Picture Books

My first picture book, Where is Grandpa?, is an autobiographical tale — the story of a wondrous surprise that happened on the saddest day my family had ever known: the day my dad died. My children’s loving memories of their grandpa, brought to life in the book by the marvelous paintings of Chris Soentpiet, helped us realize that grandpa wasn’t quite so far away after all.

High as a Hawk is based on an extraordinary page out of American history. It’s the story of how a brave eight-year-old girl and a famous mountain guide climbed Longs Peak in Colorado in 1905. And how each of them inspired the other to climb their own “inner mountains” along the way. I am thrilled (and am sure you will be, too), with the luminous paintings by the award-winning painter, Ted Lewin.

The Day the Stones Walked was inspired by my trip to Easter Island, one of the world’s most remote — and most mysterious — places. In this story, I imagine what might have happened on the day people suddenly stopped carving moai, the faces. And in my author’s note, I explore what the environmental disaster of Easter Island might mean for the bigger island we call Earth. Magical, dramatic paintings by William Low bring this book to life.

Ghost Hands is inspired by my visit to South America’s Patagonia region. While there, I learned about an especially remarkable place in Argentina. It’s called Cueva de las Manos — Cave of the Hands. On the walls of the cave, archeologists have counted a total of 890 separate hands — and, inexplicably, one left foot! Just why they painted all those hands — and that lone foot — remains a mystery.