Happy Holidays!

I’ll end this year of blogging with a holiday card my daughter created.
Happy Holidays! Enjoy your winter break!
I’ll see you here Monday, January 5, 2009.


Copyright © 2008 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway Winners

Thanks so much for all of the emails (from all around the world!)

Here are the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway winners: 

Nanci Reeser won Subway at Picture Book of the Day

Terri Schmitt won Wired at Book of the Week

Theresa Haar won Uncle Sam at Children’s Book Biz News

Ann Daniels won Loose Tooth at Easy to Read

Amanda Baker-Adkin won Skate Park Challenge at Children’s Book Biz News

Tara Shanes-Hernandez won Toddler Two Dos años at Picture Book of the Day

Lisa Vander Sluis won Tyrannosaurus Rex at Book of the Week

Patty Rose won The U.S. Supreme Court at Children’s Book Biz News

Sister Maria Gemma won Air Show at Picture Book of the Day

Linda Biondi won Mr. Strike Out at Children’s Book Biz News

Donna Elder won Red Light, Green Light at Picture Book of the Day

Beverly Bixler won Delivery at Book of the Week

Happy reading, everyone!

Learn how to write a children’s book.
Copyright © 2008 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

It’s The Twelfth Day of Christmas, so today I’m giving away a signed copy of my picture book poem, Delivery.

The idea for this picture book came to me as I was driving on the freeway in Los Angeles. As I drove over the hill past Mulholland Drive I passed a car carrier loaded with California Highway Patrol cars and realized, everything gets delivered! The entire book came to me as I drove on the freeway.

I wrote down my ideas when I returned home. I wrote draft after draft and collected rejection letters for years. Then one day I took out the very first draft, that page of notes I’d scribbled down after my trip on the freeway. I turned that draft into a poem and sold it!

Booklist wrote: “Using a simple rhyming text and bold graphics, this book, by the author and illustrator who produced Window Music (1998), offers youngsters an introduction to the many kinds of deliveries that take place within a day.”

Today’s 12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway winner is Beverly Bixler. I’ll send Beverly a signed copy of Delivery.

Congratulations, Beverly!

Learn how to write a children’s book.
Copyright © 2008 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Seventh Day of Christmas

It’s The Seventh Day of Christmas (and Nonfiction Monday), so today I’m giving away a signed copy of my nonfiction picture book, Tyrannosaurus Rex.

When my son was small he was a dinosaur fanatic. We went to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the La Brea Tar Pits constantly! (He called them the dinosaur museums.)

Years later when I was asked to write a dinosaur book for the North American Dinosaurs series I asked my son which one I should choose. Without hesitation, he said “T-Rex.”

To my surprise, how scientists viewed dinosaurs had changed since my son was a child. The huge skeletons we saw at the museums long ago now have their tails in the air, not on the ground.

The art in this book is amazing!

I have a large image of the book cover on the Tyrannosaurus Rex book page and it brings visitors to my webpage from all over the world…

Today’s 12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway winner is Lisa Vander Sluis. I’ll send Lisa a signed copy of Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Congratulations, Lisa!

Learn how to write a children’s book.
Copyright © 2008 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

The Second Day of Christmas

It’s The Second Day of Christmas (and Nonfiction Monday), so today I’m giving away a signed copy of my nonfiction picture book, Wired.

One night while I was driving to pick up my son from school, a poem jumped into my head:

Humming, thrumming, 
power’s coming.

Light shone down from the street lamps. Wires stretched from pole to pole along the side of the road. The wires were bringing power to the city. That was how Wired got started.

It was a book I had to write. I lived in Los Angeles for many years. Whenever we travelled north, we drove up through the farmlands of the Central Valley. We drove past hundreds of miles of farms, and saw the huge transmission towers carrying power from one part of the state to the other. We weren’t the only ones on the move. Power travelled too.

I’m very pleased to say that Wired is a National Science Teachers Association Recommended Book. The NSTA reviewer wrote:

“Electricity is often a subject elementary teachers try to avoid. This book makes the concepts understandable and provides the background to help teachers help their students understand these concepts as well as comprehend those concepts themselves.”

Today’s 12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway winner is Terri Schmitt. I’ll send Terri a signed copy of Wired.

Congratulations, Terri!

  Learn how to write a children’s book.
Copyright © 2008 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.