Thank you, Jane!

Did we mention that children’s book illustrator, Jane Dyer, was coming to Kiddly Winks and that we were more than a little excited about it? Ok, so maybe announcing the event on the home page of our Web site, AND in 4 or 5 email blasts, AND here on our blog, AND in the local newspapers was a little excessive. But we were SO excited!

Well, yesterday was “the day,” and Jane spent the entire afternoon with us! Clearly many of  you were as excited as we were because lots of you showed up with your little ones and Jane signed a mountain of books!

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Children's Book Illustrator Jane Dyer at Kiddly Winks

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Young Jane Dyer fans & "Sugar Cookies"

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And then she read from “Hurry, Hurry, Have You Heard?’ and “Move Over, Rover.”

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Jane Dyer reading to an engaged audience!

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And then she showed us how she comes up with the drawings for the books she illustrates.

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Jane Dyer explaining how she creates her book drawings.

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And then she signed some more books, and read a little more and showed us more of her drawings and paintings.

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Jane talking about her books with an aspiring artist

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And we all had such a great time…

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Quiet reading time from Jane Dyer books.

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….we hope she’ll come back soon!

Thank you, Jane! And thank you, for coming everyone!

Joy

P.S. And if you couldn’t join us yesterday, Jane graciously signed a number of her books and left them with us, so you can still purchase them for wonderful holiday gifts!

Why We Love Jane Dyer

There are so many things to love about Jane Dyer!

Over the course of a long and distinguished career, Jane has illustrated almost 50 children’s  books with a variety of wonderful authors. And, amazingly, she is completely self-taught as an illustrator.

Growing up, Jane’s mother read to Jane and her twin sister every day. Her favorite stories were those from a set of books originally published thirty years before she was born, and which had illustrations that evoked another sense  of time.

In her work today, Jane continues to be inspired by those early childhood images, and she tries “to convey the feeling I had as a child – that one could climb right into the illustrations on a page and inhabit those worlds. Although I did not go to art school, I believe those hours spent developing my imagination, along with my love of illustrations from the past have been my training.”

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Jane Dyer in Her Studio

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I discovered Jane’s books somewhere around 1993, and we’ve carried them here at Kiddly Winks, ever since – adding each new title as it’s published. Jane’s books are amazing in that they never get outdated! Each new generation of little ones absolutely delights in her illustrations and they really do feel like they become part of the story!

In addition to “Hurry, Hurry, Have You Heard!,” some of our most favorite Jane Dyer titles include: “Sugar Cookies: Sweet Little Lessons on Love.”

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Sugar Cookies

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And our most popular book from Jane, “Time For Bed.”

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Time For Bed

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Hopefully, you can see just a little bit of why we’re so excited about having Jane here at our Longmeadow store…signing books AND reading from one of them!

So, join us next Friday, December 11th from 3:00PM – 5:00PM at our Longmedow, MA store, and meet this most wonderful children’s book illustrator!

In the mean time, stop by either of our stores, or order from our Web site, to be sure you’ll have a copy of your favorite Jane Dyer books for her to sign. And remember, if you can’t join us, Jane will sign any books you’ve purchased when she’s here – you can pick them up later or we can ship them to you, or your gift recipient.

Looking forward to seeing you next Friday!

My best,

Joy