Book Giveaway: IAMASAURUS by Anne Ylvisaker

Anne Ylvisaker has written a new picture book, IAMASAURUS, illustrated by Mark Hoffman and published by Cameron Kids -Abrams Books. They have agreed to send a copy to the one lucky winner in the US.

Just leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Let me know other things you did to share the good news, so I can put the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter or reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. So, thanks for helping Anna and Mark.

If you have signed up to follow my blog and it is delivered to you everyday, please let me know when you leave a comment and I will give you an extra ticket. If you want to make sure you don’t miss seeing that you won, please click “Notify Me of Follow-Up Comments by Email” box. I will leave a comment in reply if you win the book. Thanks!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A romp of a tale about the surprising similarities between dinosaurs and children.

Iamasaurus. I am noodlevorous. One of the genus Ridiculorous. Mothers abhor us. Babies adore us. We romp and we stomp and we chomp on the floras. Turns out kids are not unlike T. rexes. Did you know both creatures share many of the same body parts—maxillae, mandibles, clavicles, ribs. Scapulas, humeri, tibias, fibs? This fun romp of a book will make young readers’ inner dinosaurs roar with delight.

 

BOOK JOURNEY:

Thanks for inviting me to share my IAMASAURUS journey. The idea sprouted in 2013 and the book published in 2022, so it has been an epic trek indeed.

IAMASAURUS began in the way of all my books, as a happy accident. I was volunteering in a fourth-grade classroom when a boy named Ivan ran up to his teacher. He bent over and pointed to his back.

Ms. Bishop! he said. Look what I’ve got!

What is it? Ms. Bishop asked.

Ms. Bishop, one of Ivan’s classmates said, Ivan just discovered his spine.

In that flash of a moment, I imagined Ivan imagining his spine being the bumpy back of a Stegosaurus, and the word iamasaurus popped into my head. I jotted it on a slip of paper and stuck it in my pocket. At home, I tacked it on my writing wall where the word teased me every time I glanced at it, an idea floating just out of reach.

I used to teach elementary school and my students loved learning about dinosaurs. One of their favorite things was mastering complicated dinosaur words and saying them out loud. I mean, who doesn’t love to say Diplodocus?

One day I thought wouldn’t kids also love to be able to say all the words that describe being a human? Words like clavicle and cochlea, scapula and mandible.

I imagined a rowdy group of children at a family reunion being silly, chanting the words for their own body parts, as if they were their own species of dinosaur, while the adults talked and ate. The first lines popped into my head: Iamasaurus, I am noodlevorous, part of the genus Ridiculorous. Mothers abhor us, babies adore us, we romp and we stomp and we chomp on the floras. We’ve got…

I dashed to the library for Gray’s Anatomy, and poured over it, listing body parts words that would be fun to say out loud. Later, I discovered that dinosaurs shared many of the same body parts as humans.

Cameron Kids, the IAMASAURUS publisher, paired my manuscript with the incredible illustrator Mark Hoffmann. Mark and I didn’t communicate until after the book was published, so he was able to bring his own brilliant vision for the text alive: a field trip to a natural history museum. Of course! The perfect setting for this boisterous crew, and the perfect way to show readers all the ways that children and dinosaurs are alike.

IAMASAURUS is a book that is meant to be read aloud and Mark gave the book the silly energy I’d envisioned while laying out the words in a way that is fun to read while also learning anatomy.

For an extra dose of interactive fun, a downloadable activity sheet is available on my website and on the Abrams website. Children create their own dinosaur name and species, then illustrate it. For example, I am Anneasaurus, I am pizzavorous, one of the genus Scrabbleorous. Check it out! And if you’re inclined, share the results on social media with the hashtag #iamasaurus.

For more about my books, find me at www.anneylvisaker.com, on Instagram @anne.ylvisaker and Facebook as Anne.Ylvisaker.Studio.

ROAR!

ANNE’S BIO:

Anne Ylvisaker (pronounced ILL-vi-soccer) is an award-winning author of middle-grade novels and nonfiction books for young readers. She is the author of the picture book IAMASAURUS (Cameron Kids 2022) as well as many award winning books, including five middle grade novels with Candlewick Press, a board book, and nineteen books of non-fiction for young readers. In 2005 Anne was awarded the McKnight Artist Fellowship/Loft Award in Children’s Literature. She has a master’s degree in education.

Anne grew up near the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Until 2006, she spent her adult life just across the river in Saint Paul, teaching and writing. After four years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Anne moved to Monterey, California where she lives with her husband Dan.

Follow Anne on Instagram for poetry, art, and snippets of life in her backyard writing studio, or get in touch via email.

MARK’S BIO:

Mark Hoffmann is a freelance editorial illustrator, children’s-book illustrator, fine artist and professor in the illustration department at Montserrat College of Art in Massachusetts. He lives with his wife and son in the New England area.

Mark Hoffmann, but some folks know me as “Hoffmann” or “Hoffy”. I am currently working as a children’s book author/illustrator, editorial illustrator, and fine artist. I am also a professor at Montserrat College of Art in the illustration department.

After growing up in Minnesota, I moved to the east coast for college and remained here ever since. I currently live in southern New Hampshire with a lovely wife, a goofy son, two crazy kitties and a lazy dog.

Partial Client List:

A. Knopf (Penguin/Random House), Kids Can Press, Cameron + Company, Groundwood Books, Page Street Kids, Cottage Life, Apple Magazine, At Buffalo, Orca Publishing, Cooking Light, Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario, Canadian Grocers Market, Square NH Magazine, Nuvo Magazine, Land of Nod, D Magazine, Yankee, Professionally Speaking Magazine, Trust for Public Land, Humber Dialogue, Macalester Today, American Lawyer Magazine, T-Mobile, Avenue Magazine, Odyssey Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Tu Ciudad Magazine, Texas Monthly, Reebok, and many more.

Anne, thank you for sharing your book and journey with us. How clever of you to come up with the idea of combining the body parts of dinosaurs and children. Kids will laugh at the characters romping around the museum learning how they are similar to the dinos. Teacher’s will love this book, too. What a great way to create a discussion with their students and get them interested anatomy. Parents will love the giggles this book sparks in their children. Children will love the rhyme and Mark’s Illustrations are sure to add to the laughter. They are, also, so much to fun. Good luck with the book.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy