Hi everyone! I am beyond thrilled to announce this news:

(click to see in full-size glory)

Listen. It’s fairly nerve-wracking to be in the spot of having labored over words (and believe me, there was a lot of laboring over the words in this particular book), and being happy with the words, but also being a wordsy author-type, so I think of the story almost without illustrations. The characters speak in my head. I can hear them. But I can’t quite see them. I can a little, but it’s foggy.

The problem with that, as a wordsy author-type, who also maybe sometimes get a bit anxious about the worth of the words, is that I worry the story is not illustratable. I worry my editor is going to call me and say, “I’m sorry. I just can’t find anyone who can do anything with this. We’re taking back the advance and producing it as a community public access radio play.” (Is there even community public access radio? There should be.)

So I get nervous. And emotional. And so far I am 2 for 2 for crying when my editor Joanna told me who my illustrator was, first with Tim, and now with Charles. (The difference with her telling me about Charles is that I wasn’t home so she told me via email and then I made the poor choice to call and leave her a sobby-happy voicemail, which just goes to show that you can be a human in this business and they’ll still let you make books.)

Now go to your local independent bookstore or library and get these Charles Santoso-illustrated books: I Don’t Like Koala by Sean Ferrell, Peanut Butter and Brains by Joe McGee, and Spy Guy by Jessica Young.