When I moved to Evanston, Illinois I had a whole new landscape of authors and illustrators to explore.  It is often said that more authors and illustrators of children’s books live in NYC (specifically Brooklyn) than anywhere else in the country.  I have little doubt that this is probably true, but take a gander at enough bookflaps and biographic summaries and you’ll be quick to realize that we live in a great big country with creative types lurking pretty much everywhere.  Case in point, Sherri Duskey Rinker.  With my move to the Chicago area I discovered that there is an odd concentration here of bestselling picture book creators.  Ms. Rinker is probably best known for her book Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site (and this year’s even better and gender inclusive Mighty Mighty Construction Site).  She’s now one of my locals, so when I was approached to do the cover reveal of her newest picture book pairint with Matt Myers, you can bet I jumped at the chance.

Matt Myers, by the way, is a man gets more and more interesting with every book he does. Do you remember that madcap Battle Bunny that Mac Barnett and Jon Scieszka thrust upon the world a couple of years ago?  Matt was the evil genius behind that art.  He’s done loads of other books as well, of course, and now he’s been put together with Ms. Rinker like they’re some kind of two-person picture book supergroup (can you have a supergroup of two? Discuss).

It is with great pleasure that I present you today with . . .

You know who I really like in that picture?  That snail.  There’s something going on with that guy.

Not that the tiny dog isn’t adorable as well.

Many thanks to the good folks at Scholastic for the reveal.