This March I'll be speaking at the Michigan Reading Association's annual conference. I'll be leading a break-out session called Telling a Good Story with Words and Pictures on March 13, at 3PM. I am looking forward to meeting some literacy educators!

When I visit schools I talk about different things I consider when I am making an  illustration (composition). I have a new way of explaining some of these compositional components that I am excited to demonstrate in my session. I will also have a fun segment on how tension in a story makes us want to know what will happen next.

The pig here, does not have anything to do with the MRA conference, but I think she would probably enjoy it. Her name is Lola, well named by my wife's aunt, for whom drawing was made.

Here are a few more places where Shapes has showed up this year:
- The Chicago Public Library listed it as a Best Board Book of 2020.
- Reading Rockets put it on their Holiday Buying Guide 2020. 
- The School Library Journal blog A Fuse 8 Production listed it on a 2020 recommended board book list.
- And the Youth Services Book Review recommended it, calling it, "cute, stylish and original." Something no one has ever said about me, but I am glad they think that of my book.

Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!

In the last post I mentioned my forthcoming chat with Nanny Miss Monique - it was a lot of fun! Check it out on Instagram @nannymissmonique.

In other good news, I have found a way to easily mix natural peanut butter. I really like the kind of peanut butter that is just ground peanuts and salt, but the one downside to this kind of peanut butter is that the oil rises to the top of the jar, so you have to mix it before you can use it and that is really messy. But if you turn the jar upside down on the shelf, gravity does the mixing for you, without the mess! Yes!

It is really sweet to have a book in the Baby - Age 2 category. Those are the readers who don't just flip through a book, but really take their time with a book - they really chew on it! It is also really sweet to see This Is a Book of Shapes listed on Amazon as a Best Book of September in that category!

And here is what the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books said about This Is a Book of Shapes:
Concept books come with expectations, and everybody knows them. Mastering basic shapes is a key element for preschool readiness, and everybody knows that. Kraegel breaks, most delightfully, from the program, throwing his audience off balance with one change-up and then another, until this rudimentary lesson is so swamped with giggles that tykes might forget they’re learning.

The emus with the triangles is from the coloring page that you can download here.

Wild Honey from the Moon received an Honorable Mention at the New England Book Show! At the NEBS, the Bookbuilders of Boston select titles for their design, quality of materials, and workmanship. Kudos to Pam Consolazio, the designer of Wild Honey from the Moon (and most other books of mine) and the rest of the production team at Candlewick for crafting such great books and being so great to work with!

I have just put up a new coloring page. The black and white rhino is how he appears on the coloring sheet and the colored-in rhino is how it appears in This is a Book of Shapes (coming September 8, 2020). Download it and many other coloring pages here. 

Wild Honey from the Moon received a gold award from the Parent's Choice Foundation!