Discoveries

This past Saturday, I opened an email from Get Lit!, a Spokane, WA group that organizes an annual lit festival in April. A month or so ago, I had signed up to receive email updates about the festival, but was so excited to discover they had year-round events posted on a calendar on their website! I clicked my mouse a few times and found that picture book author and illustrator, Daniel Schallau would be signing his new book, Come Back Soon, at Auntie’s bookstore in downtown Spokane that very afternoon.

Being new to the area, I hadn’t been to Auntie’s, but after perusing the Get Lit! calendar, I knew it was someplace I had to visit. I convinced the family it was the place to be, and we headed out. I was not disappointed! Auntie’s is a wonderful bookstore. But not only that, it has a super cool game store inside and a café next door with a large rectangular window that opens into the bookstore. So inside it smells like books, freshly brewed coffee and tasty café food. Ahhhh.

But now onto Daniel. Daniel was in town to promote his new picture book, Come Back Soon (and to visit his parents). Daniel grew up in the Pacific Northwest, became an architect and met his wife in a Starbucks on NW 23rd in Portland, OR. His wife is originally from Japan, so they moved to Tokyo to be with her family. It was so great to talk with Daniel in person about his book. I got the inside scoop on a lot of the amazing, detailed art within. His background in architecture and his life in Japan, influence the world he’s created inside this book. There is so much to look at and discover in the penguin’s iceberg home. If you know a child that loves looking at little details, they will love pointing out something new in this book each time they pick it up.