Book Birthday Blog with pj lyons

 

Welcome to SCBWI-MI's Book Birthday Blog!

Where we celebrate new books from Michigan's authors and illustrators. 

 

 Congratulations to pj lyons on the release of All God's Critters Sing Allelu

 

 

 

How did you come up with the idea for your book?

I was inspired to write this story when a friend commented that her toddler loved silly noise books (Moo, moo, bah, bah, fala lala type stuff), but the mom wished they had some takeaway value. I had heard that Goodnight Moon had all the phonemes (smallest unit of sound) in English, but when I checked, it didn’t. Being a nerdy geek with an undergrad background in language and linguistics, I thought it would be a fun challenge. And animal noises was such a fun word palette to work with.

What is something you hope your readers will take away from your book?

I hope they discover words are toys for the mind, and worshipping the Creator is fun and joy-inducing. Also, it took twenty years for this book to finally be published, so I hope anyone discouraged about getting published will take heart and never quit.

 

 

The first book you illustrated, Song of Hope, won an award. Congratulations! The illustrations appear to be 3-dimensional. What inspires your art?

Thanks. I must say, winning the award was very affirming. And working with the author, Joan Donaldson, was a wonderful experience. Drawing is hard work for me. At heart, I’m a maker. I have about a 15-minute attention span for drawing, but can spend hours cutting paper, building sets, problem solving how to make something and never notice the passage of time. When I was little and misbehaved, my mom took away my scissors and glue. 

 
I had planned to illustrate Song of Hope with a 2-dimensional cut paper approach. When I couldn’t get the depth of field I was envisioning, I built a theater, attached skewers to the back of the characters, poked them into a sheet of foam insulation, and photographed each scene. It was so much fun!

In addition to All God’s Critters Sing Allelu, you have written 2 other books. Do you have more books in the works? 

Actually, All God’s Critters Sing Allelu is my sixth published book. My first book was The Wonderful World that God Made (Kregel, 2004). It’s out of print. I also wrote The Little Chick’s and Little Bunny’s Bibles, illustrated by Melanie Mitchell (Zonderkidz 2015), and the two you mentioned, Thank You, Lord, for Everything and God Is Watching Over You, both illustrated by Tim Warnes (Zonderkidz, 2014, 2015). Those four are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. 
But to answer your question, I have nothing under contract at the moment, even though I am constantly working on something. Currently, I’m in the process of illustrating some of my own manuscripts. If any editors or agents are reading this, please contact me, I have a plethora of manuscripts looking for love!  

What are your marketing plans for the book?

First, reaching out to kind folks like you. I also am compiling a list of friends who will be sharing posts about the book on their social media. This is the first book for which I’ve been asked to participate in the marketing. I feel very awkward promoting my own work and am grateful for your help spreading the word. Here’s a link for those who are interested in ordering All God’s Critters Sing Allelu: https://www.beamingbooks.com/store/product/9781506467924/All-Gods-Critters-Sing-Allelu 

A little bit about the book . . .

Bow-wow, meow, cocka-doodle-doo. All God's critters sing allelu!
Dogs and cats, cows and sheep, frogs and crickets: all creation comes together in this rhyming picture book. All God's Critters Sing Allelu uses all the English phonemes, the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another word, to assist ages 0-4 in language acquisition and reading readiness. Follow along as lively illustrations depict each part in a harmony of sounds, encouraging kids to join in praising God.  

 

A little bit about the author . . .

After my husband, Eddie Eicher, and I moved to Michigan in 1988 for his job, I was praying for direction in my life. One morning, while reading Tomie dePaola’s Book of Bible Stories, I had an epiphany: picture books combined my two loves: words and art. I enrolled at Calvin to add an Art major to my BA in Spanish/Linguistics. At that time I was quite active in the Irish music scene, where I met Joan Donaldson, a Fennville author and musician. She told me about SCBWI, and invited me to join her critique group when there was an opening. I heard about Vermont College of Fine Arts from group’s hostess, Karmen Kooyers, and subsequently got an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. I am so grateful for Joan, Karmen, and all the generous volunteers in SCBWI who have helped me achieve my goal of being an author and an illustrator. You can see more of my artwork at www.pjlyons.com  

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