I’ve moved to the children’s room! When I first began working at Lemuria over three years ago, I started out in the fiction room. A bit later, I was moved into the main room where I have stayed for quite some time. Now, I am beginning an entirely new journey into the children’s department, known as Oz, and I am loving it! I really enjoy getting to know this last frontier and I am amazed at how much the world of children’s books has changed since I was reading to my own children.
Emily has created a wonderful atmosphere in Oz and I am drop-jawed at all she has going on in this one fairly small room. She has truly ushered in a new era and if it has been awhile since you visited Oz, come on in and we can learn it together.
We have a signing coming up with a special children’s author and artist, Alex Beard. Emily sent me home with his books so I could study up. First off, he and Emily were made for each other. He exudes energy and a grand love and enjoyment of children and loves hands on interaction. In addition to his reading and signing at Lemuria, she is taking him to several schools in Jackson for a wonderful time of “playing.”
His first book came out in 2009 and is entitled The Jungle Grapevine. It is a great take on that old game, “Gossip” where someone whispers a phrase into another ear and it is then passed all around the circle until it comes back to the beginning and said out loud to see how close it remained to the original phrase! In this book, all sorts of things get misheard and miscommunicated much to the dismay and delight of all involved.
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In his latest book, Monkey See Monkey Draw the charming story is filled with monkeys and elephants etc all playing quite happily until a ball rolls into a dark cave that the monkeys have always been too afraid to enter. Elephant isn’t afraid so he walks right in and discovers all sorts of wonderful pictures of animals drawn on the walls, all made from footprints and handprints!” It’s a great story about fear and exploration.
Both of these books are based in Africa where Beard himself has been a frequent traveler. His many journeys there have obviously affected his work both as a writer and as an artist. In reading up on him, I found this:
“Beard was born in 1970. His father was a philanthropist. His mother, Patricia Beard, was an author and former editor for Town & Country, Elle, and Mirabella magazines. He is the nephew of photographer Peter Beard. As a teenager, he was able to travel parts of the world like Panama, Africa, China, India, and Belize. Alex grew up among some of the world’s most interesting and influential people — Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, and their Pop World cohorts were familiar faces in the Beard household.”
Beard divides his time between New York and New Orleans where he has a gallery in the French Quarter. He is married with two children.
He is a part of a new breed of children’s writer–young, talented and with a huge respect for children but a desire to also broaden and educate through his writings and art. He sounds like so much fun, I can’t wait to meet him!
Alex Beard will be at Lemuria on Tuesday, April 12th. Bring your little ones! The reading for young and old will begin shortly after 4:oo with a book signing to follow.
Monkey See Monkey Draw is our April Oz First Editions Club Selection. (Read more about OZ FEC here.)
Click here if you would like to reserve a signed first edition of Monkey See Monkey Draw.
We also have a small number of first editions of The Jungle Grapevine. Click here if you would like to reserve a copy.
More of Alex Beard’s paintings can be viewed at The Alex Beard Studio.
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