In 2013, Schiffer Books published I Hate Picture Books! It has become one of my most popular books and is especially loved by elementary school teachers and librarians. In the book I lovingly poke fun of and parody many well-known classic picture books. In the book’s illustrations I added hundreds of books on floor surrounding Max, the main character. I chose books from my childhood, books my children had loved and even added some books written by author friends.
A few years back my editor at Schiffer asked how we should celebrate the 10th anniversary of the book. I had an idea of what to do. For many years I have been carrying around a copy of the book that I have asked authors to autograph. I asked them to sign near where their books were in the artwork. You can see some of the author signatures below.
One author friend, Nancy Viau, wondered why her book was not included. I explained that it had not yet been published when I was was working on the illustrations. Nancy then drew her picture book in and signed next to it. Other authors and illustrators started doing the same, adding their books, their characters or other drawings to this copy of I Hate Picture Books! I started thinking of it as my “author yearbook” and I loved how it had been wonderfully defaced.
For the 10th Anniversary Edition I decided to add more books to the artwork. I picked 50 books that had been published since I Hate Picture Books! had come out, including many of the books that had been drawn into his copy. I also added a few of my newer books. The book was scheduled to be published in 2023 but due to delays from the Covid pandemic it had to wait until August 2024. Now that it’s out I am celebrating it’s release by having a contest. The rules are fairly simple:
• Participants need to submit the entry form with as many titles of the 50 books that have been added. You don’t have to list them all but a minimum of 10 are required to enter. If you have a copy of I Hate Picture Books! you can compare it to the 10th Anniversary Edition to find the newly added books. Many of them are easily identifiable but some are hard to spot.
• You can print a copy of the entry form to use while you are finding books. Once you are ready to enter, download the pdf form and type in your answers. Click the ‘Submit Entry” button to email it.
• The contest will run this entire school year, winning entries will be announced in June 2025.
• One entry per person.
• 10 random winners will receive signed prints of an illustration from the I Hate Picture Books! 10th Anniversary Edition.
• 5 random winners will receive a hand-painted casting of the sculpture of Max from I Hate Picture Books! The sculpture is almost done, we will add progress pictures here throughout the next few months. See the picture below.
• 1 winner will receive 50 picture books that appear in I Hate Picture Books!. Some of them will be signed by their authors and illustrators, as many as I can get while I’m collecting the books. Books will be chosen based on availability. A number of the books will be from my collection of books that I used for research while creating the original illustrations.
United States:
• IndieBound
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Books A Million
• Target
• Better World Books
Canada
• Indigo Books & Music
Germany
• Thalia
United Kingdom
• W H Smith
• Amazon UK
• Waterstones
• Foyles
• Gazelle
Japan
• Amazon JP
Australia
• The Nile
New Zealand
• Nationwide Book Dist.
Sweden
• Bokus
Finland
• Adlibris
Netherlands
• Bruna
Retailers can purchase copies from Schiffer Publishing here.
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