Babies Around the World

Announcing the recently released board book Babies Around the World!

Written by Puck and designed by Beatriz Juarez, Babies Around the World was illustrated by Yours Truly (Violet Lemay).

As you and your baby turn the pages of Babies Around the World, you'll hop from one city to another until you have circled the globe. Your visual adventure begins in New York City and continues to Mexico City, Rio de Jainero, London, Paris, Capetown, Cairo, Beijing, Tokyo, and San Francisco. At every stop you'll learn to say "hello" in the local language. Fun!

A great review from Publisher's Weekly:

As he often does, my son Graham contributed a few drawings to the cause. To read more about that collaboration and details about how I made the art for Babies Around the World, click here.

Click here to order your copy of Babies Around the World today!

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Babies Around the World

duopress 2017

written by Puck

illustrated by Violet Lemay

duopress books are distributed by Workman Publishing

Beach Babies!

New from duopress: Beach Babies!

Beach Babies is an adorable 22-page board book for you to share with all of the tiny readers and beach-bums in your life.

Written by Puck, designed by Grant McMahan....

... with illustrations and art direction by me, your friend, Violet Lemay.

I hope that you and your baby will have as much fun experiencing Beach Babies as the team at duopress had, making the book. 

The charming words and colorful art on every page, and the activities at the end of Beach Babies, are all designed to make itty bitty beach-goers and their caregivers very, very happy.

♫

Announcing the arrival of Beach Babies makes me so happy that I have to sing! 

What better song to celebrate babies at the beach than Bon Voyage? 

(Think back to your high-school production of Anything Goes, and sing along!)

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Bon VOYage.

You mean bon voyAGE-uh.

I hate to say goodbye sweetheart.
By the seashore...

You mean sur la plage...

I'll sail and watch the sea,
Til you come back to me.

Oh my dearie...

You mean ma cherie...

I'm yours for life...

You mean pour la vie...

So kiss me pretty wench
In English or in French
Bon voyAGE!

Bon voyAGE-uh!

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Beach Babies is available on-line (click here to order!), and at your favorite local independent bookstore.

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Special thanks to George M. Cohan for the lyrics to Bon Voyage. Thanks also to my little brother Matt, who refrained from either killing me or smashing my stereo during my high-school "Cohan Phase"— four solid years of binge Cohen album-listening interrupted only by short bouts of Annie, Hello Dolly, West Side Story and My Fair Lady. I'm proud to have been a theater nerd through and through, but Matt, I'm soooo sorry! Ask yourself: Did you decided to become a trombonist to drown out your sister's music? Perhaps my youthful obsession with classic musical theater actually spurred you on to your eventual career. It just may be that you owe a great big thank you to George M, brother-mine! What do you think of that?

♥

123 Little Bugs

Over the summer I art-directed my first project for duopress: Puck's 123 Little Bugs, a Cool Counting Book™ for itty-bitty readers. Prolific artist Rey David Rojas made the adorable illustrations, and my long-time friend Grant McMahan designed the book. Grant added patterns to Rey David's art, two of which—including these swirls on the cover—were created by me, just for fun. This art director job has its perks to be sure, not least of which is working with such talented people.

All duopress books are interactive. On the final pages of 123 Little Bugs you'll find helpful conversation starters to give you ideas about how to help your baby interact with the art on each page.

For example:

"Did you know that caterpillars have twelve eyes? How many eyes do you have? Can you close one eye? How about both? Now, open your eyes! There's much more to see in this book!"

Adorable. Where were these books when my son was small?

Get a jump on spring with 123 Little Bugs, available on-line and at your local independent bookstore.

finally available: 4 new books!

Last summer I made art for four new Duopress titles which, in recent days, finally became available in bookstores: Chicago Baby, Doodle Texas, Doodle Washington DC, and Beach Doodles.

Last spring, I'll admit, I was a little nervous about the work load. I lined up a bunch of interns to help, and decided to share one of the assignments—Beach Doodles (a SUPER cute book, written by Puck)—with my friend and former student, Paige Garrison.

I *painted* the illustrations for Chicago Baby (written by Jerome Pohlen—it's absolutely adorable), a process that was lots of fun, and quicker than my usual routine. The break from Photoshop was refreshing. Listening to Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash while inking Doodle Texas (also written by Jerome) was relaxing, and oh-so-very TEXAS. What's not to like, y'all? I've been pining for cowboy boots ever since.

Doodle Washington DC (written by the prolific and lovely Laura Krauss Mehlmed) is a very classy book and I'm proud to be a part of it. Meanwhile my son has discovered John Philip Sousa, his new favorite composer; between the marches and the red, white and blue book, I've never felt more American.

All of the work finished itself, despite my family's last-minute decision to MOVE a thousand miles in August. And at this moment Team Duopress is finishing up another work season, for which I illustrated FIVE books—not four—and this time, without sharing any assignments. It just never pays to worry. ☺
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Paige: I will send you a box of books as soon as I can get out of this studio. This week, I promise. Same for you, Elizabeth and Melissa (my wonderful interns). Be watching for packages from me!

From Chicago to San Francisco

Last winter I inked 240 pages worth of drawings for 2 new Duopress titles: Doodle Chicago (by Jerome Pohlen), and Doodle San Francisco (by Puck). They are finally available, and they look amazing! Designer Charla Pettinglill did a fantastic job on both books.

Doodle Chicago and Doodle San Francisco are available in various sites around the cities they feature, and can be ordered on-line at both Amazon and B & N.

Check out Duopress's website for more info.

And yes, those are the Blues Brothers at the bottom of the photo. They are waiting in line very patiently, because everyone in Chicago is polite.

Live Drawing at WORD Book Store

I tried my hand at iMovie to edit this video, which shows me making a drawing in my studio in Savannah, Georgia for a group of kids at WORD Book Store in Brooklyn, NY. Three cheers for Skype!

Although in this video you can't see the folks on the other end, you can hear their voices. Puck (Mauricio Velázquez de León) was there, because he wrote Doodle New York and was the star of the show that day at Word. Jenn Northington, who organized the event, was there as well, directing the whole thing. And of course, there were lots of kids.

Thanks to my friend Brett Wilkes, who shot the video, and... thank you, WORD!

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