Book Giveaway: REMARKABLY YOU by Pat Zietlow Miller

Author Pat Zietlow Miller has a new picture book titled, REMARKABLY YOU, Illustrated by Patrice Barton, and published by HarperCollins. Pat has agreed to share a book with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping Pat and Patrice!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

New York Times bestselling author Pat Zietlow Miller celebrates individuality in her remarkablepicture book about the beauty of being yourself.

Heartfelt and timeless, Remarkably You is an inspirational manifesto about all of the things—little or small, loud or quiet—that make us who we are.

With encouraging text by Pat Zietlow Miller and exuberant illustrations by Patrice Barton, readers will delight in all the ways they can be their remarkable selves.

You might go unnoticed, or shine like a star,
but wherever you go and whoever you are…
don’t change how you act to be just like the rest.
Believe in yourself and the things you do best.

PAT’S BOOK JOURNEY:

Remarkably You started percolating in my head when I was thinking about all the different ways people can be smart and how some ways of being smart tend to be recognized more than others. For instance, kids who are great athletes tend to get more pubic recognition — school assemblies, pep rallies, media coverage, people clapping in the stands, athletic banquets and awards — than a child who quietly grows amazing carrots or crochets perfect baby booties. Yet all those skills are necessary and noteworthy. I wanted Remarkably You to recognize all the wonderful, interesting and quirky ways kids can excel. And, I wanted it to show that people can be good at more than one thing. You may be the best wrestler ever, but you also could be great at writing poetry or fixing cars.

So I made a list of all the ways I could think of that kids might excel and started turning it into a poem that celebrates all the things that make people remarkable. I hoped kids would read the book, pause on a page, and say: “Oh! That’s me!” And, I hoped the book would encourage them to honor what makes them special and pursue it enthusiastically, even if it’s not what everyone else is doing.

As a line in the book says: “Dream your own dreams. Hear your own heart. You could change the world, you just have to start.”

PAT ZIETLOW MILLER’S BIO:

Pat Zietlow Miller knew she wanted to be a writer ever since her seventh-grade English teacher read her paper about square-dancing skirts out loud in class and said: “This is the first time anything a student has written has given me chills.” (Thanks, Mrs. Mueller! You rock!)

Pat started out as a newspaper reporter and wrote about everything from dartball and deer-hunting to diets and decoupage. Then, she joined an insurance company and edited its newsletter and magazine.

Now, she writes insurance information by day and children’s books by night.

Pat has one wonderful husband, two delightful daughters and two pampered cats. She doesn’t watch much TV, but she does love “Chopped.”

Pat lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Visit her website to view more of her books: https://www.patzietlowmiller.com/

ILLUSTRATOR PATRICE BARTON’S JOURNEY:

She had me at the title – Remarkably You. I was delighted with Pat’s manuscript. I love drawing children and here was a manuscript absolutely brimming with characters. So many personalities to capture! When I sketched them I loved stepping into their shoes and pretending how it might feel to be good at counting, or to play a cello, or lead a parade. It’s a bit like acting I guess… I’m not a doctor, but I play one on tv. 🙂 

To help me develop the characters for this book, I listed all the adjectives and actions Pat used to describe them.  Along with my word list, my inspiration for these characters comes from my own childhood memories, raising my son, and people watching in general. The baseball players were inspired by my brother, Tony. He and his friends never just walked down the street. They tossed the ball, ran back and forth, and tripped over curbs because they always had their eye on the ball, not where they were walking.  The reader is my son Seth, who has always been an avid reader/writer. And the funny little girl with the sticky note face is a nod to my sister, Janie, who is hilarious. Her bangs looked just like that, she cut them herself. 

The spread with the world map in the sky was a fun surprise. I was inspired by the line “you could change the world.” My first sketch for this page showed a child with a magnifying glass studying a globe. I realized this made the child seem large and the world small… not what I was looking for. So I took the child outside and put her under a vast sky. That was better. Then I added a telescope, so the child could see the whole world. That triggered adding the world map to the sky. For me, the answers come from doing the work.

Working with the publishing team (art directors, editors, etc)  is another part of the book journey I enjoyed. Working together, passing ideas back and forth, discovering what’s working, what isn’t, and then slowly but surely, it all falls into place. Such is the magic of making picture books. 

PATRICE’S BIO:

Everyone knew Patrice was an artist when she was found creating a mural on the dining room wall with a pastry brush and a can of Crisco at the age of three. Although the work itself was never fully appreciated by her parents, her interest in art was. They quickly gave her a better canvas and more appropriate supplies. Her passion for art grew, and she earned her Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in Studio Art.

Her work appears in picture books, chapter books, children’s magazines, and the educational market. Patrice works digitally from her home in Austin, Texas which she shares with her husband, son and good dog Archer. Patrice was featured on Illustrator Saturday. Here’s the link: https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/illustrator-saturday-patrice-barton/ Or for more visit her website: www.patricebarton.com

Pat and Patrice, thank you for sharing your book and its’ journey with us. I love the story and the illustrations really make this an adorable book. I am sure kids will love it.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy