# data[].attributes.body
This padlet is for Librarian/Teacher use only. Please make your own copy to share with students or create a slideshow for student use (template provided below)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Laura Gehl is the award-winning author of nearly two dozen popular picture books, board books, and early readers for children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Written by Five-Time Grammy Winner Roberta Flack with Tonya Bolden and illustrated by Hayden Goodman

[From the Dust Jacket]

Little Roberta Flack didn't have much, but she had what was important: a family rich with love. And she had a dream-to live a life filled with music.

When her daddy finds a beat-up piano in a junkyard, brings it home, and paints it a grassy green, Roberta is overjoyed!

If she practices . . . and practices . . . and practices, will her dream come true?

Ages 4 and up | 40 pages
Hardcover | Anne Schwartz Books (An imprint of Penguin Random House) | 2023 | ISBN 9780593479872

"The Green Piano" Reviews ...

The titular piano, rescued from a junkyard for the 9-year-old prodigy, serves as a memorable central image, but the memoir the renowned singer and co-author Bolden weave around it is really about the joys of growing up in a musical family and turning musical dreams into reality through years of listening, practice, and study. . . . A moving testimonial to the effects of instilling a love of live music in childhood. -Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"With Coretta Scott King Author honoree Bolden, Flack describes her formative years in this lovely, affirming picture-book biography" -Booklist

"[I]t's written and illustrated for young kids, but the testimony is ageless: Music can change lives.-Neil's Entertainment Picks (January 8th 2023)

"A warm, soulful picture book autobiography about a living legend that will inspire burgeoning artists to pursue their dreams no matter their circumstances." -School Library Journal, starred review

"Focusing on childhood dreams realized through persistence and effort, Flack and Bolden employ spare, matter-of-fact verse to share the story of this initial piano and the hope it represented." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The Green Piano" Features ...

Publishers Weekly "Singer Roberta Flack Makes Children's Book Debut" by Matt Broaddus

NPR's All Things Considered (Broadcast) 1/12/23 "Roberta Flack's first piano came from a junkyard - five Grammys would follow" by Elizabeth Blair

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An overview of "The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music" by Roberta Flack with Tonya Bolden and illustrated by Hayden Goodman

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hayden Goodman is an African-American painter, editorial illustrator, and children's book illustrator born and raised in the woods of Western Massachusetts. She works primarily in gouache, painting witches, fairies, goblins and other mysterious creatures from mythology and folklore. Previously, Hayden has worked as a character artist at Titmouse Inc. ILLUSTRATED BOOKS "The Green Piano"UPCOMING WORK Hayden is currently illustrating "Masquerade for Grandpa," by Ana Otaru, set for release from Atheneum in fall 2023, as well as "Fangs, Feathers, and Folklore" a middle grade field guide to mythological African beasts, written by B. Sharise Moore and set for release from Algonquin Young Readers in fall 2023. SELECT CLIENTS & PUBLICATIONS Penguin Random House | Simon & Schuster | Algonquin Young Readers The New Yorker | The New York Times | Guggenheim Museum | MIT CONTACT & SOCIAL MEDIA Hayden Goodman is represented by Jessica Saint Jean at For all other freelance inquiries, contact haydengoodman@gmail.com or find her on all social media at @haydenbadman Jill Grinberg Literary Management. For book inquiries, please contact her agent at jessica@jillgrinbergliterary.com by Grammy Award-winner Roberta Flack & Tonya Bolden | 2023

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hayden Goodman is an African-American painter, editorial illustrator, and children's book illustrator born and raised in the woods of Western Massachusetts. She works primarily in gouache, painting witches, fairies, goblins and other mysterious creatures from mythology and folklore. Previously, Hayden has worked as a character artist at Titmouse Inc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Website copyright 2005- Candace Fleming. All rights reserved. Privacy policy. Site designed by Winding Oak.
Materials on this website may be copied for classroom or library use but may not be reprinted or resold for commercial purposes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
fabled fourth graders of aesop elementary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
fabled fifth graders of aesop elementary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Website copyright 2005- Candace Fleming. All rights reserved. Privacy policy. Site designed by Winding Oak. Materials on this website may be copied for classroom or library use but may not be reprinted or resold for commercial purposes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amy Hevron is an illustrator, graphic designer and children's book author. This site includes her illustration portfolio, online shop, and her creative blog.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Christina Soontornvat is an award-winning, best-selling author of picture books, graphic novels, fantasy, nonfiction for kids of all ages.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fun stuff for kids from author Christina Soontornvat - a collection of videos, book trailers, and behind the scenes info...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Picture Book Author-Illustrator Abi Cushman | Children's Book Illustration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Abi Cushman is an author-illustrator from the Connecticut shoreline. Her stories and pictures feature waterlogged bears and skydiving hippos.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2023-2024 COCBA Scoring Packet Grades  2/3

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New Picture Book ‘The Umbrella’ Honors Amy Krouse Rosenthal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld’s new collaboration, ‘The Umbrella,’ a picture book about bringing sunshine to a dreary world, is dedicated to the late children’s author Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

# data[].attributes.headline
Interview with Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld

# data[].attributes.subject
Interview with Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld

# data[].attributes.body
An interview with both Tom and his author partner, Beth Ferry.  It starts about the book "Stick and Stone Best Friends Forever," which they released just previous to "The Umbrella," ; the part about "The Umbrella starts 19 minutes in.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Author & Illustrator Spotlight: Beth Ferry & Tom Lichtenheld

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Happy Wednesday and welcome to Picture Book Spotlight! What a WHIRLWIND of a week. Thank you all again for making the launch of The Book of Rules so much fun! And many congrats to our Book of Rules raffle winners: Vanessa Flores, Jessica Shaw, Andrew Hacket, Tina Lusby, and Katie Brandyberry! Enjoy…

# data[].attributes.body
Roberta Flack's first piano came from a junkyard – five Grammys would follow

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At 85, Roberta Flack is still telling stories. For some five decades, Flack captivated audiences around the world with her soulful, intimate voice. She won five Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award, and inspired generations of musicians including Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys. But the musician can no longer sing or speak; in November, she announced she has ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a neurological disease.

Recently, Flack teamed up with writer Tonya Bolden and illustrator Hayden Goodman to publish a book for children: The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music.

Green might not have been her color of choice, according to her longtime manager, but 9-year-old Roberta was thrilled with her first piano. She'd been dreaming of having one of her very own since she was four.
"Dreamed of my own piano when I tap-tap-tapped out tunes on tabletops, windowsills."
All that tapping took place in Flack's childhood home in Asheville, N.C. Her parents were musical - dad played piano and harmonica; mom played organ and piano in church. They could see that little Roberta had promise as a musician.
"At age three, maybe four, there was me at the keys of that church piano picking out hymns we would sing like Precious Lord, Take My Hand."
Later the family moved to Arlington, Va.

One day, when Roberta's dad was walking home from work, he spotted an "old, ratty, beat-up, weather-worn, faded" upright piano in a junkyard.

"And he asked the junkyard owner 'Can I have it?' And the man let him have it," says Flack's co-writer, Tonya Bolden. "He got it home and he and his wife cleaned it and tuned and painted it a beautiful grassy green."

Young Roberta was so excited she " couldn't wait for the paint to dry."

Because of her ALS, Flack was unable to be interviewed for this story.

Bolden says it was important to the singer that The Green Piano give credit to the people who helped her along the way, starting with her parents.

"They were extraordinary, ordinary people," says Bolden, "At one point her father was a cook. Another time, a waiter. One time the mother was a maid, and later a baker. .. Later, her father became a builder. But they were people of humble means. They were people of music."

In the book we learn that classical was Roberta Flack's first love, something she talked about with NPR in 2012: "My real ambition was to be a concert pianist and to play Schumann and Bach and Chopin - the Romantics. Those were my guys," she told NPR's Scott Simon.

When she was just 15 years old, Flack received a full music scholarship to Howard University. In the early 1960s, she was teaching in public schools by day and moonlighting as a singer and pianist by night. But by the end of the decade, she had to quit the classroom. Her soulful, intimate recordings were selling millions of albums around the world. With international touring and recording, music became a full-time career.

"She's just always been a teacher, a healer, a comforter," says pianist Davell Crawford. Flack mentored the New Orleans' artist and helped him get settled in New York when Hurricane Katrina forced him to leave his home.

He says Flack has always been interested in inspiring kids, particularly young Black girls.

"She had a way out with music. She had a way out with education," says Crawford, "I know she wanted other kids and other children to have ways out. She wanted them to be skilled in the arts. She wanted them to find an education."

Roberta Flack has wanted to write a children's book for some 20 years, says Suzanne Koga, her longtime manager. She says the singer loves teaching almost as much as she loves music.

"She always wanted to help kids the way that she was helped herself," says Koga, "and part of that was to write a book and share with them her experience. Who would ever think that a person like Roberta Flack would have found her voice in a junkyard piano that her father painted green?"

In the author's note at the end of her new children's book, Flack tells young readers to "Find your own 'green piano' and practice relentlessly until you find your voice, and a way to put that beautiful music into the world."
The young readers in the audio version of our story on The Green Piano were Leeha Pham and Naiella Gnegbo. The audio and web versions were edited by Rose Friedman. The audio story was produced by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Roberta Flack's first piano came from a junkyard - five Grammys would follow

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music recounts the story of Flack's father finding her a beat-up, old, upright in a junkyard - a treasure that led to a life in music.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hello, Abi Cushman! Welcome back to Watch. Connect. Read. I read Wombats Are Pretty Weird in the middle of a restaurant on a rainy fall eve...

# data[].attributes.headline
Interview with Abi Cushman by Tammi Sauer...and early sketches of her work

# data[].attributes.subject
Interview with Abi Cushman by Tammi Sauer...and early sketches of her work

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hello, Picture Book Builders people!

If you have ever attended one of my presentations at a school or conference, you have probably heard me say, "Celebrate the weird stuff in life. It's good material for stories."

Sometimes I even post about it online. Evidence.

Imagine my joy when Abi Cushman comes along with this perfectly weird book.

I am so excited to welcome Abi to chat with us about Wombats are Pretty Weird. This book is so weird and wonderful, and we need to know more, right?!

Tammi: Abi, first you had me at the word 'weird'. THEN you came along and provided such a fabulous opening spread. Having a snake positioned right below the words "Meet the wombat." is ridiculously funny and only showing part of a wombat near the description of a wombat being elusive is, well, genius.

Abi: Thanks, Tammi! I really wanted the playful tone of the book to come across right from the opening spread. I thought this would be a funny way to show that the narrator and characters are not always exactly in sync.

Tammi: Tell us a little about Wombats are Pretty Weird.

Abi: Wombats are Pretty Weird is a fun introduction to the elusive burrowing marsupial known as the wombat. It's about all the specialized characteristics that make wombats unique, such as backward pouches, cartilage butts, and cube-shaped poop, and how those features make wombats pretty weird but also extremely cool.

I wanted to present the facts in a way that would also make kids laugh. I think humor is a fantastic way to help people really understand and retain information. So I tried to take these facts and push the ridiculousness up a level with funny dialog and situations.

Tammi: Where oh where did you get the idea for this book?

Abi: When I was studying abroad in Australia in 2001, I went on a guided hike, and we came across a pile of cube-shaped poop. It was there that I learned that wombats were the only animal in the world to make cube-shaped poop. And that basically started my obsession with wombats. Because HOW is cube-shaped poop even possible? Did they have square-shaped butts? My internet search after the hike concluded that no, wombats did not have square butts. And at the time, no one knew the real answer of how they made cube-shaped poop!

So I always knew I wanted to do something featuring wombats. I've been a web designer for the past 20 years, and I was thinking at first that I would create a website devoted to wombats and other weird animals. But once I started making picture books, around 2016, I decided to try to see if I could do a book about them.

There's a Disney short called The Art of Skiing that I used to watch all the time as a kid. In it, the narrator starts out very serious, like it's a proper documentary about skiing. Except the subject of the show, Goofy, is not exactly the picture perfect model of a professional skier. So there's a really funny interplay between what the narrator is saying and what Goofy is doing, and the narrator gets pretty exasperated. So when I was thinking about making a book about wombats, I thought it would be so fun to also have that kind of interplay between a more serious narrator and the characters who are saying and doing ridiculous things.

Tammi: I love how the snake adds so much humor to this fun, fact-filled book. Was he a part of the story from the start?

Abi: Yes, the snake was part of the story very early on in my process. When I was coming up with jokes to go with the weird wombat facts, a lot of times I needed a character that wasn't a wombat-someone who could act as a stand-in for the audience that would find these characteristics of wombats very weird as well. It couldn't be another wombat because they'd think everything about being a wombat was normal. For example, if you were a wombat, you'd think that round poop was weird and square poop was normal. I decided on a snake because he could potentially live in the same area as a wombat, but he's so vastly different from a wombat. And then, as I was putting all the facts together with funny scenes into a dummy, I tried to figure out how to add the snake into all the scenes.

Tammi: Please share some early sketches and give us a behind-the-scenes peek at your process.

Abi: When I started my fiction picture books, I began by doodling little scenes and writing bits of text. But because this book is based on facts, I actually started this one by researching everything I could about wombats. Once I had collected the weirdest facts about them, I started doodling little scenes and jokes that would go with each fact.

Here's a page from my sketchbook where I'm trying to get the right joke to go with the fact that they eat grasses, sedges, bark, moss, and roots. I thought it would be funny to play with the idea of being excited about eating bark for dinner. Because who would be excited about eating bark? I just kept doodling and writing until I found the right words and expressions.

Here's how that page turned out in the book. You can see how the inkling of the joke was there in the sketchbook and just needed to be polished and teased out a little more.

After I'd spent a while doodling in my sketchbook, I took the plunge and tried to put the facts in an order that made sense in a mini dummy. The mini dummy was just some letter-sized paper cut in half and then folded. The drawings in it are very rough.

Here's a page from my mini dummy about cube poop:

Once I was happy with the mini dummy, I showed it to my critique group and then my agent for feedback. And from there, I made revisions and made a letter-sized dummy with more polished black and white sketches done in pencil. This is the version that was sent out on submission to editors.

Tammi: While all of your books include humor, they are quite different in scope (one is a funny fully fictional picture book, one is a funny guessing-game novelty sort of book, one is a funny informational book). Do you have a tip that you can share with writers regarding trying new approaches?

Abi: Honestly, my brain just needs a break after doing one kind of book, so I naturally gravitate toward a new challenge. I also have a (perhaps irrational) fear that I'll end up just copying myself and writing the same story over and over again, so I try to shift my attention toward something totally different from the last project.

My tip for writers about trying new approaches is to not be afraid of new formats or genres. If you have an idea that excites you, just go for it. Have fun! Play! It doesn't have to be perfect right from the start. You will work out all the kinks in the revision stage. So tamp down any voices in your head telling you you're not qualified to do it. Just do it! Because I went for it and tried new things, I now have experience making a fictional story, figuring out the mechanics of a novelty book, and conducting research for an informational book. These experiences have helped me grow as both an author and illustrator. And I've also found that no matter what kind of book I make, my voice as a creator always shines through anyway. So there's always a connection through all my books even if they are different in scope.

Tammi: Scoop time! What's next?

Abi: I am very excited for the release of The Quiet Forest, which was written by Charlotte Offsay and illustrated by me. It comes out on March 12, 2024 from Paula Wiseman Books / S&S. It's about a very mischievous mouse who sets off a boisterous ripple effect among the animals in a formerly quiet forest.

This was my first time illustrating a book I did not write. So it was yet another fun challenge for me. I had to adjust my process a little because usually, I think of the words and pictures together when crafting a book. This time, the text was already done, and my job was to create the visual story from there. It was wonderful seeing this collaboration come together in the end.

I also have another book coming out in 2024. It's the next book in the "[Not So] Serious Guide" series called Flamingos are Pretty Freaky. I'm working on final art now, and I'm happy to report that Joey the snake once again joins us, this time to learn all about the very weird, very tough flamingo!

Tammi: Oh, I am so excited about Joey's return! Thanks for visiting Picture Book Builders, Abi!
BIO:

Abi Cushman is the author-illustrator of funny picture books, including Animals Go Vroom! (Viking), Soaked! (Viking), and her nonfiction debut, Wombats Are Pretty Weird: A [Not So] Serious Guide (Greenwillow, 2023). She has also worked as a web designer for over 15 years, and runs two popular websites of her own: MyHouseRabbit.com and AnimalFactGuide.com, which was named a Great Website for Kids by the American Library Association. In her spare time, Abi enjoys running, playing tennis, and eating nachos. (Yes, at the same time.) She lives on the Connecticut shoreline with her husband and two kids.

For exclusive sneak peeks, wombats, and special giveaways, subscribe to Abi's newsletter.
GIVEAWAY:

For a chance to win your very own copy of Wombats are Pretty Weird, simply leave a comment on this post. For another chance at winning, plese share a link to this post on Twitter. Be sure to tag Abi (@AbiCushman) and Tammi (@SauerTammi).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wombats are Pretty Weird by Abi Cushman (+giveaway!)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hello, Picture Book Builders people! If you have ever attended one of my presentations at a school or conference, you have probably heard me say, "Celebrate the weird stuff in life. It's good material for stories." Sometimes I even post about it online. Evidence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Leah is a children's picture book author and illustrator. You can usually find her in her studio, either making books or reading a giant stack of them. Take a look around to find out more about her books and art.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Apple and Magnolia: An Earth Day Storytime with Laura Gehl

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
To Change a Planet: Read by the author, Christina Soontornvat

# data[].attributes.body
See slides that explain this simple activity: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ze51GWmsaWEAmIXfmHQq7Y2Iym4xm8xTMp74lfi8glc/edit?usp=sharing

# data[].attributes.body
Center Ideas

Building blocks

Animals from the book to build for

Challenge bags for groups with assorted building materials

STEM alignment

# data[].attributes.body
This is marine biologist Kasey Eunice's youtube page. (The other links in the back of the book for his websites are no longer working, at least not on 4/4/24.)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
"tide pools" "marine biology" ocean beach mollusks "sea hare" "sea anemone" barnacles mussels "sea urchin" "marine snails" echinoderm

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Life in a Tide Pools is a channel that explores the tide pool environment, provides education about the various types of animals and plants that life in tide pools an how they can life and adapt in such a harsh environment. The channel maintains videos about tide pool locations and also about the individual animals.

# data[].attributes.body
They were creating their own plans for forts too!

# data[].attributes.body
https://padlet.com/coneill/cocba-2024-2025-jhkzopape3wy5czj/wish/E851Q0ErnwXwZVAb