Seymour Snail named a 2010 Maryland Blue Crab Young Readers Award Honor Book!!

Whoo hoo! This is fun news!

The Amazing Trail of Seymour Snail has been named a 2010 Maryland Blue Crab Young Readers Award Honor Book in the Transitional Fiction category.

This award, sponsored by the Maryland Library Association, honors the best in beginning and transitional fiction and non-fiction for children. For more information, please visit: http://www.mdlib.org/divisions/csd/blue.asp

Thank you Maryland Library Association. I'm honored.
So is Seymour. Did I mention, Whoo hoo?

Whoo-hoo!

Here are some animated crabs based on children's art from my MermaidMary.com website. I am sure Mary Margaret will not mind lending them to Seymour's Blue Crab celebration. Let's see if they stay animated on blogspot.




Okay, these crabs are really red crabs on a blue background, but I love their expressions. If you need a blue crab, here is the front of the brochure for the Maryland Blue Crab Young Reader Award (however the surfing crab looks a little greenish blue to me!)

Thanks again to the Maryland Library Association for recognizing Seymour.

Napa County Reads Shifty: More Amazing Shifty-themed Planter Boxes

Family and friends have been asking to see more Shifty-themed planter boxes created by professional and student artists that were auctioned at the Napa Valley Opera House to support literacy by Napa County Reads. I'm happy to share the following pictures. You can see my earlier posts about Napa County Reads and more totally cool Shifty-themed planters here, here, and here.

Toby Gewertz is the artist of the amazing planter box above.

Soli loves to drive. How cool is this planter-on-wheels by Gary Snethen?

I was overwhelmed and touched with how unique and beautiful each of the planter boxes were. I loved seeing what parts of my novel spoke to the artists and how the artists brought scenes, settings, characters and themes to a different media.

When I was writing SHIFTY, I was just trying to capture the story the best I could--to bring Soli, Sissy, Martha, and Chance's story to life on the page. Seeing parts of Shifty's story brought to life in these planters was unexpected, wonderful and truly inspiring!


I'd love to match up the artist names with each of the boxes. If you created one of these planter boxes or know the artists' names, please comment, and I'll add them. Thanks!

This colorful planter box must have been inspired by Sissy's fortune cookie early in the story which said, "Keep a green tree in your heart and a songbird will come."

Below is a pic of Soli/Shifty depicted as a shape-shifter Coyote by artist Hugo Corro. See Hugo Corro's artist statement, Sissy as a rabbit, and more views of the planter box here.


I tried to take lots of pictures at the Opera House event to remember them all, but I was also meeting many amazing people that night and I was just a little bit nervous about my upcoming talk. So if you were there at the Napa Valley Opera House and you took pictures or bought one of the planter boxes, I'd love to see your planter in its new home, see more pics or hear why a particular planter "spoke" to you.

If you are one of the artists who participated, thank you, THANK you for depicting Shifty's story. The artists' statements were amazing too, but the lighting posed a challenge in getting pictures of the artist statements without too much reflection. You can see a few of them in the preview here.

Forecast: More Shifty-themed planter boxes coming soon.

And please comment below. What are your fav's and why?
Are you one of the artists? Please tell me which box you created and share your artist statement. And if you bid on one of the boxes, please tell us what drew you to that planter box. Thanks!!