I was recently asked by the wonderful folks at Teaching Books if I would write an article for them about how my background in teaching has influenced my writing. I was happy to oblige!

If you’d like to read the article, please see the post on the Teaching Books website. Here’s a preview:

Deborah Hodge on Teaching and Writing

It’s that time again when students and teachers have returned to the classroom and are beginning another year of learning together. As you settle in, I am thinking of you all and hoping it is a very good year.

My summer is over, too, and I am back at my desk working hard on various projects, including two new books for the spring, and a third for the following spring. It is a busy time, but exciting as always to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

The illustration in this post is by the very talented cartoonist and illustrator, Zoe Si. I was thrilled when she agreed to create this fun 5-minute portrait of me. I love her cartoons that show up in the New Yorker. Imagine how lucky I feel to have my own!

More to come soon about the new books. For now, I’m wishing you all a happy, healthy autumn season!

We are getting closer to the publication date of West Coast Wild Rainforest and I am thrilled about this upcoming book.

The art by my collaborative partner, Karen Reczuch, is gorgeous – as it has been for all the books in this series. The two of us feel fortunate to have been paired together in this creative endeavour. We share a love of nature and a love of making books for children.

The image on this page is very representative of the coastal rainforest on the west coast, where more than ten feet of rain falls every year. The rainforest is lush and green – so majestic and beautiful, with towering giants of trees. And it is often immersed in mist or rain, as this lovely art shows.

We look forward to sharing more about this book soon!

In honour of Earth Day, I am posting this lovely piece of art from our upcoming book, West Coast Wild Rainforest, to be published next spring. It is the fourth in our West Coast Wild series. Karen Reczuch, illustrator extraordinaire, and I have loved creating these books! We had many fun west coast adventures that helped us in our vision and research.

Karen’s art for this new book is complete and I can promise that every page is gorgeous! We can hardly wait for the book to be printed and on the shelves.

For now, I hope you enjoy this illustration of a family walking through a west coast rainforest at the edge of the Pacific Ocean – as we did many times. We are forever in awe of the giant trees!

Maybe you are visiting a forest or the seashore to celebrate Earth Day. Whatever activity you have chosen, we hope it is a wonderful one.

Happy Earth Day!

Last fall, Karen Reczuch and I spent some fabulous days wandering through the magnificent rainforests of the Pacific west coast.

We were on a research trip so that Karen might see these towering trees and lush forests as references for the art on our upcoming book — the fourth in our West Coast Wild series. At every step, we were enthralled with the gorgeous ecosystem of coastal forests on the Pacific Ocean.

Karen is hard at work on the final art now, painting glorious pictures, I’m sure. We will fill you in on more about the book in the days ahead but, for now, here are a couple of the photos of the spectacular forest giants we encountered on our adventures.

To my surprise and delight, I received a beautiful new book in the mail this week!

Sometimes I Feel Like a River is the most recent title by the talented Danielle Daniel, with lovely art by Josée Bisaillon, and published by Groundwood Books.

It is a lyrical ode to nature in all its forms (river, sun, rain, forest, clouds and more) told in the form of 12 short poems, and is an inspiring follow-up to the well-loved Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox, also written (and illustrated) by Danielle.

I’m so pleased to have the lovely new title in my hands, and wish I were still teaching so that I could share it with students in my classroom. I happily recommend this gorgeous book that celebrates the natural world – and how its beauty and power surrounds and shapes us all.