, my life in a nutshell!

I will be very happy when I get this all finished…

I now have a flickr account, for anyone who might be interested. In it now are many many pictures from our recent family reunion in America’s Dairyland – you’ll find boring photos of family members, but also trolls, gnomes and badgers! Here is an example of a sneaky gnome, perhaps getting ready to attack your ankles!

Check it out here. But don’t say I didn’t warn you there would be lots of pictures of family!

So in two weeks we are taking our little girl to the Big City so she can learn how to do zombie make-up and bloody accident wounds and such (also high fashion-type stuff) at the Make-Up Designory School (or MUD, as it is more familiarly known). I can’t wait to have her practice on me! Expect future photos of crazy stuff!

Well, that’s it for now – I will try to be better about this!