This breath of fresh summer air arrives on bookshelves in your favorite local bookstore, as well as anywhere you buy books on April 7!

What a joy it was to convey with art the awe and reverence and unfettered joy of this kid as they independently rise before the sun to tiptoe across a meadow and into a forest to greet the sun atop a perfect rock.

Creating the art for this beautiful poem by Maya Meyers was an exercise in letting go—an extended experiment in color, texture, composition and mood. And those shepherding this project into being were perfectly willing to let me experiment away. Including starting over entirely a few months in. This turns out to have been an appropriate response to a story in which a child has true agency to explore the natural world entirely without supervision or interference from overly cautious adults.

For those wondering about the media—I generally use a strange and unpredictable combination of traditional and digital media. In this case I combined graphite linework, collagraph and gelatin printmaking, and charcoal rubbings, with a wide variety of photoshop painting tools. When I use digital tools, I try to use them as I would traditional tools—loosely, experimentally, and without a lot of pre-planning. I want to mimic the messy unpredictability of traditional media. I work intuitively and adjust as I go. All of this means that it’s very hard for me to repeat the process, because I don’t keep detailed notes of processes or tools. And it’s hard for me to explain exactly how I did it!

I’m so pleased with the result of this big experiment, and I hope you will be too.

And you can find it anywhere you buy books, including here!

If you happen to be in the Seattle area, I hope you will join me for a super fun book launch and pony playtime at Toni’s Ponies in Kingston, Washington. There will be hands on pony time, story time, and treats!

My friend and fellow horse lover Kristen Varner will be there with me, and so will her fantastic graphic novel Horse Trouble.

This beautiful book, written by Curtis Manley and illustrated by me, was published in January 2024 by Neal Porter Books/Holiday House. It captures the story of a child’s hike with their family from campground to the summit of Oregon’s South Sister Volcano and back. The story is told entirely in haiku.

Climbing the Volcano is a non-fiction picture book, about a very real place—a vast, serious, and extremely varied geological and ecological environment. This was my inaugural foray into non-fiction illustration, and it required me to really expand my sense of what I could do as an illustrator. More than once as I got started I wondered, am I the right person to illustrate this book? Can I do this? Mine was a steep learning curve, much like the hike the book describes.

I started by visiting South Sister and hiking up as far as I could in a day. I went with my husband and my dogs, and Scott, a dear family member who graciously hosted us and hiked with us. A gorgeous clear sunny day showed us South Sister in all her glory.

Having taken lots of photos, and collected amazing photos from Curtis, I sketched at home and wondered: how will I draw these millions of rocks and boulders?! And, how will I convey the sense of awe I felt when visiting South Sister Volcano? How will I show the extreme contrast of scale in this place, from tiny toad to massive volcanic crater? How will I show all of this from the point of view of a small child? What a wondrous challenge!

And then I discovered and experimented with collograph printmaking. I glued pumice and other gravelly things to cardboard, spread ink on them, and then ran them through a little craft press. Collograph turned out to be the perfect way to create all the different textures at South Sister Volcano.

I put myself into the shoes of the child visiting this amazing place with their family, and drew what I thought they would experiece as revealed in Curtis’s wonderful haiku poems describing the journey, up and back.

And over many many months, I made my sketches into art, collaging my pencil line drawings with collograph prints and digital paint, all finished using Photoshop.

I am very proud of this book, and so honored to have been asked to collaborate on it with Curtis Manley, Neal Porter and Jennifer Browne of Neal Porter Books/Holiday House. I think we did a great job.

I hope you will have a look and enjoy the journey as much as I did, up and back.

In the meantime, enjoy this lovely starred review from The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, here.

The Camping Trip was honored this past year with the Washington State Book Award, for picture books. This honor came completely out of left field for me, and I am so thrilled to have my book recognized by the wonderful people at Washington Center for the Book, Washington State Library, and Seattle Public Library.

In lieu of a fun and celebratory public awards ceremony, which sadly could not happen again this year because of you-know-what we made a video of a conversation between me and Librarian Erika Miller. In it I read (most of) The Camping Trip, show a peek into my art process for this book, and answer questions about a variety of topics. It was a lot of fun doing this interview, and I hope you enjoy it!

The Camping Trip has been very busy finding its way into readers’ hands since it was published last spring. I’ve heard from so many kids, parents, bookseller, teachers, and reading (and speech) specialists just how much they’ve loved reading and sharing The Camping Trip with kids of all ages. It has been a great book for all of us stuck at home during the pandemic, and I know lots of kids have been able to practice camping in their living rooms and backyards, using The Camping Trip as a guide. Hopefully this summer some will be able to try camping out in the woods, or near a lake or the sea!

The Camping Trip has also made its way onto many lists since publication, and I am so grateful for all of the warm reviews. You can check out some of the reviews on my Books page.

Here are many of the lists honoring The Camping Trip:

CCBC Choices 2021, the annual best-of-the-year list of the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

2021 ALSC Notable Children's Books list

2021 Capitol Choices Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens list

2021 Monarch Illinois' K-3 Readers' Choice Award Master List

One of the five finalists for the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration 2021

Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best List 2020

A Cybils Award 2020 Finalist

The Hornbook 2020 Fanfare

A Mighty Girl’s 2020 Books of the Year

A very exciting honor is the currently running March Book Madness 2021! The Camping Trip was included among sixteen remarkable books in the original brackets, and has now advanced to the Elite 8! Readers all over the nation are reading and sharing their thoughts about an amazing collection of picture books. I can’t wait to see who wins.

What do we do with our free time in the summer in the Pacific Northwest? We beach walk, we pick berries, we hike, we swim outdoors (if we are brave—it’s not warm!!) and we camp. My family loves to car camp, and some of us even do a bit of real wilderness camping, which involves being willing to walk a looooong way, carrying everything you need on your back.

Our many summers of car camping are why I wrote The Camping Trip. Car camping is a fun and easy way to get outside, see parts of your region that you have not seen before, get exercise, and—above all—it’s a great way to make sure you get to eat a s’more, or two!

I hope you will have a chance to go car camping this summer!

This is tomorrow, May 21, and all you have to do is send an email to lbaybooks@gmail.com to get your zoom link! I’ll read from The Camping Trip, Kirby and I will chat about the making of the book, we’ll have polls and surprise give aways, and I’ll answer as many of your questions as I can. Can’t wait—I hope I’ll see you there!! And if you can’t make it, I’ll be talking about the making of the book here on this blog over the next few weeks.

Stay well everyone!

Sure, it is disappointing not to be able to have a few big book parties at my favorite bookstores to celebrate the release of this book with family and friends, but I’m A-okay with everyone staying home, staying safe, and staying healthy. But if you want to do a little armchair camping in the meantime, you can order this book from your favorite independent book store, and if you send me a note with your address, I’ll send you a personalized book plate, a bookmark, and postcard!

If you are casting about for a bookstore to support, here are a few of my local favorites. Liberty Bay Books, Eagle Harbor Book Company, Ballast Book Company, Elliott Bay Book Company, University Bookstore, Secret Garden Books, Third Place Books, Green Bean Books, and Village Books. When we are back to being able to visit a bookstore, I will be able to sign books ordered from Eagle Harbor Books and Liberty Bay Books—just let them know you’d like that!

Stay well everyone!

I had a whole lot I was going to write about this strange strange time we find ourselves in, but none of it was anything you don’t already know. The news from here is that we are all currently well. We are comfortable and relatively safe in our cozy bright home, and spring is springing in it’s glorious and unconcerned way all around us. One child is home here with us, starting her final quarter of university on-line, this week, and mourning the loss of the rite-of-passage of graduation and all that leads up to it. Our other child is far from home, having traveled overseas to world-see and volunteer, shortly before the world turned upside down. Fortunately he landed at a great place right before the borders closed, so our daily worry for him is more about when he will ever be able to come home, than about whether he is safe (relatively) or happy. He is both, at the moment.

Meanwhile, The Camping Trip still launches in May, and I am working out a plan despite the cancellation of a lot of awesome events here in the Pacific Northwest and in New England. I am just warming up that engine, so stay tuned for news of some virtual events in the coming months, plus blog visits, interviews, and more good stuff here on my own blog!

Just a reminder that The Camping Trip is available for pre-order here, and elsewhere, and your favorite local bookstore would be so thrilled to have your support. They may even deliver it for free when it is available!

The cool news for the moment is that Kirkus and Booklist have each given The Camping Trip starred reviews! I am infinitely grateful that people are loving this book as much as I do, and letting the world know.

Here is what Kirkus has to say:

A young black girl experiences her first-ever camping trip, invited along by her aunt and cousin.

Ernestine, the immediately likable narrator, has never been camping, but she knows she is going to love it. She is thoroughly prepared, barely fitting all the gear her aunt listed into her duffel bag. When at last Aunt Jackie arrives, Ernestine says goodbye to her dad. She and her cousin amuse themselves in the car until they arrive at the campground: a full-bleed, double-page spread of lake and trees and mountains that will have readers ready to break out their own tents. After working hard to set up their tent, the girls are ready for a swim—but newbie Ernestine, who loves swimming at the Y, is surprised to find there are fish in the pond. After lunch, they all go on a hike, but someone seems to have packed too much in her backpack. A campfire, dinner, s’mores, some tossing and turning in her sleeping bag, a touch of homesickness, and a star-filled night all await the narrator in her memorable trip that is full of surprises. Experienced campers will smile knowingly while the inexperienced will gain tips about how real camping compares to the imagined. Mann’s thin, sometime-scribbly lines and earth-toned colors capture the child’s viewpoint masterfully, and the variety of layouts, from pages full of small vignettes with speech bubbles to spread-spanning landscapes, carries readers through anticipation, humor, and awe in this longer-than-usual picture-book/graphic-novel hybrid. All characters are black.

This delightful trip will be savored again and again. (Picture book. 5-10)

And here is what Booklist has to say:

Ernestine, who lives with her father in the city, narrates this story of going overnight camping with her aunt and cousin. It is the small African American girl’s first such trip, and she’s excited to buy needed equipment and spend time outdoors. Though she thinks she knows what to expect, the child is surprised by a number of new experiences. For example, swimming at the Y and swimming in a lake are very different: “There are fish in here!” she exclaims, with eyes wide and teeth clenched. Hiking in the woods is not the same as walking to school, and spending a night without her father nearby is lonesome. But finding new insects, admiring huge trees, and gazing at a startling starlit sky help her discover the wonders of the outdoors. Sweet pencil illustrations, collaged and painted digitally, appear in a variety of sizes, including some graphic-style panels that employ speech bubbles for dialogue. Beginning readers will enjoy being able to look at a picture and read the camping word placed nearby—camera, hat, swimsuit, pillow, sunglasses—on the endpapers as well as in the story. This title can serve as a manual for children who are about to go camping for the first time or as a remembrance for those who have had that exhilarating adventure.

— Maryann Owen

 That’s it for now friends. Stay well, and stay in touch.

Soon I will be writing much more about this particular book, but I wanted to let you know that my next picture book is available for pre-order! The Camping Trip is a hybrid picture book/comic, and it is near and dear to my heart for very many reasons. Suffice it to say, I can almost taste the s’mores when I think about making this sweet story about a girl named Ernestine’s first overnight camping trip. You can get a little sneak peak here and place a pre-order, or go directly to your favorite indie bookstore and ask them to order it for you. Can’t wait to talk with you more about the joy of camping!

it’s October 1! Summer is officially over, and both my nearly grown kids are back in school. Time to put the pedal to the metal!

I have a book that just launched two weeks ago (JOSIE’S LOST TOOTH, Candlewick Press, September 11, 2018) and I am hard at work on revisions for the next one (more about that later—it’s different!) , and I have for you a good size list of exciting things that are coming up for me, this month and in the months to come. Maybe I will see you at one event or another?

Here is what’s happening in the world of Jennifer K Mann, children’s book author and illustrator:

October 7, Queen Anne Books, Seattle, 5 pm. I’ll be co-hosting a pajama/book launch party for JOSIE’S LOST TOOTH, together with Suzanne Selfors, author of WISH UPON A SLEEPOVER. You might even see me wearing my new footed pj’s in public!

October 21 at 2 pm, University Bookstore, Seattle. Join me to launch JOSIE’S LOST TOOTH at University Bookstore, Seattle. There might be shark’s teeth!

November 2-4, I can be found at Islandwood on Bainbridge Island, where Newbery Honor winning author Kirby Larson and I will be the guest presenters/workshop leaders at the SCBWI-WWA Weekend On the Water, a retreat for writers and illustrators.

November 18, 2 pm, Eagle Harbor Books, Bainbridge Island. My home bookstore book launch party for JOSIE’s LOST TOOTH! A good possibility of give aways and treats—sharp ones.

December 2, 3-5 pm, SCBWI WWA’s Inside Story at Seattle Public Library, downtown branch. Come to hear dozens of local authors and illustrators, including me, give a 2 minute inside story that illuminates something interesting about their newest books!

April 7-14 Kindling Words West. I am beyond excited to announce that I will be the artist in residence for the entire week of Kindling Words West, a one week retreat for published authors and illustrators, held this year at the Whidbey Institute on Whidbey Island, Washington.

If you are able to join me at any of these events, please be sure to let me know!

UPDATE: Book donations to Camp Resurreccion have been AMAZING!! Thank you to everyone who has stepped up and mailed or delivered books. We are a little light on books for younger children, especially PICTURE BOOKS, so if anyone is moved to mail a few picture books to the address below before July 1, I would be SO grateful!!

To my beloved Kid Lit Community: authors, illustrators, librarians, book sellers:

I am reaching out to ask you to consider making a donation of new or gently used books for children ages 3-20, to a cause that is important to me.

This summer, I will be volunteering at Camp Resurreccion, serving children of Spanish speaking farm workers in the Skagit Valley of Washington State. I will be teaching art workshops at this wonderful camp that serves kids who may otherwise be at loose ends during the summer while their parents are hard at work on area farms. I would love to be able to share your wonderful books with these kids--books for them to cherish and keep, and books to swap and share with their siblings and friends. The camp is for kids ages 3-11, but there will be many teenagers working as camp counselors who would also be thrilled to take a book home.

The Skagit Valley is one of Washington's largest producers blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, tulips, daffodils, and specialty potatoes. More tulip, iris, and daffodil bulbs are produced here than in any other county in the U.S.. It's productivity is vital to our state and national economy, and it's workers are primarily latinx.

Please read more about the camp from director Julie Davis:

“Grace Camp Resurrección 2018 is a partnership with Grace Epsicopal Church, Bainbridge Island and La Iglesia De La Resurrección Church in Mt. Vernon, WA. The mission is to bring a week long day camp to Resurrección Church, which serves Spanish speaking families who primarily work on the farms in the area. The long summer work days for parents in this community leave children without much supervision. Camp not only provides a safe place, but a fun and educational experience for the children. Teen Crew Leaders, Volunteers, and Church Staff bring art, reading, science, math, fun games, skits, music, hot meals, play, etc. to 80 children ages 3-11 for the week of July 15-20. 

Books are always a need for this community. We have backpacks donated from Dakine for each child who attends Grace Camp Resurrección. Our hope is that they get to fill those backpacks with books to take home and read for the rest of the summer. “

If you are willing to contribute new or gently used children’s books to this important cause, please package them safely and mail them by July 1 to:

Camp Resureccion, Grace Episcopal Church, 8595 NE Day Rd, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

And drop me a note, jennifer at jenniferkmann dot com, just to let me know.

In gratitude,

Jen

It's my newest and it is coming out in September. It's ready for pre-order now, here. This is a book with true universal appeal, because, really, there isn't a human alive or dead who has not had a loose tooth--right? This is the story of indomitable Josie, who is the last one in her class to lose a tooth. (And she is last almost never!) Will that tooth come out without a fight? Not a chance.

I hope you like it, and I promise to share more about it between now and the day it arrives in your hands.

If it's spring (which it almost is--hooray!) then it's time for Percy to show you the way to the dog park. Percy, Dog of Destiny, is due in bookstores on March 28, 2017.

This latest project of mine was a collaboration with author Alison McGhee. Such a fun book! This was a bit of a departure for me--my last three books have all featured child protagonists, and so I had developed a pretty good comfort level conveying kids' body language and facial expressions. But Percy is a high-energy Jack Russell, and his friends are Molly the Poodle, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie the Dachshund, and Fluffy the very-oversized-Bull-Mastiff-type--so I really had to up my game and learn how to show all kinds of action and emotion for dogs as well.

I loved having to figure out how to give each dog their very distinct personality, not only in how they look, but in how they comport themselves. In the end, it was impossible to pick a favorite, because all four charmed me, and they each truly took on a life of their own as I put them to work in service of Alison's lively, witty text.

Time to pee on a tree!

A mischievous squirrel nearly steals the show.

But it's easy-going Fluffy who ultimately saves the day.

Here's the link if you want to have a look: http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=4088