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The Easter Egg jacket    

Coming Spring 2010

      Happy February!  This is Jan Brett and my hedge a gram – a monthly report named after one of my favorite characters, Hedgie the hedgehog.  We have had three hedgehogs and have enjoyed them very much.  Right now our pets are chickens and ducks.  Since it’s been an unusually cold and snowy winter, they are all having to adapt to being inside.  Even though they have pop hatches – little doors just their size to go out into their outdoor pen, the chickens opt for staying inside.  Their outside pen has a roof, but snow blows inside through the hardware cloth, and they do not like to walk through the snow.  The ducks mostly swim in their pond which stays open because it has running water.  On the coldest nights when it gets below 20 degrees, I herd the ducks into the chicken house where the good flyers roost on the rafters and the older and chubbier ducks share one of the chicken pens that has a very friendly silkie rooster and silkie hens in it.  The poultry do interact more with me in winter because I come in with treats so they don’t get bored.  The favorite treat is mealie worms, followed by hard cooked eggs, followed by sunflower seeds and last but not least their their veggies, kale and lettuce.  My polish pullets (a pullet is a female) have learned to jump up on the rail of their pen so I will carry them out to a special outside pen whose roof is covered with 8″ of snow.  The snow keeps it so warm that water doesn’t freeze in their drinkers.  They dig giant holes in their bedding looking for insects.  Sometimes with all the excitement of digging they will bury one of their eggs and I will have to dig around looking for it.  Once I was doing this at night and I noticed little red fiery bits in the soil like coals from a fire.  I picked them up before I realized they were probably spiders whose red eyes glowed in the dark!    I learned about glowing spider eyes when we were in Costa Rica getting ideas for my book THE UMBRELLA.    On a night walk our guide would point to a round hole in a dirt bank.  When we looked in, a large tarantula would come charging out in threat mode, all of his or her red eyes glowing.  Those were very big spiders.
     When I’m not looking after my poultry I have the wild birds that flock outside my studio window to watch.  What has brought a lot of them in during the cold of winter is the heated birdbath, and a kind of suet that has insects embedded in it.  Our most colorful birds are the cardinals and bluebirds — the red and blue really pop against the white snow.  The mourning doves have more subtle shades and are just as beautiful in a delicate way, and the woodpeckers, a red bellied, and a flicker dazzle with their stripes and spots.
     I am finishing the last spread of THE EASTER EGG and have finished the jacket.  It’s been some time since I’ve seen a bunny in our yard, but I definitely see rabbit tracks along with squirrel and fox footprints.  One the weather breaks, we’ll start to see raccoon and opossum footprints.  The opossum gives itself away because it draws its rope-like trail behind him and it leaves a drag mark.
     We are about to leave on a trip to Africa to create the background for my 2010 fall book, THE THREE LITTLE MAPINDI.  I’ll buy a few books in Africa, especially books featuring the Herero people.  When I’m in Namibia I’ll try to find the beautiful printed cotton cloth they use for women and girl’s dresses.  Its unique and I don’t think I could remember the patterns well enough to do them justice.  I’ll be taking photos of the hyraxes, which are also called rock dassies and mapindi.  Since they will be the main character of my book, I’ll need to get to know them quite well so I can create the appropriate expressions.  They look a bit like koala bears, with soft grey fur and lighter tufts of fur around their cheeks and ears.  Like koala they have a droll expression.  Luckily for me my friend who takes care of my chickens and ducks will email me messages on how everyone is doing back home.  Then I don’t get too homesick!  I like to think a new book is being hatched and traveling to Namibia will be a revealing first step.  Although, it is a strange feeling to be surrounded by sand dunes covered with weirdly beautiful and poisonous euphoria bushes in the heat and think of New England covered in snow.  I’ll be sure to put some photos of Africa up on my March Hedge a gram.
     Happy creating, reading and especially drawing.
    
                                   Your friend,

                                     Jan Brett

 The New School Visit Contest!

     Win a Jan Brett School Visit Contest.  Download and color in the Jan Brett’s Animal Pals coloring pages and mail it to Jan.  The winner will be drawn at random from all of the entries.
http://janbrett.com/contest_2009/free_school_visit_contest_2009.htm

   Here are some great project for you to use with your kids for THE MITTEN.

~ Put the Animals in The Mitten Coloring Pages.
http://www.janbrett.com/put_the_animals_in_the_mitten.htm

~ Character Masks for all of the animals
http://www.janbrett.com/mitten_masks_main.htm

~ Create your own Mitten printable cards
http://www.janbrett.com/pdfcards/pdfcardgenerator_mitten.htm

~ The Animals of The Mitten Coloring Page
http://www.janbrett.com/mitten_coloring_page_animals.htm

~ Design Your Own Mitten Coloring Page
http://www.janbrett.com/design_your_own_mitten.htm

~ Bookmarks from The Mitten and The Hat
http://www.janbrett.com/bookmarks/bookmarks_mitten_and_hat.htm

~ Read All About THE MITTEN
http://www.janbrett.com/newsnotes/mitten_newsnotes2.htm

~ Make a Mitten Sock Puppet
http://www.janbrett.com/hedgie_sock_puppet_project_page.htm

~ The Animals of THE MITTEN transfers
http://www.janbrett.com/transfers/the_mitten_transfers_main.htm

~ Hedgehog Paper Plate Projects
http://www.janbrett.com/the_mitten_project_page.htm

~ The Rabbit from The Mitten Coloring Page
http://www.janbrett.com/mitten_coloring_page_rabbit.htm

~ The Bear from The Mitten Coloring Page
http://www.janbrett.com/mitten_coloring_page_bear.htm

~ Send a Mitten Email Postcard
http://www.janbrett.com/vcards/gbrowse.php?cat_id=27

~ How to Draw a Hedgehog
http://janbrett.com/video/how_to_draw_a_hedgehog_starring_astro.htm

It’s a pleasure to be in touch.

  Sincerely,

  Jan Brett

Download a Free Jan Brett How to Draw Video
http://janbrett.com/video/video_main_page.htm

Read all about Jan Brett’s books and get the best bookstore prices
http://www.janbrett.com/bookstores/hedgies_lets_go_shopping.htm

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JAN BRETT’S SNOWY TREASURY (Fall 2009) jacket photo

Happy New Year!

      This is my January hedge a gram, the monthly update I write to tell you what is happening in my world. I’m an illustrator and in the back of my mind, I always envision a child somewhere thinking they might like illustrating to be their job. We have just spent some time in New Mexico. It’s a good time for me to appreciate Native American artwork. I love to look at the realistic, but designful painting in the “studio” style. Many of the paintings tell a story, and many show dances that have a spiritual purpose as well as being entertaining in a very complex way. I love horses and birds, and I am always excited to see the way the horses are described as unique individuals. The birds sometimes look humorous, perhaps because the ground birds have a self important air. Three of the birds I see when I visit New Mexico are fascinating to me, the quail, the roadrunner, and the raven. One of the other unique treasures of the southwest is the turquoise gems that are showcased in Indian jewelry. Turquoise is my birthstone, and if you haven’t seen this gem before, presented as jewelry, it looks blueish green. Sometimes it is crisscrossed with black, gold, or red in a design like a spider web. Sometimes it forms blue figures on a black background. Other times turquoise is a milky green. It all depends on what minerals form the stone. I hope someday to illustrate a book with turquoise in it.

      THE EASTER EGG (Spring 2010) jacket photo

     Right now, I am hard at work painting the last three spreads of THE EASTER EGG. I’ve often wondered how the Easter bunny travels, and I put my imagination to work in order to show his wagonnaire – fancy wagon, to pull all the Easter eggs. In January, I’ll go to two chicken shows, one in Florida, and one in Springfield, Massachusetts in order to see the regal Cochin chickens that will pull the wagonnaire in a six hen hitch! The Cochin chicken is very rounded, its tail is not prominent and it is set low to the ground with feathers on its feet. Even its head is relaxed into its body so the image is of an elegant ball of feathers.
      When I’ve been illustrating THE EASTER EGG, I often reflect on Beatrix Potter’s wonderful rabbits in BENJAMIN BUNNY and THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT. I am drawn to the way Ms. Potter made her rabbits full of personality. They are not photographically realistic, too cutesy or cartoonish. They make the reader care about their story.
     If you are working on a book, here’s a little story about what happened to me. I’ve been on the home stretch for this new rabbit book, getting lots of momentum and energy to finish the story. Then two things happened. My publisher asked me to stop work so I could design and paint a jacket for A SNOWY TREASURY, a book of four snowy tales I have already published, but will be together for the first time. Secondly, we traveled to New Mexico for a week, where I’ve been painting every day after skiing. It’s hard to change gears, and juggle all the components of a project, but sometimes a new idea will jump in. The borders of THE EASTER EGG are pussy willows that grow as time in the story progresses. Suddenly I thought, what if the pussy willows, which are fluffy grey catkins, morph into little bunnies and scoot off the page as the story comes to a close? I don’t think I would have thought of this idea if I hadn’t stop work, begin another project, and then set up in a strange place with lots of stimulating artwork around me. As artists and writers, remember that no matter what your commitment or gifts are, those creative moments come to us just because we’re human beings. We just need to give them space and time to appear. Let it be a very creative New Year for all of you!

Your friend,

Jan Brett

Welcome to my blog.  I have high hopes that it will be a way that
booklovers can share information.

                                    Jan Brett