Chicken Lily

Nina's most recent book is getting released in March by Henry Holt.  I'm biased of course, but that doesn't change the fact that the art is brilliant and the story is really lovely.  Looking forward to the launch and Nina's really excited (as she should be).  As someone that had no exposure to the children's book industry prior to Nina's illustration career I have to say that it's interesting (and a bit bonkers).  People don't seem to grasp the shear amount of work that goes into a children's book - everyone knows that novels take a long time to write, edit, publish, etc., but people just seem to assume that children's books get knocked out on a long weekend.

Let me tell you that this isn't the case - I don't know exactly how long the author, Lori Mortensen, worked on the story, but I'm guessing it was something equivalent to what Nina put into the art and it's a long, long process that involves an absolute ton of work.  The author, the illustrator (Nina), the agents (which do far more than just represent the authors/illustrators - think of them as almost a part of the editorial process), the publisher's team, etc...  It's a very big undertaking with a lot of moving parts.  It did however result in a fantastic book.  So please remember that when reading books to kids - these things are created with a lot of love and a lot of work.  Also - buy the book - it's really wonderful 🙂 !!

By the way - Nina's agent is Teresa Kietlinski at the Prospect Agency.