It’s weird how different Queens is from Brooklyn. If you showed me a series of unlabeled split-screen photos of blocks/houses, one side Brooklyn and one side Queens, I bet I could pick out Brooklyn every time.

Cucumbers will always be a vegetable to me simply because they’re green, the truth be damned.

I LOVE the taste of passion fruit. I HATE the texture of passion fruit. These little frozen cubes of cleaned passion fruit are one of my favorite things.

Gold medal pizza tonight! Happy Olympics! My recipe: docs.google.com/document/d/1... 💙❤️

It's #KidLitArtPostcard day! I've been spread too thin lately to count/like them all but rest assured I'll be scrolling—I know other publishing professionals will be too. I so appreciate you taking the time to share your work! It helps me, and more importantly it unites the #kidlit community. 💙❤️

It's #KidLitArtPostcard day! I've been spread too thin lately to count/like them all but rest assured I'll be scrolling—I know other publishing professionals will be too. I so appreciate you taking the time to share your work! It helps me, and more importantly it unites the #kidlit community. 💙❤️

My wife is a brilliant artist. allierex.com

Thank you Tina and Creative Mornings!!!!!!!

My art director, Laurent Linn, is no longer at Simon & Schuster Children's. I found out on Wed. I can't post more about it on social media because (1) my feelings are too big right now, and (2) I don't want to post something I later regret. cont'd www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/... #KidLit

Starting the day right. 👽

It’s crazy how hard you can swing in a single class meeting from feeling like you’re really reaching your students to feeling like you’ve truly lost them.

I taught in person last night for the first time since 2019—the in person part, not the teaching part—and WOW do I need progressive lenses. 😭

Reading these again tonight. Round and round we go!

this has been my avatar for 16+ years perhaps an omen foretelling of this blue sky

this is who runs this account

Wow! Thank you to everyone who participated in the Publishing for Minnesota auction! #kidlit #publishing

In a new report on the harm done to creative professionals by generative AI development, the Society of Authors and other trade associations are demanding new regulations to compel tech giants to respect copyright and remunerate authors and artists.

5 hours left to bid. To my mind it doesn’t count as spending money today if you’re joining me in not spending money today. 💙❤️

Thank you CALIBA for this fantastic honor that I share with @k04sk.bsky.social @brianlarossa.com @steamteambooks.bsky.social #kidlit Buy from local indies bookstores and protect our forests 🌲📚

I tried to type “the auction is live” but it auto-corrected to “the auction is [love].” 💙❤️

Hey #Kidlit, I donated a one hour portfolio/dummy critique to raise money for Minnesota. The auction will run from Thursday at 12AM untill Friday at 11:45PM. 💙❤️ www.32auctions.com/organization...

Yesterday was a good day. A picture book I art directed received an ALA American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor. Grateful to have been part of this one. Jacket and case covers below. 💙❤️ #kidlit

sunrise in brooklyn✨

If you're an illustrator and you've ever cold emailed me and I haven't replied please know that I do wish I had bandwidth to reply to every cold email that I receive for whatever that's worth. Don't forget I also have an illustrator contact form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... 💙❤️

Someone from the future could be trying to flag me down in Manhattan to give me a critical piece of information that would save my life in the next hour and I’d still wave them off on reflex with the old nah nah sorry not now on my way home take care.

Bookplate!? Who needs a stinking bookplate when you can mark your books with a red-hot branding iron? Here are two 17th c. “Marcas de Fuego” showing that the book was owned by the Great Convent of St. Francisco in Mexico City - S. FRAN.CO d MEX. CO. The second mark AP refers to the apostolica sedes.

My goal was to finish a first draft of all 52 chapters of my 4th novel by the end of the month. Reached my goal early on the subway home tonight! 🙌🏻 60K words! Now to spend the next 6 months tightening, expanding, tightening, expanding.✨

I always have those dreams about forgetting that I’m supposed to teach a course before the semester begins. They used to be about forgetting I was enrolled in a course as a student. I think we all have them, yes? The other day I learned about a student THAT THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO. 💀

Tonight I learned that the building that currently houses The Society of Illustrators was originally a carriage house.

facts

Self portrait circa 2000.

Looking forward to catching up with a bunch of #kidlit folks tonight at the @scbwi.bsky.social Winter Conference Industry Party. I’ll be the one wearing blue and red. 💙❤️✨

new asap rocky album out today 💙❤️ harlem

So great to catch up with my friend @brianlarossa.com today! Also super-grateful for the tour of Scholastic. I’ve seen Scholastic Canada’s offices but not NYC. Took this photo from the rooftop! Wonderful view of the city. #KidLit

Been learning @milanote.bsky.social for the Typography & Information course I’ll be teaching at Pratt this semester and I have to say it’s a brilliant way to visualize, and play with, a syllabus. I suspect it might even change the way I teach.

Yikes. www.kqed.org/arts/1398535...

Lunchtime: close-up portraits from the 70s and 80s of people on their lunch breaks by photographer Charles H. Traub. [kottke.org]

This is stunning. Listen to this in Philadelphia. Thousands singing “Hey-Oh, we won’t be silent while our friends are gunned down.” Really listen to it.

Hey illustrators/agents! I’m a #kidlit art director starting work on a new picture book—we’re looking for: expressive, commercial, human characters; fantasy; magic; AND Mahjong! The tiles! The drama! Please respond w/ samples + folio link. Please no emails/DMs. 💙❤️ #artcommissions

The next milestone we hope to hit is $15,000 for the Black Zine Fair: gogetfunding.com/black-zine-f...

read this thread, the entire thread, because my god we need people in this industry to learn what comics are and how they are made. every one of these posts rang true and hit home w my own experiences

today is my birthday please be nice to me 💙❤️

Let’s all try to make art this year that is honest enough to make us cry, okay?

My gut says 2026 will be the year of repairing a great many things.

BTW, we're still here reporting news. The Authors Guild has expressed concerns to Amazon about "Ask this Book." Reps for textbook authors tell the court Sage Publishing is trying to get authors to accept less than they deserve in Anthropic settlement.... 1/2

We are the books.

Sometimes I hear people talk about book design as if it’s an optional service, and not even in context of AI—as if there would still be books without book designers lol.

I don’t think companies should get a trophy for *not* using AI. You don’t get a reward for valuing creative people in the way that you already should be. The reward for hiring creative people is the thing that they created for you.

Truly, only someone who has never read a book could describe them as small.

this