Maisy™ is coming to The Carle Museum and she’s bringing a special friend!
Join us at The Carle this Saturday, September 15th, as we celebrate Maisy and her creator, Lucy Cousins. Meet both Artist and Mouse in a day filled with activities and fun including storytimes, art activities and the opportunity to assist Lucy Cousins in creating a “Maisy wall frieze” in our Art Studio. Take a picture with your favorite mouse, have a book signed by Lucy Cousins, see original Maisy artwork in our gallery and take home a gift from Maisy as a way to remember this special day.
Photo by Candlewick Press
Here’s the plan for the day:
10:15 – 10:30 Meet Maisy the Mouse
10:30 – 10:50 Special Maisy storytime in the Reading Library with Carle staff
11:00 – 12:00 Lucy Cousins in the Art Studio
1:00 – 1:20 Special Maisy storytime in the Reading Library with Carle staff
1:20 – 1:30 Meet Maisy the Mouse
1:30 – 3:30 Lucy Cousins book signing
Can’t make it to The Carle? We don’t want you to miss out on a signed book! Order your favorite Lucy Cousins books and we’ll ship them to you, autographed, after the event. Click here to shop online or call us at 413-658-1132.
Support for Our British Cousins: The Magical Art of Maisy & Friends has been generously provided by Candlewick Press.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
10:30 am – 11:30 am, Auditorium
Free with Museum Admission
Join us this Saturday for a premier screening of new Mo Willems films: Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion and Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct.
Mo Willems will be here to answer questions after the screening and sign books. Please note that seating is limited in Auditorium. Check out Mo’s blog to read more about this event.
Can’t make it to The Carle? Fear not! Pre-order autographed copies before Saturday, July 21, 2012 and we’ll ship them to you after the event. Click here to shop for Mo Willems’ books and toys.
Please note: Mo Willems will not autograph board books or toys.If you’re coming to The Carle for the event, please only one book from home (you can buy as many as you like from our Shop) to have signed. Hope to see you Saturday!
Put on your costume and don’t forget your dancing shoes! This Saturday we’re movin’ and groovin’ to the Deedle Deedle Dees and then dancing up a storm with Jarret J. Krosoczka!
http://thedeedledeedledees.com/
Come see the Deedle Deedle Dees, an educational rock band based in Brooklyn, NY, in our Auditorium at 1:00 pm this Saturday, October 29th. Come dressed as anyone from a Deedle Deedle Dee song and receive a special prize! Click here for song lyrics. Tickets are $6 at the door (cash only, please!) and do not include Museum admission.
Then, join author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka as he celebrates his newest book, Ollie the Purple Elephant. Jarrett will read from his books, including one of our favorite Halloween books, Annie was Warned, for a special storytime in our Reading Library at 2pm. Afterward Jarrett with give a drawing demonstration and talk about his creative process. Ollie is Jarrett’s 10th picture book in 10 years and we’re in the mood to celebrate! So we’ll move from the Reading Library to the Cafe for some sweet treats, a book signing and an Ollie-inspired dance party! Want to test drive your Halloween costume before the big night? Come dressed up and be prepared to dance! It’s going to be lots of fun. Storytime and dance party free with Museum admission.
Pick up Jarrett’s books in our Shop or order online for autographed copies to get shipped to you!
Watch Jarrett on Mass Appeal talking about this great event!
I’m invited to a party! You’re invited to a party! A very Mo Willems party!
Can you tell we’re excited that Mo Willems is coming to The Carle? We’re even more excited to announce that a brand-new piece of Mo Willems artwork is coming to live at The Carle. On October 1st, join us and Mo Willems for the installation of his first life-sized sculpture right in our museum courtyard on. Like our favorite friend, Gerald, the sculpture will be an elephant, but this elephant is going to BIG. I mean 5 feet high, 14 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 1,500-pound BIG. And red. I have a feeling you won’t be able to miss it.
We’re going to be celebrating ALL day Saturday, October 1st. Here’s the schedule:
11:30 am — Sculpture installation outside on the terrace 1:00 pm — Presentation and slide show about the sculpture with Mo Willems and fabricator Sam Ostroff in the Auditorium 2:00 pm — Book signing (yay!) with Mo Willems outside the Shop
For more about the sculpture, here’s a great preview video from ABC news:
Check out Mo’s blog for a glimpse into his process of designing metal sculptures. I love seeing how the design for The Red Elephant has really come along! So get ready to party with us on Saturday! Click here to browse all of our Mo Willems’ books, toys and t-shirts for sale in our Shop. See you Saturday!
Are you as excited as we are for Eric Carle’s new book? It’s called The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse and it’s lovely! I got a sneak peak at a galley earlier this summer and I know you all will love it! Not only is it true to Eric’s bright and colorful collage style, but it is also a truly inspirational book.
When Eric Carle was a young boy in World War II Germany, his art teacher secretly showed him works by Nazi-banned expressionist artists like Franz Marc. These artists made an enormous impact on Eric’s life and inspired his own art. This new book is, in a way, a tribute to Franz Marc. It’s a book about true creativity, each paged filled with its own wildly colored animal, such as a blue horse, a yellow cow or a polka-dotted donkey. The artist in the book paints the world as he sees it, even if it may be different from how you or I see it.
Every child has an artist inside of him and this book is not only beautiful and entertaining, it also will make a wonderful teaching tool. Educators can launch into lessons on expressionist art using the informative back matter of the book. Readers can even compare Eric Carle’s blue horse and yellow cow to the reproductions in the back of Franz Marc’s original works. Educators can also use the book to let students explore the artist within themselves, perhaps choosing another artist to which they can create their own mini picture book homage.
We’re so excited to share this new book with our Museum friends, that we simply can’t wait until it’s release date of October 4th! So we’re inviting you to come to The Carle on Sunday, September 25th at 1:00 pm to purchase a copy (or three!) of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse to get signed personally by Eric Carle. To celebrate the launch of his new book, not only will Eric Carle be at the Museum to sign copies of the book for fans, but we’ll also have original art from the book on display in our West Gallery. You can be the very first out of everyone to get your hands on an AUTOGRAPHED copy of Eric Carle’s new book AND be able to see the original art! How crazy is that? We’ll also be showing the new video, Eric Carle: Picture Writer, The Art of Books in our Auditorium and have Blue Horse art activities in our Art Studio, so it’s going to be a really great day. More information, including signing guidelines (no personalization, no flash photography, etc) can be found on our website here.
If you would like to reserve your copies of the book, you can place your order online here (limit three per person) and come pick it up in the Shop ahead of time to avoid the lines on Sunday, September 25th. Please note that you must be present September 25th to get your early copy of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. No copies can be shipped before the official release date of October 4th.
If you can’t make it to The Carle on September 25th but would still like to reserve a copy (unsigned only) of the book, you can place your pre-order here. Books will ship after October 4th.
I really hope all of you can make it here to meet Eric Carle and celebrate this new book’s launch with us. It’s going to be an amazing day!
It’s the day all Eric Carle fans wait for! Every summer, Eric Carle returns to The Carle Museum to do a book signing. It’s always a fantastic day, with fans coming in from all over the country. Families on summer vacation, dedicated school teachers making a pilgrimage, and our loyal members all come together to meet the amazing man behind their favorite picture books.
This year’s book signing will be held this Saturday, July 16th. Members get in early at 9:00 am (you can join online today or even join tomorrow morning to hop into the early line!) and the general public will be let in at 10:00 am.
As you can see from a previous year, the line starts outside even before we open, so if you’re planning on attending, get here early to guarantee yourself a spot! There will be free cider donuts and lemonade provided by Atkins Farm for a little refreshment, as supplies last.
We’re stocking up today in the Shop, so come on by early to buy your books to get signed by Eric Carle or stop in tomorrow. To keep the lines moving quickly, we’re limiting the number of books to just 3 books per person (you can bring one from home if you have a special copy you want signed). We’d all love to get more than three books signed by Eric Carle, but we’d hate to tire him out before he got the chance to meet everyone, so for every additional hardcover that you buy (over your three person limit), the Shop will give you a free pre-signed Eric Carle bookplate.
What’s a bookplate? Click here for this and other frequently asked questions about this special day.
We’re stocking up today in the Shop, so come on by early to buy your books today and hang on to your receipt, or stop in tomorrow before jumping in line. We have every book in print by Eric Carle (in every kind of format available – hardcover, paperback, board book, you name it!) as well as toys and games and Eric Carle souvenirs (even bandaids!) that would make this a special trip that you and your kids will always remember.
For more information, including all the guidelines about the day that will make it a smooth, stress-free trip, check out our website here. Hope to see you all tomorrow!
We are incredibly honored and excited to announce that Tomi Ungerer will be attending the opening of his exhibition, Tomi Ungerer: Chronicler of the Absurd, here at The Carle this weekend. We kick off the opening weekend with an intimate Member reception the evening of Saturday, June 18th, with a presentation by guest curator and children’s literature scholar, Michael Patrick Hearn, to be followed Sunday afternoon by a personal gallery tour with Ungerer and a book signing outside our Shop.
This is truly a special event as Tomi Ungerer is coming overseas for his first trip back to the United States in many years and will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many to meet this world-renowned artist. As our director Alix Kennedy points out in the introduction to the exhibition catalog for the show, Ungerer’s American publisher Phaidon Press has cheekily called him, “the most famous children’s book author you have never heard of.” While Ungerer’s picture books were extremely popular in the United States during the 1960′s and Ungerer was a well known graphic artist in New York City, his work is not as well known to the younger American generations. Ungerer, winner of the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen award, is still very well known and loved in Europe, with his own museum in his hometown of Strasbourg, France. Together with Phaidon’s republication of many of Ungerer’s out-of-print titles, this exhibition will most certainly inspire new and old fans here at The Carle.
For this exhibition, we’ve picked up everything in print we could get our hands on to sell in our bookstore. This includes all in-print English editions, as well as rare titles in German and French that are still unavailable (or never even published!) in the United States. Click here to browse our selection.
What I love about Ungerer’s work is the respect he gives his child audiences. Words and stories are not watered down. Why use the name tree, when you can say willow? Why say gun, when you can call it a blunderbuss? His well-known picture book characters are not fluffy bunnies, but a boa constrictor, an octopus, a vulture, and a bat, and he makes them lovable, endearing and funny. Ungerer understands that childhood isn’t always rosy and innocent. “Children have to be faced with the absurd,” he says, “because the world is absurd.” Here’s a great video by Phaidon Press of Ungerer talking about this:
Ungerer’s absurd and satirical art often went unappreciated or misunderstood in the United States. In the 70′s he began creating anti-Vietnam War posters and exploring erotic art, causing the children’s book audience to question and even stop buying his work. Ungerer left New York for Canada and then Ireland, where he now lives. For more information, visit Tomi Ungerer’s website (even follow him on Twitter!) or read this recent Q & A over at Publisher’s Weekly or this interview from The New York Times. I’m also excited for the upcoming documentary about Tomi Ungerer, Far Out Isn’t Far Enough, from Fools Day Productions. You can watch a trailer for it here.
In his essay in the exhibition catalog, curator Michael Patrick Hearn says of Ungerer, “one either loves his work or hates it. There is no middle ground.” I, for one, love Ungerer’s work and I think you will too. Hope to see you some time this weekend! And, as always, if you can’t make it to The Carle, order your books online here (include a note in the Customer Note section if you’d like it autographed) and we’ll ship them to you after the weekend.
This Sunday, April 17th, we are so excited to have world renowned author and artist Etienne Delessert back at The Carle for a day full of presentations, gallery tours and book signings. As you may already know, Delessert’s artwork is currently on exhibition in our East Gallery in What A Circus! The Art of Etienne Delessert. This Sunday at 12:00 pm in our Auditorium, Etienne Delessert will share his thoughts, both practical and philosophical, on drawing, painting, storytelling, and the world of picture books in a presentation titled Themes, Theories, and the Art of the Picture Book. Delessert will talk about the how and why of the images he creates and the audiences for which they are intended and then at 2:00 pm guide a personal tour of his exhibition, followed by a book signing outside our Shop. You can take a look at all of Delessert’s books, including the show’s beautiful exhibition catalog, as well as postcards and posters in our Shop online.
To make it even easier for our far (but-not-too-far) away friends in New York City to attend, we are offering a FREE chartered bus from the city to our beautiful countryside in Amherst, MA. Not only is it a wonderful opportunity to escape the city and see some trees and cows and amazing artwork, but we’re also offering passengers free admission for the day to the museum. (We do ask for you to bring your own lunch). The bus leaves promptly at 8:00 am from Parsons The New School of Design at 66 5th Avenue and will return by 8:00 pm. The free bus and admission is sponsored generously by the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York.
It’s going to be a wonderful day at The Carle, wherever you may be joining us from, but if you’re in New York City and would like to catch a ride on the bus, make sure to call and reserve your seat by Friday, since space is limited. Click here for a pdf with the event and reservation information. For a wonderful interview with Etienne Delessert and images of his amazing and colorful artwork, visit Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Hope to see you all Sunday!
It’s really hard to believe that children’s book legends Katherine Paterson and Michael Rosen will both be at The Carle, together, presenting at our annual Eductator’s Night, but it’s true! This Wednesday, November 10, 2010 from 4:00-6:00 pm in our Auditorium. Excuse me while I gush, but the chance to meet such amazing authors is a dream come true for me!
I grew up reading so many of Katherine Paterson’s books and I was particularly captivated by her book Lyddie (which spurred a trip to the Lowell mills where I got to try my hand at weaving cloth and pretend I was Lyddie. I was a total historical fiction buff as a kid). Keeping up with our tradition of hosting the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature (Jon Sceiszka graced us with his medal-wearing presence two years ago), Katherine Paterson will be talking about her own journey through publishing and discuss the importance of reading.
But that’s not all! Oh no. No, no, no. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Michael Rosen, the former Children’s Laureate of the United Kingdom, is flying all the way across the pond to join Katherine. Most Americans know Michael through his popular version of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. Michael is a master of rhythm and poetry and his books make wonderful read-alouds. Here’s a great video I found of Michael reciting We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
He’s a true natural story teller and, I hear, hysterically funny in person as well!
The event is free, as part of our annual Educator’s Night (click here for more info) and so it’s no surprise that it is already sold out. (Call 413-658-1126 to be put on a waiting list).
But even if you can’t attend, we’d still love to send you a signed book. We’re accepting pre-orders online until Tuesday November 9, 2010 for autographed copies of any of Katherine Paterson or Michael Rosen’s books. Place your order now and we’ll get them signed by the authors and shipped to you after the event on Wednesday. And be sure to check out the other amazing authors who’ll be coming to The Carle in November in our new “To Be Autographed” section on our Shop website.
It’s Fire Prevention Week! Held annually in October since 1922, Fire Prevention Week commemorates the infamous Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and aims to teach the importance of fire safety.
This Sunday, October 3rd from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, come learn about fire prevention at The Carle from a real firefighter! Our local fire department will be on hand with activities, information, and oh yes, a fire truck.
If that’s not exciting enough, at 2:00 pm we have a special story time with local authors Paul DuBois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender. Drawing from their backgrounds in education, music, poetry and art, they will be sharing their newest picture book Fire Drill. They’ll be joined by illustrator Huy Voun Lee who’s bringing a special firefighter themed art activity for the audience. And don’t miss the chance to get all three to sign your copy of Fire Drill after the presentation!
Looking for more picture book reads featuring firefighters or firetrucks during Fire Prevention Week?
Try two of my favorites:
Fire Truck by Peter Sis: A little boy obsessed with fire engines lets his imagination really go wild. I don’t know about you, but I definitely, know a little kid or two who feel this passionate about fire trucks.
A Fire Engine for Ruthie by Leslea Newman, illustrated by Cyd Moore: Ruthie’s Nana is having trouble realizing that Ruthie doesn’t want to play with dolls and tea parties…she wants to play Fire Engine! As once a little girl whose favorite toy was a miniature car carrier, I love a book that turns the “boys play with trucks, girls play with dolls” mentality on its head.
I’ll bet you have a few fire truck books in your collection at home. Tell us some of your favorites in the comments below!
It’s really hard to believe that children’s book legends 
