Sand to Stone and Back Again by Nancy Bo Flood - Day Three

I interviewed the photographer, Tony Kuyper.
This is his first ever interview for this book and I'm honoured to be the one to host it.

C - Callista
TK - Tony Kuyper
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About the Book

C: How did you come to be a part of Sand to Stone and Back Again? Who approached you?

TK: The book came about because Nancy and I were neighbors. I was familiar with her writing and we would often discuss our creative efforts.  It was clear in looking at and reading Nancy's books that she had a lot of talent for creating stories from where she happened to be living.  Eventually I suggested that we might be able to do a book together.  She quickly agreed. There were lots of drafts, always drawing from the images I had available at that time.  The book just kept getting better with each draft. Looking back I'm really amazed at the story she put together from these pictures.

C: Who chose which of your photographs would be used?

TK: Nancy and I sat down together to select images that we felt would go with the words.  We suggested these to the publisher (Fulcrum).  The publisher then chose which ones they wanted.  I sent them large versions of each image they requested.  The designer, Ann Douden, then did the design/layout.  Nancy and I were both surprised and pleased by what she did. As a photographer I was expecting a pictures style book, but Ann took it in an entirely different direction.  I never imagined the images being used in this manner, but I certainly like the way it turned out.

C: Is this the only book your photos have been in? Would you like to work with another book in the future if you found a good match?

TK: Yes, this is my first book, but it certainly has me interested in doing another one, and with Nancy if possible.  I have lots of new pictures since Sand to Stone was published, and they're quite different in many ways from the ones in that book.  I've spoken with Nancy about maybe trying something in electronic format in the future.  That seems to be the way things are heading.

About the Photographer

C: How long have you been a photographer? Do you only photograph the Colorado Plateau?

TK: My photography started soon after I moved to Arizona in 1983.  Coming from Iowa I was in absolute awe of all there was to see out here.  Photography was a way of expressing my love for this new and wonderful place.  While my photography has changed over the years, it has always largely been concentrated in the high desert regions of the Colorado Plateau.  Sandstone truly is my passion with the camera.  It's endlessly beautiful to me and, even though I've been here for over 25 years now, I still see new places every year and find new and wonderful things to photograph.  I've tried photographing mountains, and coastlines, and trees, and such, but I always come back to the desert.

C: Do most of your sales come from those in the Colorado area who want prints of their home or do you get most of your sales from people who don't get to experience the beauty themselves?

TK: I work full-time as a pharmacist, so there isn't a lot of time to market my images other than on my website.  Sales come mainly from there, and I've not noticed any trends with regard to location of the buyers.  Mostly buyers have visited this region and have an affinity for the desert  that they can maybe see in the images.

C: Your website has tutorials on it. Could you please explain who might take interest in them and what they are for?

TK: One important aspect of photography for me is the ability to develop a personal style not only through the compositions I photograph, but also in how I develop the image after it is captured.  Photography is undergoing a big revolution right now with the improvement in digital capture technology and the accessibility of digital imaging software, like Photoshop.  The tutorials are my way of sharing my image processing techniques with a wider audience, mostly photographers looking for new techniques to develop their own style.

C: Are you a reader? What sorts of books do you read in your spare time?

TK: I used to read a lot more before the Internet came along and got me hooked on reading lots of short articles and human interest stories.  Most recently I finished reading the Harry Potter series . . . and loved it.  Stories of people finding who they are and than being able to share their special talents with others are probably my favorite type of story.  That's what life is about, and there are an infinite number of ways to tell that story.

C: Do you have any advice for aspiring photographers?

TK: Probably the most important thing is to take pictures of things that you personally like.  Doing so makes it very easy to be out taking pictures, and simply being there somehow allows the light to find you.  Most of my images are unplanned, but the light just happens to be there when I make the effort to show up.  It feels almost magical how images seem to appear out of nowhere.  That's a really special feeling.
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Other Blogs Participating in this Tour:
SMS Book Reviews, Never Jam Today, SmallWorld Reads, Our Big Earth Media Co., Whispers of Dawn, Cafe of Dreams, The Hungry Readers, My Own Little Corner of the World, Dolce Bellezza, KidzBookBuzz.com

Buy Sand to Stone and Back Again from Amazon.com and support KidsBookBuzz!

Sand to Stone and Back Again by Nancy Bo Flood - Day Two

*This is post 995, check back in 5 more posts for some 1000th post giveaways!

Today I share with you an interview I did with the author Nancy Bo Flood. (Pictured at right)


NBF - Nancy Bo Flood
C - Callista
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About the Book

C: What made you want to create this book? Were you filling a need or writing about what you like or something else perhaps?

NBF: I wrote the book because I find the desert incredibly beautiful and wondrous in its stark, rugged landscape. I hoped to bring the beauty and wonder of the geology of the desert to young readers.

C: Did you consult with other people or even experts while you wrote this book? If so, Who?

NBF: All the information in Sand to Stone is accurate. I consulted with geologists and anthropologists. Besides talking with them and also asking them to review the text, I read many books about desert geology, sandstone, the animals, plants and people that live and thrive in the high desert climate. I even read books about volcanoes because we have many "sleeping" volcanoes in this area of the desert.

C: What's your favourite part of the book?

NBF: My favorite part - "You began as one tiny cell, as small as a grain of sand. From one cell, you became two, then four. Now you are made of million of connected cells. From one tiny cell, you became a person. From one grain of sand, I became a mountain." I do love that comparison!

C: What one thing do you hope readers will take away from Sand to Stone and Back Again?

NBF: Everything in our world continues to change. Change is often a cycle of building, crumbling and rebuilding. This is true for rocks as well as people.

C: How long was it between when you first started writing this book and when you were first published?

NBF: I began writing this book five years ago after several years of hiking and camping in the desert. I love being in a steep-sided canyon with only ravens and sage brush. Such silence! Perhaps a mountain lion is watching me and following my tracks. That has happened.

About the Author


C: What kinds of books do you read in your spare time?

NBF: I read all sorts of books. I especially like poetry for children that describes nature or is funny. I like historical fiction as well as nonfiction.

C: Have you thought about your next book yet?

NBF: My new projects include an alphabet books about rocks, a silly but true book about fungi (without mushrooms our world would not survive!), and a novel about a Navajo girl whose sisters joins the army and goes to fight in Iraq. My newest and first novel just came out - Warriors in the Crossfire - a story about boys surviving the invasion of their island, Saipan, in the western Pacific during World War II.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Nancy. I can't wait to see your rock alphabet book. I love rocks!

You can also find some teacher/student activities that go with the book at Simple Saturday (scroll down) but they will also be available at Nancy Bo Flood's website by the end of the week.

Visit Nancy Bo Flood.

Visit the other bloggers in this book tour:
SMS Book Reviews, Never Jam Today, SmallWorld Reads, Our Big Earth Media Co., Whispers of Dawn, Cafe of Dreams, The Hungry Readers, My Own Little Corner of the World, Dolce Bellezza, KidzBookBuzz.com

Buy Sand to Stone and Back Again from Amazon.com and support KidsBookBuzz!

Sand to Stone and Back Again by Nancy Bo Flood - Day One

Stars: ***1/2

Summary: Sand to Stone illustrates the life cycle of sandstone for curious young minds. Open these pages to discover the amazing shapes, colors, and textures natural forces have left behind in the Desert Southwest.

Sand to Stone wasn't exactly what I was expecting and to be honest, at first I didn't like it. However I've had a month to review it even more and have come to realize I wasn't being fair when I read the book the first time. For one, I misunderstood the age range of the book. I sometimes forget that picture books aren't just for young children. The author's website says Ages 6-12 but Amazon.com says ages 9-12.

Unless your child is REALLY into sandstone, this book isn't one that you'd buy for your child to read on their own. This is more of a book for teachers or homeschool parents to use with their children. As you can probably tell based on the ages, this would be good for children in grades 4-7.

The author Nancy Bo Flood and photographer Tony Kuyper did and awesome job together. The text is lyrical:

"Sometimes I am a desert, a soft dune resting, or a tough old butte."

"Crash! Slabs of stone slide off cliffs, change walls into caves, alcoves, or arches."

The photographs are breathtaking as you can see from the photos included in this post. These photos are Copyright Tony Kuyper and are used with permission. These are the actual photos, before they were cropped for the book.


Links of Interest: Nancy Bo Flood (author), Tony Kuyper (photographer),

Other Reviews: (in this case, others participating in tour)
SMS Book Reviews, Never Jam Today, SmallWorld Reads, Our Big Earth Media Co., Whispers of Dawn, Cafe of Dreams, The Hungry Readers, My Own Little Corner of the World, Dolce Bellezza, KidzBookBuzz.com


Buy Sand to Stone and Back Again from Amazon.com and support KidsBookBuzz!

Crocodaddy by Kim Norman (Day Three of Three)

It's Day Three and I have a special surprise for you!
(See Day One and Day Two)

The author, Kim Norman has offered to giveaway one copy of Crocodaddy to one lucky winner from North America (Canada, US or Mexico)

The giveaway is open only until May 16th 11:59 PM EST so hurry to enter!

Ways to enter: (you need a SEPARATE comment for each thing you do, or it only counts as one entry)

1. Comment with a memory of you and your dad, or your child and their father, or you/child and grandfather or stepfather or even father figure. (Something along those lines. I know not everyone has a relationship with their father but I'm sure you can think of something. Maybe your older brother was like a father to you or your best male friend acts like a father to your child.) = One Entry

2. Comment on of the other two posts in the Crocodaddy Tour (see links above) with something more than "That's nice" or "Neat book" = One Entry for each comment (up to 2)

3. Tweet this giveaway and come back with either twitter user name or the link to the status update = One Entry

4. Follow Me or Subscribe to Me and let me know about it = One Entry

5. Stumble my blog (not this post) and tell me your stumbleupon id. - One Entry

Crocodaddy by Kim Norman (Day Two of Three)

Today I'm going to share an interview I (C) did with the author, Kim Norman (KN). After that is some basic author info for you and some links. Kim is pictured at left.

C: Did you ever write books as a child?

KN: I remember I did once. I don't remember how old I was. Couldn't have been more than 1st or 2nd grade. I made this little book out of folded sheets of paper and wrote a story. Told my brother I'd written a book. He was older, maybe 10 or so, and he told me that a book had to be MUCH longer than that. I realized he was right, and never tried it again during my childhood. Too bad I let myself be so easily discouraged. I might have become a prodigy!

I did do other forms of writing, though, and it's clear if you read my report cards that my teachers were always impressed with my writing. So I'm not sure how I ended up a graphic artist, because they never really commented on my brilliant artistic ability. Oh well, if I'd gone into a writing profession, say journalism, I might well have burned out early and might never have discovered my love of children's books, which I rediscovered when I became a mother.

C: When did you come up with the idea for Crocodaddy? Did it just come to you or did it require lots of brainstorming?

KN: The name was used for a pretend game in our backyard pool. I'm not even sure who coined the name, me, my husband or one of my kids. Probably me, but I'm just not sure. It definitely took a while, thinking about the name during my morning walks, for any sort of story to evolve. And it took even longer for the refrain ("Crocodaddy, Crocodaddy...") to emerge. I always try to keep my picture book revisions in a single notebook until I'm ready to type them up. I don't always manage that because I lose notebooks around the house and end up writing in more than one book. But somehow I managed to keep all the drafts of Crocodaddy in one notebook, which I'm glad about, because it allowed me to look back and see the evolution of the story. I had always thought I remembered finding the refrain first. But when I looked through the notebook, I realized I'd written a couple of earlier versions, sans refrain. One version was strong in terms of rhyme and language, but my critique group thought it might be too scary for toddlers. It was after THAT, during a walk, that the bouncy refrain came to me. Somehow the refrain lightened the mood of the piece, and then, of course, David Walker's delightful illustrations turned it to pure delight.

C: Why did you choose a crocodile instead of another animal to represent the daddy?

KN: Oh that was definitely because of the sound of the word. I love wordplay. The "D" sound in crocodile just merged so nicely with the opening consonant of "daddy." Put them together, and you've got the perfect, kid-friendly water creature!

C: Did you/do you have a good relationship with your dad?

KN: Oh yes, I adored my father. He was definitely a Crocodaddy at heart, although we hadn't invented the word when I was a child. There was nothing more fun to my siblings and me than roughhousing with my dad with him in a pool or -- better yet -- in Kezar Lake in Maine, where we often spent our vacations. He was a big man, about 6 foot 4, so the most precarious fun of all was sitting on his shoulders as he pretended to stagger around in the water.

C: I've always heard you should write what you know. Why did you choose to make the child a boy in the story instead of a girl?

KN: Yes, that was definitely a case of writing what I know. I have two sons, no daughters, so the yellow Labrador retriever and I are the only girls in the household!

C: What are your plans for the future?

KN: Simply more and more and more books! I have resolved that I WILL finish writing that novel I've dabbled at for too long. Picture books are easier for me, because they're so compact. When I'm writing a novel, it feels a bit like wandering around in a strange land without a map. Also, I have an "evil inner editor" who tends to natter more loudly when I'm writing longer works. But I am resolved to squelch her and finish that novel!

C: I just want to add a big thanks to Kim Norman for letting me ask her some questions.

Bio:
Author Kim Norman’s first picture book, JACK OF ALL TAILS, was released by Dutton, a Penguin imprint, in 2007. CROCODADDY, (Sterling, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble), makes its grand debut in May. She is looking forward to the release of two titles in 2010: I KNOW A WEE PIGGY WHO WALLOWED IN BROWN, illustrated by Henry Cole, (Dutton); and TEN ON THE SLED, (Sterling.)

Kim is active in community theater and her church’s music program. (She loves pretending she’s a pop star singing into a mic for the praise & worship service.) She lives in Virginia with her husband, (the REAL Crocodaddy), two sons, a dog and a cat.

You can Buy the Book or visit Kim Norman's homepage. Come back tomorrow for a giveaway!

A Christian Worldview of Fiction, A Mom Speaks, A Patchwork of Books, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Booking Mama,Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Fireside Musings, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maw Books Blog, Never Jam Today, Olive Tree, Our Big Earth, Reading is My Superpower, SMS Book Reviews, The 160 Acrewoods, Through a Child’s Eyes

Crocodaddy by Kim Norman (Day One of Three)

Stars: ****1/2

This week I'm touring Crocodaddy by Kim Norman. It's a picture book aimed at the preschooler level.

Summary: A boy and his dad are at a pond when the boy decides to go on a Crocodaddy hunt. All of a sudden the dad is nowhere to be seen but a crocodile in his father's shorts is swimming in the water and the boy is ready to hunt!

"Fearlessly, I step in front, captain of the Crocodaddy hunt!"

The book has a rhyming quality to it (front/hunt) and the boy is just adorable (look at that illustration on the cover!) Illustrations by the way were done by David Walker.

The boy taunts the Crocodaddy with a rhyme throughout the book:

"Crocodaddy, Crocodaddy swim away fast. This day's swim could be your last!

So do you think the boy catches the Crocodaddy? You'll have to read the book to find out!

The book is really cute, a great Father/Son read, perfect for Father's Day. I don't know if the preschooler set would understand that the crocodile is really the father, I had to explain it to my 3 year old. However even without knowing that, she still loved the storyline. 5 stars from my daughter for sure!

Buy the Book at Amazon.com

Visit the author at KimNormanBooks

Visit other Tour Participants:
A Christian Worldview of Fiction, A Mom Speaks, A Patchwork of Books, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Booking Mama,Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Fireside Musings, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maw Books Blog, Never Jam Today, Olive Tree, Our Big Earth, Reading is My Superpower, SMS Book Reviews, The 160 Acrewoods, Through a Child’s Eyes