Pizza Day by Melissa Iwai
Hello,
Melissa Iwai! Happy Monday! Thank you for dropping by to celebrate Pizza Day and to chat with me about your illustrations, pizza,
soup, and school libraries.
Melissa Iwai: Thanks for having me, Mr. Schu! I'm so excited
and honored to be here, introducing my new book, Pizza Day, the
sequel to Soup Day!
I think I will eat soup for lunch and pizza for dinner. :)
The cover illustration for Pizza Day should remind people of the ooey, gooey,
juicy, crunchy goodness of a fresh pizza. And if they read the book, they will
discover how they can make one just like it themselves!
I created the illustrations using
a mixture of hand-drawn ink markings and painted watercolor paintings and swatches
which I then scanned into the computer and assembled digitally.
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Illustration Credit: Melissa Iwai |
After you read Pizza
Day, I hope you'll be inspired to plant a garden
or cook in the kitchen with a child in your life. Some of my favorite memories
are of making recipes with my son when he was little. It must have done
something because now he loves making up his own recipes and cooking for
himself (sometimes!)
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Illustration Credit: Melissa Iwai |
My favorite pizza is Veggie -- just
like the one featured in the story. I made this pizza from scratch too many
times to count when I was developing the recipe for the book, and I still love
it!
Soup Day tells the story of a little girl
and her mom making "Snowy Day Soup" for lunch in their cozy
apartment in the city on a winter's day.
School libraries are sanctuaries for the mind and soul. They are a safe place for kids to explore, learn, and find peace. One of my earliest memories is of spending hours in our Kindergarten library after school. My mother was a volunteer librarian and would bring me there after lunch. I loved being alone and free to explore the enormous collection of picture books for hours on end. It's the reason why I've wanted to be a picture book creator my entire life!
Explore Melissa's website. |
Mr. Schu, you should have asked me if
the family depicted in Soup Day and Pizza Day are
multi-ethnic. The answer is yes! Though the stories themselves aren't about
ethno-cultural issues per se, I purposely made the daughter in Soup Day be
adopted from Asia and the boy in Pizza Day be biracial. The reason
why is because I know, from my own experience, how affirming it is for kids of
different backgrounds to see themselves in books!
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