Exciting week!

Hey everyone! 

It's been an exciting week leading up to my book launch this coming Tuesday! I've had more hedgehog fun as well as had a couple of interviews! Before I get back to preparations, here's the latest hedgehog montage from the past week and my interview links!

Thanks to Jama Rattigan for making me a hotTea on her blog this month:

http://jamarattigan.com/2016/02/11/hotteas-of-childrens-literature-jessixa-bagley/

And huge thanks to Don Tate for inviting me to Brown Bookshelf this month as part of the 28 Days Later campaign which celebrates vanguard African-American children's book authors, as well as emerging and established authors who are flying "under-the-radar" of teachers, librarians and parents.

http://thebrownbookshelf.com/2016/02/13/day-13-jessixa-bagley/

Okay, back to it! Enjoy the hedgies!

Two weeks until the book launch!

Hey all! 

Just two weeks until Before I Leave makes it way into the world! I'm super excited and have a bunch of fun school visits and readings planned after the launch! I'll post the schedule in the next week or so. For now, here are my most recent hedgies from my hedgehog a day postings!

Nine days of hedgehogs!

Hey everyone!

The book launch for my second picture book Before I Leave is just a few weeks away and I've been sharing out a drawing a day of Zelda the hedgehog on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as a way to celebrate the leading up to the launch. Here are my hedgies from the last nine days. Enjoy! And find me on those other platforms to follow along! 

WrestleMania!!!

Hey everyone!
I've been tweeting about this and posting notices on Facebook, but I wanted to mention that I will be part of a Twitter Event this evening for the 2016 WrestleMania Reading Challenge! Say what?! Oh yeah! The awesome Yuri Morales will be joining the conversation as well!

The details are below! Follow along and participate!

What: Twitter Party with @WWEmoms (invite here)
Date: Thursday, January 21^st

Time: 7-8 pm ET

Hashtag to follow for party: #WWEmoms

It's 2016 ALREADY?!

Wowza wowza! Where did the time go? I feel like I just posted in my blog and it's already been over two months! So much has happened in my little corner of the world. The holidays were so much fun, a bit of a blur now, but I really did savor every second as much as possible. I was even fortunate enough to do a couple of interviews over the past couple of months. I was on the Podcast Storybook Spotlight hosted by Karen Santhanam.

It's sad to 2015 go because it was the best year of my life so far, but 2016 is already off to a great start!

In book world, there was much talk about Boats for Papa and the infamous Caldecott Medal, but alas, it was not meant to be. It was so exciting and flattering to be included in conversations with some of my favorite illustrators, it made me feel like a winner! I DID however get listed as one of the Notable Children's Books for 2016 by the ALA- such a HUGE honor!!!

I have to also make a special call out Sam Juliano for his generous and loving review of Boats for Papa on his blog. It was such a special review, I was truly touched.

And with the new year comes the launch of my second picture book, Before I Leave, staring the adorable hedgehog Zelda (pictured above). I've been lucky to receive a couple of starred reviews already from the School Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly and a lovely review from Kirkus! This was such a fun and sweet book to work on I'm excited for the world to see it on February 16th! As always you can pre-order through Amazon, but whenever possible, buy local and support your indy bookstores! And if you are in Seattle on February 16th, I am having a book launch for my book at Secret Garden Books in Ballard at 7pm. Hope to see you there!

AND in leading up to my book release, I will be posting a hedgehog a day until February 16th.

So much more to come for 2016! I can't wait. I hope you have a happy happy new year!

Reviews!

Hey All!
So after an exciting day of blogging in the stratosphere for PiBoIdMo, I thought I'd give you a quick update on some current news from my picture book corner of the world.

My next picture book Before I Leave (Roaring Brook Press, February 16, 2016) has already received two great reviews! This lovely review by Kirkus and a STARRED review from Publisher's Weekly!

I'm so excited for this next book to come out! I can't say how much I loved painting my little hedgehog and her anteater friend. The book is about cherishing the last moments with a friend before you have to move away, something as a child I went through several times.

It's available for pre-order through Amazon or see if you can pre-order it through your local bookstore!

I can't wait for February!

jx

PiBoIdMo!

Hey everyone
Happy fall! You might already know that November is National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo) where you take on the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Pretty awesome I know! Well, it's also Picture Book Idea Month-or PiBoIdMo. PiBoIdMo's challenge is to come up with a picture book idea every single day for the month of November.

It's very fun and freeing to just let your ideas flow without letting them get too precious or (like me) end up stifling your creativity. So I'm participating in PiBoIdMo this year AND today (Day 7 of the challenge) I am guest blogging on the site! Check it out:

http://taralazar.com/2015/11/07/piboidmo-day-7-jessixa-bagley-activates-her-muse-plus-a-prize/


Thanks so much to Tara Lazar for asking me to chat about my inspiration!
jx