Any Two Socks Make a Pair

The huge shipment of the Love of Reading series prints arrived before the crocuses, and before our latest whopping of snow, which, like The Man, is still Holding Those Crocuses Down.

I thought there might be one really big box of prints but instead there were seven not-so-big boxes. I sank a fortune on the lot, not knowing exactly how they'd turn out, not knowing if they'd get here before the big storm, and yes, I got all nervous. Over the years I have had prints (from other services) come back where all my people look as red as boiled lobsters or as orange as Oompa Loompas. I really like Oompa Loompas, and lobsters are okay, too, but they're not what I'm going for in my work -- at least, not yet. But I've dealt with this particular printing company on numerous occasions now and, I don't know, maybe Uprinting has a special magical printing fairy who watches out for my work, and well. WOW. I opened the first box, and squee'd; and the second; and the third; and so on. In every box, the colors in the prints pretty much match the colors I drew. Can I tell you how great that is? It is so stinkin' great.

So everything is now very happily in place for me to show you the whole Love of Reading series in all their bibliophilic splendor, and if you like, you can get copies of your very own at etsy. I'll be spotlighting one piece per day over the next several days. This particular piece, Any Two Socks Make a Pair, was inspired by:

1. My buddy Ajax -- after I asked my Facebook friends to chip in book title suggestions for the series, earlier this winter. Ajax's title so resonated with what I have observed in my community's children. Mismatched socks are very much in vogue here, particularly if you're not in the fifth grade yet. You get to fifth grade, you're just way too cool.

2. My buddy Alia -- who suggested the book title on the back cover of the book (How to Train Your Adults).

3. A little girl in my daughter's class -- whom we've known since they were both in the first grade. I met her when I chaperoned the first grade field trip to the Tyler Arboretum, which this kid called the Tyler Harbor Burrito, and thus was I smitten. She's got that Snow White look, pale skin and dark bobbed hair. At the end of that school year her mom came in to the first grade poetry festival and read...

4. ... [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in], by e.e. cummings, a snippet of which is obscured some, on the chalkboard in the background. i carry your heart is one of my favorite, favorite poems,  The aforementioned little girl and my little girl are now in fifth grade, and they're still really into poems. Meanwhile, I've gotten to know this other mom some, and she's just wonderful, and now the e.e. cummings poem makes me blubber. In a good way.

5.  Reading logs. I've chopped off part of the text (on purpose) but if you were to enter the world I've pictured here, you would see reading logs due tomorrow! which is the blessing and the curse of all who attend the schools in my neighborhood. I did not have reading logs when I was a kid. What do you think of them?

More pictures tomorrow! I'm so happy to share them at last.