Hey, Kids! I finally met Jeff Kinney!

When I visit schools I'm often asked by kids if I've ever met Jeff Kinney. Well, I can finally say, "Yes! I met Jeff Kinney!"

Miami Book Festival - November 20, 2011

Tour bus at the hotel

Miami Book Fair!

Hey Florida Friends!


I will be at the Miami Book Fair on Sunday, November 20th! Come see me on the Once Upon A Time Stage at 2:30pm.  I will be signing copies of ZOMBIE IN LOVE following my performance.

http://www.miamibookfair.com/events/once_upon_a_time_stage.aspx

Lansing Book Signing - October 27th!

Schuler Books presents its 3rd Annual Zombie Night! (Eastwood)

Come to the perfect preparatory party for Halloween at Schuler Books’ 3rd Annual Zombie Night… Because Zombies Need Love Too! 
Fun includes Zombie Twister, Zombie bowling, ZOMBIE IN LOVE story-time, and a costume contest.

Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011

Time: 7:00pm

Location: 

2820 Towne Center Blvd.

Lansing

, 

Michigan

48912

Click HERE for more details!

In other zombie-related news....check out these freakishly fabulous custom ZOMBIE IN LOVE dolls made by Etsy seller Creepy Stuff.  Be sure to check out her creepy store!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Zombie Walk pictures!

The Romeo Zombie Walk was a SCREAM!  Here are a few pictures of my new deadbeat friends...

Add caption

Zombie Walk Book Signing! October 9th!

Greetings Guys and Ghouls!


I will be autographing copies of ZOMBIE IN LOVE on Sunday, October 9th @ 4pm in downtown Romeo at the 2nd annual Zombie Walk and Food Drive. Look for me at/or near the Romeo Creamery & Tea Room.
Please bring non-perishable food items to help out homeless veterans in our area.  It's going to be booootiful day so shuffle on by and mumble "hello".

A Memorable, Moveable Feast

I was >> here in Minneapolis last week for the Midwest Booksellers Association Trade Show.  It was great connecting with so many terrific independent booksellers. I can't thank these dedicated, delightful people enough for all they do to hand sell books in this tough economy and ever-changing industry. It was a real joy to be in the same room with so many passionate book people on Thursday. Thanks MBA and Simon & Schuster!

 What a fun surprise to find myself seated at a table with a Facebook friend I'd never met - Cynthia Compton from 4 KIDS BOOKS & TOYS in Indiana!

 My awesome table mate - the lovely and talented Elizabeth Bunce, author of  A CURSE DARK AS GOLD and STAR CROSSED

I channeled my inner CRAFTY CHLOE and made these ZOMBIE IN LOVE table favors for the Moveable Feast.

If you happen to be in Alhambra, California tomorrow....

Don't miss this awesome ZOMBIE IN LOVE art exhibition at Gallery Nucleus!

Click here for more information!

Happy Birthday, Mortimer!

ZOMBIE IN LOVE

On Sale Today!

"Now there's a picture book for the youngest zombie fans. Campbell, a comics and video game artist, gives Mortimer the zombie just the right degree of repellant charm…DiPucchio…exchanges zombie horror for romantic agony; instead of fearing him, the thin-skinned will suffer right along with hapless Mortimer."

-- Publishers Weekly, June 20, 2011

"This silly story features loads of sight gags that sharp-eyed children will enjoy…chuckles are guaranteed…. This giggler will grab those children who like their zombies funny."

-- School Library Journal, August 2011

"DiPucchio and Campbell pair their considerable talents to tell the tale of poor Mortimer, a zombie looking for love in all the wrong places…. Text loaded with humorous understatement and Campbell's skillfully detailed watercolors in a palette of decay (think watery reds, putrid grays and sickly greens) are both clever and delightfully gross…. Probably best suited for sharing with primary graders, who will squirm between fits of laughter."

-- Kirkus, August 1, 2011

Robots, Space, Strings and More...Oh My!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Metamora's Old Town Hall will be Bustling with a Potpourri of Talents

Visit the Old Town Hall in Downtown Metamora during the Country Days & Hot Air Balloon Festival on Saturday, August 27th between noon and 5:00pm!

12-12:45pm
Reading of Gilbert Goldfish and Clink with Open Mic (kids tell all about their favorite book they read this summer and have a chance to win an autographed book).

A book signing will follow at 12:45pm.

Click here for more details and a schedule of events!

Please stop by to say "hello"!

Summer Library Program

Hi Readers!

I'm interrupting your summer to bring you this important announcement....

For one day only, I will be taking my hair out of a pony tail; I will put some make-up on, and I will wear something other than shorts & a T-shirt!

I will be at the New Buffalo Township Public Library on Thursday, July 21st at 1:00pm for a special storytime event. Click here for more details.

Hope to see you there!

Welcome to the world, Gilbert Goldfish!

I am pleased to introduce a little fish with a BIG heart. (And what seems like an impossible dream).

GILBERT GOLDFISH WANTS A PET

Illustrated by Bob Shea

Published by Dial Books for Young Readers

View the book trailer here!

Read Gilbert's letter to advice columnist, DEAR TABBY - here.

ON SALE TODAY!

Pitter-patter-SWISH!

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the good people in Missouri. The tornado that hit Joplin on Sunday was absolutely devastating. I was just in southwestern Missouri last week, visiting a school in Branson. The people I met on my trip were warm and wonderful. The land was beautiful. My condolences go out to everyone who lost family, friends, & homes in the disaster.

Thank you to Cynthia Matzat for arranging my Missouri visit and for her brilliant organizational skills & hospitality. Here we are having a chicken & dumplings dinner at Lambert's Cafe - a fun establishment where your dinner rolls are literally thrown at you by the wait staff.

Left to Right: Stefanie McKoy (3rd Grade teacher), Kolby (Buzz Lightyear Fan), Salley Doherty (Music teacher), Cindy Matzak (Media Center teacher), and myself (eating fried okra for the first time).

GRACE FOR PRESIDENT is proud to be a 2010-2011 Missouri Show Me Reader Award Nominee!

From the (E)Mail Bag

Dear Ms. DiPucchio:
My two-year-old daughter and I have read Clink about a thousand times. Thank you (and Mr. Myers) for creating such a delightful book.

We have a question about one of the robots that appears in some of the pictures. Actually, they seem to be a series of robots: the little blue and white spheres with numbers on them. They sort of look like floats for a fishing line. On the first page of the story, one appears just under the "SPECIAL" sign, and another appears at the bottom of the page in the hands of a blonde-headed boy. On the spread where Clink's dancing is wreaking havoc, they appear all over.

We have figured out the purpose of most of the other robots in the book, but we cannot figure out these little guys. Can you tell us what they do? If not, would Mr. Myers be able to help?

Thank you again for Clink, and thank you for whatever help you might provide. We look forward to exploring your other books.
Jay
Morton Grove, IL

Hello Jay,

How nice to hear from a CLINK fan! I'm thrilled to hear you and your daughter are enjoying the book together.

That is so awesome. As for your question....I looked up those little blue & white guys in the book and I don't know

what they are either! I have c.c.'d the illustrator, Matt Myers, on this email.

Matt, can you solve this mystery for us?? I'm curious too!

...k e l l y d i p u c c h i o...

Jay,

Matt here. Thanks for the fantastic note! You're right, the little fishing float-sized bots are in a series, which I imagined goes to 500. I think the highest number visible is 211? A good robot store should have an inexpensive model that everyone can afford, right? Sort of an impulse buy, sold next to the counter. They would be sold in a package that would hide the number, so that the customer wouldn't know which number they got until they bought it. Collect 'em all!, would be on the package. But that all got too complicated, so I just showed a bunch of them already out of their packages.

There were a lot of robot designs that never made it into the book, just because there are only 32 pages. As you can imagine, inventing robots is pretty fun.

On your 1001th read of the book, see if you can find:

1) The Pie Flattener 2000

2) The only robot that exists in the real world

3) A reference to a movie robot

4) The world's smallest violin robot playing a sad song for Clink

As for our hero, before I started drawing anything, Kelly had told our editor that she had an idea for how Clink should look — toaster head and accordion body. Perfect! I said, happy that Kelly has good ideas. The accordion became a radio later on, mainly because I can't draw accordions. Some artist's can't draw hands, but with me it's accordions :)

Matt

P.S. Don't tell your daughter there's a robot out there that will eat her asparagus for her. She'll want it.

*********************************

In other robot-y news: Check out these super cool pictures created by the young robo-artists in Marquette, Michigan. Who wouldn't want their very own Party Pickle Robot?!

Cool School

I'm waving to all of my new friends at Hodgkins School in Hodgkins, Illinois! Check out these awesome hall displays of scenes from ALFRED ZECTOR, BOOK COLLECTOR, illustrated by Macky Pamintuan. Thanks to all of the terrific students & staff who made my trip to the Chicago area fantastic!

ADOPT-A-ROBOT DAY!

Please join me in welcoming CLINK to the world! To read an interview about how this book was born, go here (Bookin' With Bingo), and check out the April 5th entry.

Be sure to visit illustrator Matthew Myers's awesome website. (Paintings So Good You'd Swear He's Dead).

To watch the Clink book trailer, go here.

Starred Review in Publisher's Weekly!

Clink
Kelly DiPucchio, illus. by Matthew Myers, HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-192928-1

Though this is his picture book debut, illustrator Myers's vision of the robot Clink's world is fully developed. It's a place where toy stores sell shiny, talented robots who do homework and make chocolate chip cookies, while the chunky outdated robot Clink--much cuter than the others, of course, with a toaster head and blocky red feet--only plays music and makes toast. Kids line up for the cookie-making robots and wave lonely Clink's burnt toast away: "He hadn't been programmed to cry, but somehow he leaked rusty tears every time." Finally, a boy named Milton appears, who "likes burned toast, is great at fixing things, and... loves to dance." DiPucchio's (Grace for President) text percolates with plenty of humor, and the inevitability of the plot provides security for smaller readers. Myers has a wonderful time drawing gems like the victim of Clink's disastrous haircuts (the unfortunate girl looks like a trimmed hedge) and the polka-dot underpants a fellow robot offers to Clink as consolation. Extra marks for the distinctive combination of geek elements with a dash of sentimentality. Ages 4–7. (Apr.)

On Sale Now!

Zombie Party!

Last weekend I was in New York City for a freakishly fabulous zombie party at Simon & Schuster. The party was a scream. Heartfelt thanks to Namrata Tripathi and Sonia Chaghatzbanian. I had a bloody good time!

Super talented & super nice ZOMBIE IN LOVE illustrator, Scott Campbell (pictured with severed foot)

Available wherever books are sold AUGUST 2011!

The first signed copy!

Zombie valentines!

The chocolate eye balls were to die for!

Mmm...finger food!

The Medulla Oblongata red wine was divine!

Zombie team: (left to right) Sonia Chaghatzbanian, me, Scott Campbell, and Nami Tripathi.

The NYC trip doubled as a Ghouls' Weekend! My booootiful traveling companions - my daughter, Hannah & my mother, Lorraine.