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Welcome to 2011 Kansas Reads to Preschoolers!November 13-19, 2011Read your way to Kansas 150 in 2011! The Kansas Center for the Book at the State Library of Kansas again proudly promotes the importance of reading to the very young in our state. In our seventh year of sponsorship, this year’s book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, written by one of Kansas’s best known and most beloved children’s book authors, the late Bill Martin, Jr., with John Archambault and illustrated by Lois Ehlert.
About Bill Martin, Jr.
About John Archambault
About Lois Ehlert
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Previous Projects 2010 - Up Down and Around 2009 - Wiggle 2008 - Bear Feels Sick 2007 - Safety 2006 - Bunny Cakes 2005 - No Matter What Kansas Children's Book Awards |
Kansas writer Bill Martin, Jr., born and raised in Hiawatha, is the perfect author for the 2011 Kansas Reads to Preschoolers as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of Kansas statehood. Additionally, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, a rollicking, fun alphabet book, fits well with the launch of the State Library’s ready-to-read program. To support this year’s initiative, this web page will provide programming, family involvement, and early literacy suggestions.
Bill Martin, Jr., liked to collaborate and to make many revisions until the words sounded just right. John Archambault first met Martin while Archambault was still in graduate school and Martin an established children’s writer. John Archambault wanted to be a writer since he was a third grader, and his first collaboration with Martin was in 1988. They published Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in 1989. Eventually they collaborated on eleven books, and Martin helped launch Archambault on a long, prolific career as a children’s book author.
Bill Martin, Jr.’s and John Archambault’s text for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was paired with illustrator Lois Ehlert's art not long after she won the Caldecott Honor Book in 1989. Ehlert’s mother taught Lois to sew when she was eight, and her favorite art technique remains collage—cuttng pieces of paper, fabric, or objects and gluing them to a background. The illustrations and letters for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom are simple and easy, yet attractive and appealing to young readers. The bright, bold, cheery art make the letters of the alphabet become characters in the book.