The Runaway Princess in Japanese

I'll confess I had forgotten all about this, so it was a very happy thing to come home from work and find a box full of books: The Runaway Princess is now available in Japanese! (Thank you, FSG and Babel Press.)

What's more, the new illustrator did some fun spot art. This is, of course, the only part of the book I can actually read... Here are a few samples. And if you're in Japan, well, have at it!

Book cover. The back is now the front, of course.

There's a cool little frog icon at the start of each chapter.

Vantor's not happy.

Cam turns into a magic box. Yikes!

Awwww. Also Wow!

This isn't like me, but: I'm sort of speechless! Cutest. Thing. Ever. Mostly Bit, but I'm awfully fond of those googly eyes. (If you haven't read my books, they include a magic scarf with lots of little eyes.) Clever Brandy! I would swipe the photos, but I'll let you discover them in their proper place over at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.

In case it isn't obvious, this is why we write...

And now I'm trying to think which book I fell in love with as a child and read over and over. Probably A Little Princess and Ballet Shoes. Also the Narnia books and Harriet the Spy. What about you?

Run Away with a Book - Summer Giveaway

Yes, I do write books! For this giveaway, I will send the winner copies of ALL THREE of my published books. (Next year I'll have two more out.) That would be an original folktale called The Secret-Keeper (picture book), a comic middle grade fantasy called The Runaway Princess, and a sequel called The Runaway Dragon.

To enter, leave a comment listing some of the books you've been wanting to read this summer, whether they just came out, are about to come out, or you missed them somehow and want to play catch-up. I will do a drawing from the comments after the giveaway closes at midnight on June 25th.

And by the way, it's not just the kids who get excited about the school year ending: we teachers are counting the minutes! The beach is calling... Beach pictured is in Terasawa, Japan, but I guess I can settle for Santa Monica or Leo Carillo, since I live in L.A.

(Of course, summer school is calling, too. I'm trying not to listen.)

Books I am looking forward to reading? There are sooo many, but here are just a few: Magic Below Stairs by Caroline Stevermer (out this week!), a picture book by Candace Ryan called Animal House (July), and Scumble by Ingrid Law (August).

Please remember to check back, or leave your contact info in your comment.

Update #1: Chachic wants to know if this giveaway is international. Yep! It's a global community of readers, and I can't bear to leave you out just because I might have to ship a package to Ireland or the Philippines.

Update #2: This giveaway is now over. The winner will be announced shortly.