Erin Dealey

Ever wonder what your fan favorites

and #kidlit authors & illustrators were like as kids?

Welcome to Show and Tell, where we’ll share their kindergarten pictures and a memory of  kindergarten days each #tbt.

Antoinette Portis  “…aka The Sun Is In My Eyes.” (I have more than a few squinting pictures, myself! Do you?)

Today’s Kindergarten Show and Tell is from award-winning author/illustrator

Antoinette Portis,

whose books include WAIT!,  BEST FRINTS IN THE UNIVERSE,

NOT A BOX, and more.

She attended Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena, CA.

Here is her Kinder memory: 

I was the oldest kid in my family and there was no one to give me the skinny on Kindergarten. So I went off to the big school with trepidation. It was: Oh no, not another place where I have to figure out not to get into trouble.

One day near the beginning of the year, I got caught in the rain walking the two blocks to school. I was late and sopping wet when I stepped into the classroom and expected to get bawled out and sent to the Principal’s office for committing this crime. Instead the teacher took me by the hand, led me over to the sink and dried me off with wads of paper towels. That act of kindness changed my mind about how school was going to go.  Plus, I found out I loved show and tell.

Antoinette’s newest book, NOW,

will release with Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press in July:

“Repetition of the simple sentence structure makes for a perfect read-along as the author creates a lovely rhythm layered with meaning … Text and art enhance each other, both like an East Asian sumi-e painting: deceivingly simple but highly sophisticated, every mark with meaning and purpose. Portis perfectly captures how children experience the world, the immediacy and magic of it all; exuberant and quiet, simple and complex, and extremely satisfying.” – KIRKUS (starred)

“Portis (Best Frints in the Whole Universe) writes in the voice of a girl who knows what it means to live in the moment … (she) invites children to ask themselves what gives them joy, making it clear that favorite things needn’t be logical, and can be simple, silly, and fleeting.” – PW

Thank you, Antoinette, for sharing your Kindergarten Show and Tell.

To learn more about Antoinette Portis go to antoinetteportis.com. 

Do you know an almost Kindergartner who’s feeling a bit nervous about the first day?

Maybe Antoinette’s Kinder memory –and her teacher’s lovely act of kindness– will ease the anxiety, or help to start a conversation about Kindergarten jitters.

Shameless plug: My new book, K IS FOR KINDERGARTEN, illustrated by Joseph Cowman (Sleeping Bear Press) has a page about jitters too.

I can’t wait for you to see it! 

74 days to go–August 15th to be exact! (But who’s counting?)

**Book Giveaway info to come!

Next up: Part 3 of Show and Tell. Meet the kindergartner who would grow up to be author Tim McCanna (WATERSONG, BITTY BOT–and his newest: BARNYARD BOOGIE).