Tomorrow, April 7, the Now I See quartet arrives, all at once—four board books about the seasons, made with . (If you order all four today and submit your receipt here, you can join our mail club—you’ll get four pieces of mail with art and more over the next year.)

And in May, Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, a book for adults about books for kids, will be released.

As always, if you’d like a signed (and even personalized) copy of one of these books, you can order from my beloved neighborhood shop, East Bay Booksellers.

EVENTS

Relatedly: I’m traveling a lot this year too. I’m doing a lot of events with Jon Klassen. Many of these are conversations, geared toward adults, hosted by writers and artists I admire. Some are Official Ambassadorial Events, part of my tour as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

I’d like to call special attention to an event Jon and I are doing at City Arts & Lectures in San Francisco. I grew up loving books in the Bay Area; the City Arts & Lectures stage holds a mythological significance for me. Jon and I will be the first picture book authors talking about picture books up there since Maurice Sendak in 1993. Exciting!

You can always find upcoming events listed on my website, but here’s what’s on the books right now. (Some of these require tickets or an RSVP.)

• Chattanooga — Apr 9

• LA Times Festival of Books (with Jason Reynolds, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jon Klassen, Shawn Harris) — Apr 18

• Montreal (with Jon Klassen and Heather O’Neill) — Apr 27

• New York City (with Jon Klassen and Leanne Shapton) — Apr 28

• Toronto (with Jon Klassen and Ryan North) — Apr 30

• Plainville (with Jeff Kinney) — May 6

• Washington, D.C. — May 7

• New York City (with Merve Emre) — May 8

• Miami — May 9

• Los Angeles — May 12

• Santa Cruz — May 13

• San Francisco (City Arts & Lectures with Jon Klassen) — May 14

• Portland (with Carson Ellis) — May 15

• Petaluma (with Jon Scieszka) — May 17

• Seattle (with Jon Klassen and Jon Mooallem) — May 18

• Duluth — May 20

• Bar Harbor — Jun 3

• Cody — Sep 21

• Ogden — Nov 12

AUDIOBOOK

The Rumpelstiltskin audiobook was read by the author (me!) and features an incredible wall-to-wall medieval score by Justin Robbins. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.

A BUNCH OF VIDEOS

Here are some things to watch: my conversation about picture books with Jennifer Garner at the 92nd Street Y, Future Book stuff, Now I See book stuff.

If you preorder (or have already preordered) The Future Book, you can submit your receipt here, and the good folks at Random House will send you, for free, a 17” x 23”poster, designed by Shawn Harris, featuring a color from the future, one that doesn’t even exist yet, in our times. That color is called…

blorange.

There are many thrilling terms and conditions over at the Random House site, but I’ll note that the offer is good only for US residents.

As always, you can get a signed copy from my beloved local bookshop, Oakland’s own East Bay Booksellers.

Also—Shawn and I are going on tour. Three dates, and we’ll be reading picture books and singing songs at all of them. They’re all ticketed, I think, so reserve your spot.

Finally, last November I had the pleasure of talking picture books with Jennifer Garner at the 92nd St. Y. A video of the event is now on YouTube, if you want to watch. A surprise guest joined us to read a picture book at the end.

OK!
Mac

There’s a little nick on the haystack where my dog walked on it. Yours won’t have that!

Preorder details

If you preorder the book and submit your receipt here, the good people at Scholastic will send you a print, signed by Carson Ellis and me—for free! Here’s what the print looks like:

If you preorder from my beloved local bookstore, East Bay Booksellers, I’d be happy to sign your copy of the book, too.

Tour

Also, Carson and I are going out on tour. Decatur, Kansas City, Portland, Petaluma, and Los Angeles: come let us read you our new book. Several of these events are adults only, which is always fun. You have to grab a ticket, so make sure you do that.

tickets

Praise for our Rumpelstiltskin

★ “Fresh and immensely entertaining.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

★ "Theirs is a pleasing alchemy, with Barnett employing conversational language anchored in understated humor and Ellis’ rich gouache illustrations evoking both wood-block prints and Renaissance portraiture.”
—Booklist, Starred Review2

★ “Balances the modern and postmodern, honoring the cadence of the traditional tale with sly humor and seamless asides.”
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Starred Review

★ "Wisecracking lines joined by the medieval elegance of gouache spreads by Caldecott Honoree Ellis.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Here is a picture of Carson’s desk while she was working on the book:

Signed Books

If you think a signed book written by Mac Barnett would make a great gift, 1) I’m not going to disagree with you and 2) I’ll tell you how to do it. This is a web page made by my beloved local bookshop, East Bay Booksellers. You can use it to order signed books, and if you’d like them personalized to anyone, add a note with the order during checkout and I’ll do that too. If this is confusing or you have complicated gift giving needs, you can always give them a call. They’re wonderful people and happy to help — hooray for independent bookstores!

Please note that some of the titles listed don’t come out till next year, so those wouldn’t be great to order for the current “holiday season.” Those books are clearly marked, but I just thought I should let you know.

order a signed book

Talking to Jennifer Garner about Picture Books

Next week, December 5, at the 92nd Street Y in New York, Jennifer Garner and I will be discussing picture books. This is an event for adults—a grown-up conversation about children’s literature. I think the write-up on the site nailed it!

International bestselling children’s book author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Mac Barnett joins actress Jennifer Garner, a passionate advocate for children’s literacy, for a conversation about great literature hiding in plain sight: the children’s picture book.

Picture books are a vibrant and sophisticated — yet underestimated — art form. Barnett and Garner will show us how these books work and what sets them apart from other ways of telling stories, challenging adults to reconsider their ideas about storytelling, reading, and childhood.

This eye-opening, entertaining case for the picture book’s rightful place among our best literary art forms is a declaration: a deeper respect for picture books requires a deeper respect for children.

Also, we’re going to read some picture books out loud to everyone, which will be a treat.

If you can’t make it to New York City, streaming tickets are available too.

Tickets

First Cat Merch

If you’re a fan of The First Cat in Space series, the web shop has some new shirts, posters, hats, and stuff.

First Cat merch

Hi everyone—

On December 5, I’ll be having a conversation about picture books with Jennifer Garner at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and it will also be streamed online. This event is for adults! In-person and streaming tickets are available.

We’re going to talk about how picture books work and what makes them great literature. Also: We’re going to read some picture books out loud to everyone. I’m especially looking forward to that. Jennifer Garner is (unsurprisingly) very good at reading books out loud. She also has a deep knowledge of the art form, its history, and its value to kids. She’s one of my favorite people to talk to about children’s literature, and I hope you can join us.

Tickets

—Mac

• I have a new book coming out next month, The First Cat in Space and the Baby Pirate’s Revenge, the fourth installment of the First Cat in Space series of graphic novels.

  

  It arrives November 4. If you preorder it and upload your receipt here, our publisher will send you—for free!—Captain Babybeard’s (Temporary) Tattoo Kit for Children. (Canadians and Brits, it works a little differently for you, so please see this post for preorder details.)

• To celebrate The First Cat in Space #4, Shawn Harris and I made an album of sea shanties and pirate music. You can listen on Spotify or Apple.

  

• I’ll be on tour all over the place this fall. If you can make it out, it would be lovely to see you in person. Some events of note:

  • Official Ambassadorial Happenings in Elkhart, Indiana, Manvel, TX, and Greensboro, NC.

  • An evening back home in Oakland, CA, where I’ll be talking about Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard’s The Quiet Noisy Book.

  • First Cat Live!, the raucous singing, dancing, read-alouding theatrical spectacular with me and Shawn Harris. Tickets are required (these shows often sell out).

• Here’s Gary Oldman reading Jon Klassen’s and my version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

OK, I’m going to go pack.
How’s the weather in Indiana?

Mac

I have a new picture book out. It’s called Santa’s First Christmas, and it’s illustrated by Sydney Smith. If you’d like signed or personalized copies (“great for gifts”), you can order them through East Bay Booksellers. I’ll be signing a big batch of them soon, before I head out on book tour. (More on my book tour below.)

Preorder The First Cat in Space and the Wrath of the Paperclip

The third book in the First Cat in Space series comes out on November 5. If you preorder it and submit your receipt here, the publisher will send you five (five!) paperclips featuring characters from the First Cat in Space. Shawn (Harris!) designed the paperclips and I have to say they turned out really nicely. This offer applies only to people with a US mailing address.

(🇬🇧 Special “U.K. Readers Only” section, only read this section if you’re in the U.K.—You can get these paperclips if you preorder the book through Shelf Editions. Also, Jon Klassen and I are doing some events the U.K. in late November. We don’t really know where yet but maybe we’ll see you there.)

BOOK TOUR

I’ll be on the road for most of November, first on book tour with Shawn for The First Cat in Space Live! and then for Santa’s First Christmas by myself, while, I imagine, Sydney Smith will be making multiple visits to a day spa in Halifax.

Events are here. I’d love to see you!

POSTERS

Jon Klassen and I made a Millions of Cats poster, available here, to commemorate our post about Millions of Cats over on Looking at Picture Books, our Substack where we talk about how picture books work.

OK, that’s all for now!
Mac

In November I’m going out on tour for The First Cat in Space and the Wrath of the Paperclip, the third book in the First Cat in Space series.

Shawn and I try to make these events special. We perform the books to an orchestral score. We sing and play guitar (only Shawn plays guitar and honestly he also does the bulk of the singing). And if you come dressed as one of the characters from the book, we’ll give you a prize. Some people call these events a “360 degree theatrical spectacular” (nobody calls them that).

The tour is ticketed. (Tickets come with a book.) Grab yours now!

I’ll be going out on another tour at the end of November for a new picture book, Santa’s First Christmas, so if I’m not visiting your city on the First Cat tour, maybe I will on that one!

SPEAKING OF THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE

Shawn and I made some First Cat in Space school supplies—folders, pencils, and a pencil case. (By the way, there’s a whole First Cat in Space newsletter that’s just for First Cat stuff, if you’re interested.)

ODD QUESTION

Do you

1. live in the US

and

2. know many children who speak German and/or Italian

who

3. want a bunch of middle-grade novels?

Maybe you teach at a language immersion school? I don’t know! But for reasons somewhat mysterious to me I have a large number of the German edition of The Terrible Two books, like ten or more copies of each of the four titles in the series. And I have ten or so copies of the Italian edition of The Terrible Two Get Worse, the second book in the series. Yes, only book two. (It stands alone! You can start on the second book! I’ll even throw in a copy of the first book in Italian!) If you could use them, I’ll send ‘em to you, free.

(I also have a bunch of the German audiobooks, on CD. Maybe you know of German-speaking children who own cars with disc-changers! Maybe you don’t speak German but enjoy listening to people speak German and also love physical media! OK, I am realistic about my chances about finding a good home for the audiobooks.)

I’d prefer someone who can take all the German books, and someone else who could take all the Italian books (or maybe there’s one person who could take the whole lot, German and Italian—that would be great). I’ll even sign them before I box them up! If you want the books, please send an email to desk@macbarnett.com.

If you do not want the books, which I imagine is most of the people subscribed to this newsletter, thank you for your patience.

Mac

If you’d like a signed book, my beloved local shop, East Bay Booksellers, made a page where you can order them. And to get a book personalized to someone, just include their name as a note in the order. I get over to the bookstore pretty often, and the good folks at EBB will get them off to you as soon as I sign.

SOME LIVE EVENTS

I’ll be doing a few more events before the end of the year. Pittsburgh, The Bay Area, New York City, and Maplewood, NJ. Everything is up at the events section of my website. Well, almost everything. There’ll be two more events with Jon Klassen—one in Manhattan on 12/2 and one in San Francisco on 12/10—but those haven’t been announced yet. I will write again about them soon. (And post about them on Instagram.)

NOTHINGNESS AND ANTI-MATTER

I once again had the pleasure of reviewing some new picture books in The New York Times Book Review, where I also aired some misgivings about the Current State of Picture Book Backmatter. You can read the piece here.

I ACCIDENTALLY BROKE MY HEART

The other night I was trying to track down a Maurice Sendak quote for a thing I’m writing and went back to his final interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. I remember listening to it when it first aired more than ten years ago and sobbing in my car. Just reading the transcript had me in tears again. And it turns out it wasn’t even the interview with the quote I was looking for. It’s a remarkable conversation—worth a listen, provided you’re up for feeling sad, which you very understandably might not be. Here’s a link.

MORE SOON

OK, I’ll be back soon. I’m thankful for you all!

Mac

HOW DOES SANTA GO DOWN THE CHIMNEY?

Jon Klassen and I have a new picture book, and it comes out on Tuesday, September 11. If you preorder it (or already have preordered it, wow, thank you) you can submit your receipt here and get an ornament with a Jon Klassen reindeer on it. The ornament is made out of paper—I just want to manage your expectations here—but it is sturdy paper and Jon Klassen is very good at drawing reindeer. This offer is available only in the USA and Canada—this was not my call; I am a “world citizen.” I plan on telling you more about this book, including about some events Jon and I will be doing, when it is not hot enough to wear shorts.

THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE AND THE SOUP OF DOOM

The sequel to The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza comes out on October 4, and Shawn (Harris) and I are very proud of it. There is a preorder offer for this book, too! Submit your receipt here and the good folks at HarperCollins will send you all four of these erasers featuring your favorite characters from the First Cat in Space (assuming that your favorite characters are First Cat, Moon Queen, LOZ 4000, and Captain Babybeard). This offer is available internationally, but if you don’t live in the USA you must order through Blue Willow Bookshop. If you do live in the USA, you can order from anywhere, though as always I encourage you to support your favorite local bookshop. It’s all explained at the site.

NEW FIRST CAT MERCH

OK, I don’t know how many readers of this newsletter also subscribe to the First Cat in Space Fan Newsletter. It’s where we send news and updates specific to the First Cat in Space books. In case you don’t we’ve put out a bunch of new First Cat merch, including some school supplies. Posters too! Look!

Our folders are made out of paper, btw. This is not a “manage-your-expectations” paper ornament disclosure. It is my opinion that folders should be made out of paper. But I was in a store the other week and all the folders were made out of plastic. I don’t want to get into a whole thing but this was shocking to me.

LIVE EVENTS

Lots of events coming up this fall, including a big live musical funny extravaganza for The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom. They’re all listed at my events page, and we’ll be updating it with some more things later this fall.

SIGNING OFF

Maybe I’ll see you this fall, or maybe you’ll read one of my new books. I hope so!

As always, thanks for reading—

Mac

TWENTY QUESTIONS

Twenty Questions is a new picture book written by me and illustrated by Christian Robinson, who is one of our greatest picture book illustrators and also my old friend, so I feel doubly lucky to have worked with him on this one. It’s a special book. I’m excited for it to get out in the world, because this book in particular will not be a finished artwork until kids read it. It comes out on 3/14, and if you preorder from East Bay Booksellers in Oakland, California, where Christian and I live (the city, not the bookstore, although I am there a lot), we will sign and personalize your copy. We’ll be signing preorders on 3/13, so order before then if you want one of these! Oh and Christian and I will be going out on tour in March—tour dates at the end of this email!

SHAPE ISLAND

This is kind of a wild one: Jon Klassen and I created a TV show together. It’s called Shape Island and airs on Apple TV+. The show is based on our Shapes books, and we (and brilliant cast and crew [including a hugely talented group of writers]) worked hard to make something funny and smart, a show that takes kids seriously, something that shares the soul of our books for kids. Oh! And it’s stop-motion. We started production the week my son was born and when it aired recognized all the characters from the books, because now he’s almost two. I believe you can watch the first episode for free, at least a few people told me that’s true. If that’s not true anymore, blame those people, not me (though I won’t tell you who they are, to protect them). But we’re proud of the whole season, right up to the final seconds of the last episode, which has a bit of animation that Jon and I can’t stop talking about. If you don’t have Apple TV+, there are free trials of whose lengths depend on whether or not you’ve recently bought an Apple device—and if you signed up for a free trial and then immediately watched Shape Island, that would definitely be the kind of thing that “improved our reputation with the network.” But really, no pressure. And if you finish our show and are looking for something else to watch, Severance was my second-favorite show I watched last year.*

Here’s a Twitter thread about Shape Island that gets at a lot of what we wanted to achieve with the show:

BLAMO!

I recently got to go on one of my favorite podcasts, Blamo!. Jeremy Kirkland is such a smart and thoughtful interviewer, and it was fun to talk to him about books and also about clothes, because I think about clothes a lot but don’t really get to talk about them, at least not in public. You can give it a listen here (it’s not a kids’ podcast).

🎼THE WOLF, THE DUCK, AND THE MOUSE

If you’re in or near London, the composer Martin Suckling is premiering a new work based on The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse—“a fable in music”—with Aurora Orchestra on March 4. I wish I could go! If you go, please tell me how it was. I haven’t heard it yet! (Though I am a fan of Martin Suckling.)

THOSE TOUR DATES I TALKED ABOUT EARLIER

We'd love to see you.

Thursday March 16, 6PM
Brick & Mortar Books 
7430 164th Ave. NE. Ste. B105
Redmond, WA 98052
https://www.brickandmortarbooks.com/events/20230316

Friday March 17, 6:30PM
Village Books at Sehome High School
2700 Bill McDonald Pkwy
Bellingham, WA 98225
https://www.villagebooks.com/event/litlive-mac-barnett-christian-robinson-031723

Saturday 18, 2PM
B&N Bellevue
15600 NE 8th Street Suite F17
Bellevue, WA 98008
https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062154378-0

Sunday March 19, 2PM
Auntie’s Bookstore public event at Spokane Public Library
906 W Main Ave
Spokane, WA 99201
https://www.auntiesbooks.com/event/twenty-questions-mac-barnett-and-christian-robinson

Tuesday March 21, 4PM
King’s English public event @ The Neighborhood Hive
2065 East 2100 South
Salt Lake City UT 84109

Friday March 24, 6PM
Best of Books
1313 E Danforth Rd.
Edmond OK 73034
https://www.bestofbooksok.com/event/mac-barnett-christian-robinson-twenty-questions-signing

GOODBYE

Goodbye,
Mac

*My number-one favorite show I watched last year was old Sesame Street episodes, 1969 through ~1990, an unprecedented and probably unrepeatable run of American television excellence.

Sadly, if you live in or around Baltimore, you won’t be able to see us while we’re here. We’re mostly visiting schools on this book tour, and only doing a few public events. Here’s a list of them. We enjoy reading this book out loud and we’d love to meet you if you can make it.

Speaking of The Three Billy Goats Gruff: It hits shelves Tuesday, October 18. And that means Monday, October 17, is the last day you can preorder the book and get a poster with a giant goat on it for free. The whole deal is explained here. We like these posters a lot and think it’s cool Scholastic is doing this.

Signing off from Jon’s room, where we are watching TV that has that weird smoothing setting on and won’t let us adjust the picture. It looks terrible!

Mac

Hi everyone! It’s me, Mac Barnett. It’s been a little while. I’ve had three books come out since you heard from me last—The Great Zapfino, John’s Turn, and The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza. Sorry I’m just telling you about them now. In the future, I’ll strive to be more timely. And look, I’m already succeeding:

THE THREE BILLY GOATS POSTER PREORDER

On October 18, my seventh picture book with Jon Klassen comes out. It’s our retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the first in a series of fairy tale picture books I've been working on. Here is the cover:

Jon and I believe this book contains the biggest goat in the history of children’s literature. And that giant goat is the star of a poster that you can get, for free, when you preorder our book.

In the above image, two regular-sized goats are there for scale, if you want to know how big the big goat is. A pen is also there for scale, if you want to know how big the poster is. (The poster is 16.5” x 24”.) (The pen is 5”.) (The goat is humongous.)

Instructions on how to get your poster are at this site but basically:

1. Preorder a book.
2. Upload your receipt here.
3. The good folks at Scholastic will take care of the rest!

As always, I’d encourage you to purchase from your neighborhood bookshop.

The offer is good only for the USA and Canada, excluding Quebec (we didn’t make the rules!) but shhh here’s a secret: as long as the shipping address entered is in the USA or Canada (excluding Quebec [sorry!]), it’ll work. In the comments of this Instagram post, people have made some very lovely offers to act as proxies for posters. Maybe some beautiful global schemes will develop in the comments of this newsletter too?

Leave a comment

The image on the poster, by the way, is my favorite from the book. It’s one of my favorite pictures Jon’s ever made. As soon as he finished it, he texted it to me (sometimes Jon does this when he’s particularly excited about an illustration) and it was so beautiful I started crying. It’s such a tender moment, one that continues one of the main jokes in the book—the oldest goat is really gigantic—but that joke is subordinate to a blissful depiction of fraternal love. NICE WORK, JON!

THE PROCLAMATION TURNS 11

Eleven years ago I wrote a manifesto about picture books. Carson Ellis hand-lettered it. (She has a great Substack, Slowpoke.) Here it is:

I meant to do something last fall to commemorate the ten-year anniversary, but I didn’t figure anything out. Anyway, happy steel anniversary, Proclamation! It forever lives online, in an easily printable format, here). I love talking about this stuff—how picture books are made, sold, and discussed—so if you have any questions or thoughts, leave them in the comments and I’ll try to reply. Here, I’ll put that “Leave a comment button” in again.

Leave a comment

SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU DON’T LIVE IN NEW YORK, OR IF YOU DO LIVE IN NEW YORK BUT WON’T BE THERE THIS WEEKEND. ALTHOUGH, IF YOU DON’T LIVE IN NEW YORK BUT WILL BE THERE THIS WEEKEND, CONSIDER NOT SKIPPING THIS SECTION.

On Saturday, I’ll be at the Brooklyn Book Festival with Shawn Harris talking about The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza.

GOODBYE

All right! That’s all for now! I’ll be doing some live readings on Instagram soon, and there’s a book tour coming in October, but I’ll share that stuff once it firms up. Thanks for reading this.

Mac

TIME-SENSITIVE ZINE THING

On December 28, 2021 (what some people call “the biggest shopping day of the year,” incorrectly), my latest book came out: What Is Love?

I made it with Carson Ellis, whom I love as both an illustrator and a person. Carson and I have been wanting to work together for over a decade, and so, to celebrate, we made a zine.

It’s the transcript of a lively and freewheeling conversation with Jon Klassen, in which we discuss picture books, life, love, death, Kazuo Ishiguro, grandmas, infinity, and The Giving Tree. It’s beautifully printed and full of new illustrations by Carson.

The only way to get one is by ordering a copy of the book from one of the four bookshops below by February 14. Sorry for the short notice. I’m not timely when it comes to newsletters.

Green Bean Books
Blue Willow Bookshop
Copperfield’s Books
Brookline Booksmith

10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE PICTURE BOOK PROCLAMATION

Speaking of Carson! Ten years ago, frustrated at the picture book discourse, I wrote down some thoughts on how we can publish a better literature for kids. I asked a few writers and illustrators I admired to sign it. Carson Ellis lettered it. We took out an ad in the Horn Book Magazine and put it up online. Ten years. Wow.

(Actually it was ten years last October, but, again, I’m not very timely with these newsletters.)

THE CRUMBS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE NEWSLETTER

• I reviewed some new picture books for the New York Times and thought, “This is the kind of thing that might be good to include in my newsletter.” That was a couple of months ago (the whole timeliness thing), but still.

• I enjoyed reading this collection of essays, and if you like thinking about children’s books, you might enjoy it too.

  

• If you want to sign up for another occasional newsletter, Shawn Harris and I started a Fan Club Letter for The First Cat in Space, our Live Cartoon, which is soon to be a graphic novel.

• A lot of links in that last “crumb.” Too many? Yeah, probably.

Thanks for reading this. It means a lot that you signed up, especially because I find sending people emails somewhat mortifying.

Mac

To everyone else, here we go!

THE POLAR BEAR PREORDER POWER PACK

On October 13, my next picture book will come out, made with my oldest friend, Shawn Harris. We’re doing a special preorder thing with Copperfield’s Books. (If you’ve been watching Mac’s Book Club Show, you know Shawn. If you have no idea what Mac’s Book Club Show is, I talk about it later in this newsletter!)

Order before 10/13/2020, and you’ll get

• A book signed by me and Shawn!

• A sew-on polar bear patch (designed by Shawn)!

• A signed poster!

• A letter on official Book Club letterhead!

Residents of the USA/Canada can order here. If you’re outside the USA/Canada, please send an email to petaluma@copperbook.com to figure out shipping and everything.

Shawn and I are very excited that we finally have a book coming out together. Look how long we’ve been friends!

MAC’S BOOK CLUB SHOW

Every week on Instagram, I read a different one of my picture books out loud.

It’s called Mac’s Book Club Show. I’ve been doing it since March 15 (back then it was daily). Read more in such august cultural organs as Publishers Weekly, The Times of London, and even the The Economist, wherein you will learn that my stats pale in comparison to something called David Walliams’s “Elevenses,” which, after several google searches and a visit to David Walliams’s website, I still don’t really understand what that is. His site is very yellow though!

We’ve had 73 Book Club Meetings so far. Please join us this Saturday for Meeting 74, when we’ll be reading Battle Bunny. Episodes stay up on Instagram for about a week before they’re deleted. Hats are optional, but encouraged.

THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE ATE PIZZA

Every Saturday for twelve weeks, as part of Mac’s Book Club Show, Shawn Harris (see above) and I presented a new Live Cartoon, an art form we invented. The result is a 12-part space opera, The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza. Each episode was filmed on a Zoom call, with Shawn animating his drawings in real time while we both did the voices. It’s hard to explain. You should just check ’em out. The whole thing is up on YouTube, and I’m as proud of it as anything I’ve ever worked on.

And if you’re reading this letter thinking, “I could sure use another newsletter!” I’ve got great news: The First Club in Space is where we keep everyone up-to-date on First Cat goings-on. In our next dispatch, we’ll be sending a kit that’ll help you make your own Live Cartoons. Plus Shawn is giving away some original art from the show to ten lucky subscribers.

THE CRUMBS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE NEWSLETTER

• I shared some thoughts on Frog & Toad for a piece in Slate (and there are a bunch of great authors and illustrators sharing their thoughts too).

• A little video about A Polar Bear in the Snow.

• Feels like there should be a third thing here but I couldn’t think of anything.

OK, that’s all for now. Since we’re all newsletter friends here, I will tell you that I find email mortifying, so there won’t be a lot of these newsletters, although they probably will come out more frequently than the current rate of one every ten years. Thanks for reading to the bottom!

Mac

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