Chickens and Fairytales

How much fun am I having???!

A lot!!!!

Fresh off a night filled with music (Vienna Boys Choir), I headed north the next morning to see/meet one of my favorite children’s’ book authors and illustrator…Jan Brett!

Can you believe she was in our neck of the woods?  I certainly couldn’t so I have NO choice but to load up my cameras and tote bags full of Jan’s books!

And what a blast that was.  I’ve featured Jan’s books HERE , HERE, and HERE  before on this blog.  I never get tired of her immensely detailed artistry!

Her latest book features a sweet little chicken, Cinders, who is living a parallel life to a somewhat famous princess, Cinderella.  She manages to give an old story a new twist and her chicken portraits are too cute!

Jan spent the first half of her presentation giving us a drawing demonstration, using techniques very similar to my college art professor!  She made the creation of a chicken princess look easy!

Here’s a link to her website where she has included a delightful video where she shares how to draw Cinder.  This website, by the way, is chock full of good stuff.  If you have children or grands who love to draw, steer them to her site!!

And to make the demo even better, her pet chickens were presented as she carefully lifted her beautiful Silkie and Phoenix poultry pets out of their posh cages.

Jan and her Silkie Chicken.

Never heard of those varieties of chickens?  Oh, baby, I have! Our middle son was a poultry enthusiast at an early age and we raised every known chicken breed to mankind…and a  few not known!  (Although we never had a Phoenix!) We had what some might call a Chicken Zoo, topped off with unheard breeds of turkeys, geese, ducks…you name it.  As soon as his four sons were old enough to help with livestock, Middle Son had a chicken herd again.  Only at his house!

I wouldn’t mind having a few chickens again.  It wouldn’t be as much fun though.  That kid would spend hours taking care of those birds.  And talking to them.  And I’m pretty sure there’s not one person in the world who has taken as many photos of their pet chickens as this kid did! I have stacks and stacks of them!

But back to Jan…after her demo, she met her fans and signed a LOT of books, even personalizing some!

Her husband Joe Hearne, who plays the bass for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (these two just ooze talent!), drives the big, beautifully painted Cinders bus that transports them all over the USA.

Check out Jan’s books. I promise you will be impressed with her artistic AND story-telling skills!