Candlewick Lights Up My Life

I saw our Candlewick rep this morning, and they have some beauties coming for the winter.

Easily my top choice is The Magic Rabbit by Annette LeBlanc Cate. A picture book of a magician's bunny assistant who becomes lost in the city, the drawings are wonderful and the story is sigh-inducing sweet (but not at all treacly). Though never mentioned by name, I'm pretty sure Boston was the inspiration for the setting (Ms. Cate graduated from the Art Institute of Boston and lives in Massachusetts), which is the icing on the cake.

I usually don't care much for most Christmas titles, with all the corniness and cheesiness that accompanies them, but Candlewick is publishing the most stunning version of The Night Before Christmas. It is illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat through silhouettes and die-cuts; the detail is tremendously intricate. This is a serious class act--elegant, sophisticated, beautiful.

And Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare are back! Yippee! Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram have done two companion board books to Guess How Much I Love You; When I'm Big, and Colors Everywhere. The first takes place in the spring as the Nutbrown Hares see acorns, tadpoles and caterpillars that will all grow and change. The second is in the summer, as Big and Little Nutbrown Hares decide what in nature provides their favorite shades of blue, green, yellow, and (of course!) brown. I'm really, really hoping this means there will be two more--one for fall and one for winter. And then it will be perfect. But I don't want any more after that--I am heartily against too much of a good thing, or stories that are published for no other reason than to have something else for people to buy.

I could keep going and going about other great titles that are coming....
When Alie and I were dividing up who would buy from which publishers she asked me if I had any special requests, and there was just one--Candlewick!