Chronicle Books Blog

The team behind the #1 New York Times bestseller Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld, have answered their fans’ plea for “one more book before bed” with Steam Train, Dream Train.

The dream train pulls into the station, and one by one the train cars are loaded: polar bears pack the reefer car with ice cream, elephants fill the tanker cars with paints, tortoises stock the auto rack with race cars, kangaroos stuff the hopper car with balls (while zebras referee). Sweet and silly dreams are guaranteed for any budding train enthusiasts!

Get to know Sherri and Tom as they stopped by our blog to answer a few questions and give us a peek into their workspaces:

What’s one highlight from the success of Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site?
Sherri: People wait in line to have me sign their books; some ask to take pictures with me: I will never get used to that!

Tom: Just before the book was released, Chronicle sent Sherri and me to present it to a group at Follett, a large book distributor outside of Chicago. The Chronicle rep, Anna-Lisa Sandstrum, was there, and it was the first time I’d met her and Sherri, so I was a little nervous. After we presented the book, I remember standing in the lobby with with Sherri and Anna-Lisa. We asked how many books were being printed and Sherri and I were both shocked when she told us the impressively high number. She gave us a serious look and said, “You guys, this is going to be a very big seller.” It was my first clue that there might be something special about this book.

What bedtime book did you love as a child?
Sherri: Always, and any time of day, Virginia Lee Burton’s, The Little House. During the holidays, I was obsessed with Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree: “Oh, wasn’t it grand to have a tree, Exactly like Mr. Willowby?” :)

Tom: Pagoo, by Holling C. Holling and Lucille Holling.

Have you had any fun times on a train?
Sherri: When I was five, my aunt and uncle took me, along with my two cousins, from Chicago to New York on an Amtrak sleeper car. It was MAGICAL! I remember cuddling on the bunk, the fancy breakfast in the dining car with the white tablecloths and china, and that our shoes, which we placed in a box in the wall, were shined when we woke up in the morning.

Tom: When I was ten years old, I took a train (by myself!) from my uncle’s farm town in northern Illinois to our home in Wisconsin. Traveling a hundred miles on a train by myself was a great adventure, made better by the fact that my uncle bought me a foot-long hot dog just before I boarded the train. I remember watching the countryside whiz by, with a basket full of fresh carrots by my side and that big hot dog to munch on all the way home.

What’s the funniest thing a child has said to you at a school or bookstore event?
Sherri: I’m always asked how old I am, and I’m always truthful: 29.

Tom: “How do you make your hair two colors at once?” (a reference to my the ever-increasing gray).

Share your space! Where do you do your work?
Sherri: This is my current office, which my husband and I share. We’re in the process of moving to a new home and can’t wait to set up my new space!

Tom: Here’s where you can find me most days… Notice the array of mediums I’m using, in hopes that one of them will bow to my will.

I keep my current favorite books on a rolling cart for quick access. Oliver Jeffers is always on the cart.

Scooter, reviewing sketches.

You can have too many books for your bookshelves, but you can’t have too many books.

I love visits from other book creators. Here, Andrea Beaty and Carolyn Crimi do their best to look like serious authors.

Rough sketches and a “model” for Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site

Everyone needs heroes – these are mine. (the signature was given under protest) Ted “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, Judy Blume and Maurice Sendak.

Thanks, Sherri and Tom!

For the fans who always want to keep their favorite train or truck close by, give them personalized books and gifts that feature the artwork from Steam Train, Dream Train and Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site.

Add a photo and a special dedication to each book to make bedtime a little sweeter:

Create a Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site personalized lunchbox, growth chart, placemat, gift card and wall art with a few easy clicks on mychroniclebooks.com:

Meet Sherri and Tom on tour starting April 16th:

TOOT TOOT!

Stephanie Wong
Marketing Manager

Spring is in the air here in San Francisco, the flowers are blooming, and the days are getting gloriously longer. There’s much to celebrate, including a brand new line of personalized gifts for kids featuring everyone’s favorite spring critter, The Very Hungry Caterpillar™! The beloved artwork by Eric Carle is now available on lunchboxes, placemats, party invitations, thank you cards, and baby books customized with your child’s name and photo.

In honor of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day on Saturday, March 23, we’re throwing a party at our Metreon Store from 10am – 12pm. Kids will paint their very own sections in a Very Hungry Caterpillar community-made garland that will be strung throughout the store. Join us!

But if you can’t make it to San Francisco next weekend, we want to share some great ideas for a Very Hungry Caterpillar–themed Spring Celebration!

For your party, you can incorporate The Very Hungry Caterpillar into the invitations, food and decorations. Let your guests know that this is going to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar–themed party with your very own customized birthday invitations. You can add your child’s name and picture to the invite in three easy steps online, and preview your cards at MyChronicleBooks.com.

Once guests arrive, they can snack on The Very Hungry Caterpillar–themed foods. For those who want to provide healthy snacks, it is easy to make a caterpillar from apple slices and a small cheese wheel.

Or for those with more of a sweet tooth, these cake pops are perfect for a sweet bite.

To decorate for the party, you can make a Very Hungry Caterpillar out of balloons or get creative and make a caterpillar out of tissue paper fans.

Kids can wear their very own The Very Hungry Caterpillar themed hats,

make their own The Very Hungry Caterpillar out of an egg carton,

and play with The Very Hungry Caterpillar Lacing Cards.

To make your guests feel extra special, you can create customized placemats and lunchboxes as favors.

For a new mom who loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar, you can customize a baby book with her little one’s name and picture. It will be a special keepsake that will be treasured for years to come!

And, the new baby will love these stroller cards.

Do you love Eric Carle and The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Let us know which product you’re most excited about in the comments below, and one lucky fan will win a prize pack that includes: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Stroller Cards, 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo Flash Cards, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Lacing Cards and a $40 Gift Certificate to use on any MyChronicleBooks The Very Hungry Caterpillar product.

Cheers to many spring celebrations!

Stephanie Wong
Marketing Manager

A few weeks ago, we had a very special event at Chronicle Books—our seasonal Children’s Preview Event. To kick off every season, we invite our local booksellers, buyers, librarians, educators, and media to come into our office to get a sneak peek at our books before they are available to the public. We love catching up with old friends, meeting new ones and sharing our stories.

In addition to hearing stories about the books we create, we also gave guests a chance to win a Boo prize pack, which included Boo: The Life of the World’s Cutest Dog, Boo: Little Dog in a Big City, and 3 Mini-Boo plush dolls! As if this prize wasn’t cute enough already, the winner will also receive a copy of Boo ABC and Boo Paper Doll Set when they are available in Spring 2013.

We’re so excited for Spring 2013 that we wanted to give you a glimpse into the titles we featured.

PICTURE BOOKS

Steam Train, Dream Train
By Sherri Duskey Rinker, Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
Available April 2013

When Tom Lichtenheld first heard the idea of a train book, he was skeptical. So he took his measuring tape to the library. The truck shelf: three feet of books. The train shelf: a mere six inches. “I guess trains are not so popular,” he suggested. “There aren’t many books here.” The librarian smiled and said “That’s because they’re all checked out!”

Written and illustrated by the duo that brought you the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, this new book both delights train lovers and coaxes children into bedtime. Polar bears load the reefer car with ice cream, seals fill the hopper car with balls, and much more. Kids will be yearning to read this story again and again.

We were lucky enough to have some original pieces of artwork to share with our guests. Take a look at these animals as they dreamily fall asleep.

Original Art © Tom Lichtenheld. Illustrations were rendered in Neocolor wax oil pastels on Mi-Teintes paper.

I Scream! Ice Cream!: A Book of Wordles
By Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Illustrated by Serge Bloch
Available May 2013

Following up on the success of Wumbers, Amy Krouse Rosenthal unleashes her wit in another silly and smart book of wordplay. What is a wordle you ask? It is a set of words or phrases that sound the same when you say them aloud but have completely different meanings, like I scream and ice cream. With the clever illustrations by internationally renowned Serge Bloch, the idea of homonyms couldn’t be clearer.

An example of a wordle – “princess cape” and “prince escape.”

Flora and the Flamingo
By Molly Idle
Available March 2013
Watch the animated book trailer here!

Friendship is a beautiful dance. Lift the flaps in this wordless picture book to explore the trials and joys of friendship. Flora and her unexpected dance partner, a flamingo, learn how to dance in perfect harmony with each other.

See what’s under the lift-the-flaps here!

Check out this original artwork of Flora learning to dance with the flamingo.

Original Art © Molly Idle. Illustrations were rendered in Prismacolor pencils on vellum finish Bristol paper.

Inside Outside
By Lizi Boyd
Available in April 2013

What is happening outside today? Peek through the window to find out. What is happening inside? Peek again! Whimsical die-cuts throughout the book take you through the seasons and surprise you with every turn of the page.

A die-cut on one page looks from the inside of a room out through a window to the garden outside.

The next page moves the reader to the scene outside that we could only glimpse from the inside. The die-cut allows us to peek back through the window into the room we were just in.

You’ll want to flip through this book over and over again to see all the fun details, including two mouse friends who appear throughout the book.

This original piece of artwork shows one of the gorgeous spreads from the book.

Original Art by Lizi Boyd. The illustrations in this book were painted in gouache on kraft paper.

On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein
By Jennifer Berne, Illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky
Available in May 2013

As a boy endlessly fascinated by the wonders around him, Albert Einstein envisions himself traveling at a speed beyond imagining, on a beam of light. Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky invite the reader to travel along with Einstein on a journey full of curiosity, laughter, and scientific discovery. Parents and children alike will appreciate this moving story of the powerful difference imagination can make in any life.

Open This Little Book
By Jessica Klausmeier, Illustrated by Suzy Lee
Available in February 2013

Open this book and you will find… another book… and another… and another. Debut author Jesse Klausmeier met our Founding Children’s Publisher and Editor-at-Large, Victoria Rock, at a writers’ conference. It took several years to figure out what to do with this very special manuscript that celebrates the personal and communal reading experience. Suzy Lee, the award winning artist and book creator of Wave and Shadow, was the perfect illustrator for this book. The illustrations are not only beautiful but sophisticated. As the reader opens each new book and is introduced to the new character, their colors are introduced to the palette.

Readers will delight in each book as they open it because each one is smaller than the previous one!

Fish Finelli, Book #1: Seagulls Don’t Eat Pickles
By E.S. Farber, Illustrated by Jason Beane
Available in April 2013

When bully Bryce Billings bets Fish Finelli that he can’t find Captain Kidd’s legendary long-lost treasure, Fish and his friends embark on a quest that leads them to sneak into the library, stow away on a boat and trespass on an island. Appropriate for both boys and girls, this first book in the Fish Finelli series will inspire readers to use their imaginations, learn about the world around them, and appreciate the bonds of friendship. With Fish’s Fun Facts (informative nonfiction sidebars) and full-page illustrations throughout, this is sure to be a book that kids can’t put down. And lucky for them, the second book in the series is going to be coming in April 2014.

Fish and his friends find a treasure chest full of gold!

Nobody’s Secret
A Novel of Intrigue and Romance
By Michaela MacColl
Available in March 2013

One day, fifteen-year-old Emily Dickinson meets a mysterious, handsome young man. Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem to know who she or her family is and playfully refuses to divulge his name. Emily enjoys her secret flirtation with Mr. “Nobody” until he turns up dead in her family’s pond. Only Emily can discover who this enigmatic stranger was before he’s condemned to be buried in an anonymous grave. Her investigation takes her deep into town secrets, blossoming romance, and deadly danger.

Check out the great new paperback cover for Michaela MacColl’s first book, Prisoners in the Palace: How Princess Victoria Became Queen with the Help of Her Maid, a Reporter, and a Scoundrel!

Available in March 2013

“A great read.” – School Library Journal, starred review

“A whip-smart, spunky protagonist and a worthy heroine to root for. delightful” – Publishers Weekly

London, 1838. Sixteen-year-old Liza’s dreams of her society debut are dashed when her parents are killed in an accident. Penniless, she accepts the position of lady’s maid to young Princess Victoria and steps unwittingly into the gossipy intrigue of the servant’s world below-stairs as well as the trickery above. Click here for a discussion guide.

Under Shifting Glass
By Nicky Singer
Available in March 2013

Jess has a secret: a mysterious glass bottle she finds in an heirloom desk’s hidden compartment. Its surface swirls with iridescent colors, like something’s inside, something almost like a song, something with a soul. When her twin brothers are born critically ill, Jess begins to believe that the force within the flask just might hold the key to saving her brothers—and her family. In this emotionally rich novel, award-winning author Nicky Singer crafts a world of possibility that is steeped in hope and the power of love.

This book was originally published in the UK as The Flask and has been incredibly well received by readers and reviewers and is currently long listed for the Carnage Medal ! Chronicle Books had the chance to publish it in the United States and Ginee Seo, our Children’s Publishing Director, found the book so compelling that she read the entire manuscript in one night on her iPhone.

Absent
By Katie Williams
Available in April 2013

When Paige dies in a freak fall from the roof during Physics class, her spirit is bound to the grounds of her high school. At least she has company: her fellow ghosts Evan and Brooke, who also died there. But when Paige hears the rumor that her death wasn’t an accident—that she supposedly jumped on purpose—she can’t bear it. Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess living people when they think of her. Maybe, just maybe, she can get to the most popular girl in school and stop the rumors once and for all.

We were lucky enough to have author Katie Williams join us at the Children’s Preview! She told us about how she would often stay late at school and observe the strangeness of an always-populated place gone empty.

Katie read the prologue from Absent, answered people’s questions and signed advance copies for our guests.

In Absent, the friends of the main character, Paige, commemorate her death by creating a mural of things that fly. We did the same thing at our event. Here, Ashley Despain, the children’s buyer at Green Apple Books, makes a winged contribution.

Check out this great new paperback for Katie William’s first book, The Space Between Trees!

Available in April 2013

“A darkly beautiful, emotionally honest story of personal growth.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Thrilling… The pacing is pitch-perfect.” – Booklist

This story was supposed to be about Evie, and how she hasn’t made a friend in years, how she tends to stretch the truth (especially about her so-called relationship with college drop-out Jonah Luks), and how she finally comes into her own once she learns to just be herself but it isn’t. Because when her classmate Elizabeth “Zabet” McCabe’s murdered body is found in the woods, everything changes and Evie’s life is never the same again. Click here for a discussion guide.

See the rest of our Spring 2013 Children’s List in our online catalog!

Let us know which book you are most excited about by leaving a comment on this post. One lucky commenter will receive a gift bag filled with goodies promoting the upcoming season!

Stephanie Wong
Marketing Manager

Subscribe to our monthly Chronicle Kids Newsletter.

Whether your favorite holiday memories and traditions involve trimming the tree, building a spectacular gingerbread house, or drinking hot chocolate in front of the fireplace, is there anything that puts you in the holiday mood more than hearing the first few bars of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies”? This joyful music makes me think of marching toy soldiers in bright red jackets and twirling sugar plum fairies. Here we collected a few of our memories of The Nutcracker.

Lara Starr, Children’s Publicist
“My son, Max (picture in the lower right hand corner), as a Toy Soldier in his combined Kindergarten/1st Grade class’ production of The Nutcracker. Well, not the full Nutcracker, these squirmy 5, 6 and 7 year old soldiers and Sugar Plum Fairies only had the patience for abbreviated (though adorable) choreographed dances and a joyous finale that involved of a lot of running around and leaping.”

Albee Dalbotten, Associate Marketing Director, Entertainment/Digital
“Hearing the overture to The Nutcracker is really the thing that gets me in the holiday spirit every year. It brings me back to countless hours rehearsing for the ballet, starting in September each year. In my 10 years dancing in The Nutcracker, I played everything from a mouse to Chinese Tea (shown – top row, third from the right), Spanish Chocolate and Arabian Coffee and danced in the Snow Scene (my favorite). Most of my favorite holiday memories are connected to this festive ballet!”

Tara Creehan, Designer
“My parents would take my sister and me to The Nutcracker here in San Francisco every year when we were kids, and so it feels so special to get to take my niece and carry on the tradition. She loves getting dressed up, and acting out all of the scenes afterwards. She becomes Clara! Also, it’s so fun for me to watch something as an adult that I’d experienced so vividly as a child.”

The Nutcracker: A Magic Theater Book is perfect both for those going to see The Nutcracker for the first time and those who have seen numerous performances. Turn the pages to create a moving picture, where intricately cut-out characters spring to life. This re-telling by award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean is rich with the sweetness of a fairytale romance and sprinkled with the whimsy of a candy cane kingdom.

Watch this magical video to see how the book works.

Share your favorite Nutcracker memory with us in the comments section. Three lucky commenters will win a copy of The Nutcracker: A Magic Theater Book. Winner will be chosen on December 17 (giveaway good in the US and Canada only).

Stephanie Wong
Marketing Manager

Subscribe to our monthly Chronicle Kids Newsletter.

As one of three sisters, I get a lot of questions about my sisters. Which one are you most like? Do you guys look alike? Do you share clothes? There is something special about the bond sisters share. Who else can teach you to braid your hair or bring you a spare set of keys when you’ve locked yourself out of your apartment again? Who else can you turn to for advice when you can’t ask Mom or Dad?

Take a quiz about our favorite sisters below. Make sure to put your answers in the comments section. One lucky winner will receive a signed Chloe, Instead poster and book! Winner chosen on September 21, 2012.

How old were Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen when they started working on the set of Full House as Michelle Tanner?

A. One year old
B. Nine months old
C. Four months old

Sasha and Malia Obama were promised a dog when they moved into the White House. Which of the Obama girls is allergic to animal dander?

A. Malia
B. Sasha
C. Neither. Michelle Obama is actually the one that has the allergy.

Bonus question: What kind of dog is Bo?

A. Labradoodle
B. Portuguese Water Dog
C. Poodle

In how many movies has Elle Fanning played a younger version of Dakota Fanning?

A. All the movies Dakota has ever been in
B. 2
C. 0

How old are Beezus and Ramona Quimbly in Beezus and Ramona?

A. Beezus – 12, Ramona – 6
B. Beezus – 10, Ramona–5
C. Beezus – 9, Ramona – 4

Which US President are Kate and Pippa Middleton related to?

A. John F. Kennedy
B. George Washington
C. Woodrow Wilson

What instrument is Molly practicing when Chloe interrupts her in their book Chloe, Instead by Micah Player?

A. Keyboard
B. Trumpet
C. Banjo

Chloe, Instead tells the story of how big sister Molly copes with getting a new little sister, Chloe, who is nothing like her or what she expected her little sister would be like. Download an activity kit and a discussion guide and watch the book trailer here:

Stephanie Wong
Marketing Manager – Children’s

Subscribe to our monthly Chronicle Kids Newsletter.