Olympic Art Competitions

Interesting! From Mental Floss, Olympic Art Competitions from 1928-1932.

Gaiman Signs Multi-Book Deal with HarperCollins

From Publishers Weekly, Neil Gaiman has signed a multi-book deal with HarperCollins. 

Excellent!

I will have more good books to add to Joseph's wish list.

Pen & Palette Interview

Megan Shepherd was very kind to interview me for the summer edition of Pen & Palette! 

James Gurney's Survival Guide for Art Students

Here is a good list of old art instruction books recommended by James Gurney. 

Another old book I like that isn't on this list is The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides. 

Face Book

This looks great - a Chuck Close book for kids! 

Frog and Toad

From the Chicago Tribune, the Jim Henson Company is developing an animated film based on Frog and Toad. 

"'Frog and Toad' has tremendous value with parents who read these charming stories when they were children and are now sharing them with their own kids," said Lisa Henson, CEO. "With such high caliber talent on board, the delightful and funny adventures of these two great friends--with a nod to the classic 'buddy movie'--will bring a whole new audience to their big screen debut."

I'm looking forward to it! 

Comics & Children's Books Now on Kindle's iPad App

From Apple Insider, Kindle for iPad adds children's books, comics, graphic novels.

Amazon on Thursday updated its Kindle application for iPad, adding support for children's books, comic books and graphic novels purchased for the Kindle platform. 

... 

Comic books, graphic novels and children's books first debuted on the Kindle platform late last year, with the launch of the Kindle Fire touchscreen tablet and its color display. Thursday's update extends that functionality to the iPad, and expands the availability of Kindle platform content on iOS devices. 

Because Amazon doesn't comply with Apple's rules for in-app purchases, in which Apple receives a 30 percent cut of all content sold through iOS applications, the new content cannot be purchased directly through the Kindle application. Users must instead visit the Amazon website to buy the content, and can then download it through their account in the Kindle for iOS app.

Art for Babies

I hope all the fathers out there had a great Father's Day yesterday! 

I love this. Via Drawn, Puno's Art for Babies! 

The Disadvantages of Ebooks

From The Guardian: Enhanced ebooks are bad for children finds American study.

Researchers at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center in New York worked with 32 pairs of parents and their three to six-year-old children for the small study, Print Books vs Ebooks, which gave each family a print book and either a basic ebook or an enhanced ebook version of the same title. Enhanced ebooks were found to distract children from the story, and their bells and whistles prevented children from remembering as many narrative details.  

... 

Enhanced ebooks should still be valued, however, "for their ability to prompt less motivated young readers toward engagement when they might otherwise avoid text altogether".

This does fit with other analyses I have read about ebooks, that they will complement, not replace, traditional print. 

Terrifying Children's Books

Yikes!

And yikes!