There is a changing page of questions and answers on this website. Click here to see it. (Take a look at the "favorite color" question).
dust devil patternDust Devil journal
A new book about Swamp Angel, by Anne Isaacs, is approaching publication. Its title: Dust Devil, the name Angel gives to the colossal horse she discovers at the core of a wild Montana dust storm.

Paul wrote a journal about the amazing adventures and misadventures he encountered (well, maybe not so much amazing as funny) while trying to make the finished paintings on wood veneer, much like the illustrations in Swamp Angel. This journal will be viewable somewhere by the time the book is published, very likely right here, but meanwhile, Publisher's Weekly has written an article about it!
dust devil patternDust Devil drygoods

For the library trade there will be a Dust Devil poster; for the Web, perhaps a trailer. Paul has felt a need to send Dust Devil imagery out in even more directions. Here is a Dust Devil pattern he devised, using paintings from the book, along with scans of the wood on which the book is painted. He had this design printed on fabric, and you can order some of it, too. Find out about the fabric, and a vest Paul made from it, here.
brearley at the waldorfThe Brearley School is celebrating its 125th birthday this year, and to cap it off they had a fundraising birthday party in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria. Early in the year, Paul had drawn a series of drawings of the school mascot in period dress, one for each decade of the institution, to decorate various floors of the school. But they were also to be seen at this elegant dinner, cycling through the decades, when there were no speakers or entertainment on the stage.

<Swamp Angel and Dust Devil>Painting for Independent Booksellers


Every year before Book Expo America, the national booksellers' convention, the Association of Booksellers for Children holds a fundraising event, featuring an auction of work donated by children's illustrators. Paul has contributed to this auction in the past, but this year he painted a picture especially for it, to mark the publication of Dust Devil, the upcoming sequel to Swamp Angel. Dust Devil is the name of Swamp Angel's horse.

 

shark cupcakea Toy Dance Party cupcake

Emily Jenkins was visiting Random House's Maryland printing and warehouse facilities along with the authors of the Whimsical Bakehouse books. They created a Spark the Shark cupcake in honor of Toy Dance Party. (The knife in the foreground was part of another cupcake in honor of another sort of book). Dangerous cupcakes!

Then Emily ate the shark.
The Brooklyn Heights Blog
has named Paul Zelinsky one of this year's "BHB TEN," a list of Brooklyn Heights "movers and shakers" in 2009. Thank you, Brooklyn Heights Blog!
When Paul Zelinsky visited the Dalton School in New York City and met with Grades K through 3, the librarians made a wonderful video with the children, before and after the event. It's up on Dalton's website.
For those of you who use Facebook, check out an entry on the Schwartz & Wade fan page: a visit to the Zelinsky studio.
The Cover art for Toy Dance Party was on display as part of "The Original Art Show" at the Society of Illustrators in New York, from October 22 to November 25, 2009.

Paul Zelinsky's daughter Rachel emailed him this message: "Yesterday I was on the train going to work, and standing next to a woman and her two children, about four years old. They were really loud and really obnoxious and annoying. But then the woman pulled out Rapunzel and started reading it to them, and they became quiet and just looked at the book as she read. It made me very happy! "

(On one page of the book, the young Rapunzel dances on a log as the sorceress looks on-- that's Rachel.)

Rapunzel on train
A Page on this website is devoted to the planting of Rapunzel seeds. Take a look.

rampion leaves