I was pretty heartbroken when it didn’t work out to have David Hyde Costello illustrate my upcoming picture book, A Kid of Their Own. His illustrations for the companion book, A Crow Of His Own (Charlesbridge 2015), exceeded all my hopes as an author, and I wrote this new text with him in mind. I felt so good about winning an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer honor for Crow, my very first picture book, and I looked forward to building on that success with this sequel about Clyde the rooster and his trouble adjusting when Fran the goat and her kid, Rowdy, arrive at Sunrise Farm. How could my new book succeed without David?

Happily, Charlesbridge signed a fabulous new illustrator for Kid, Jessica Lanan. I was familiar with her work in the adoption picture book, The Story I’ll Tell by Nancy Tupper Ling, and I was absolutely thrilled to see her character sketch of Clyde in her blog post linked below. Since this story is all about welcoming newcomers, it’s ended up feeling rather fitting to have a new artist join Sunrise Farm, and I so look forward to seeing how Jessica will make this new story her own.

http://jessicalanan.com/and-another-book-announcement-a-kid-of-their-own/