The children’s book, Welcome to Monster Isle, which I illustrated, has won the 2009 Bookbuilders West award for Best Children’s Book Cover in their 39th Annual Book Show!

The award ceremony took place on January 27, 2010 at Chronicle Books in San Francisco. BookBuilders West celebrates the best of Western book design, manufacturing and the advancement of “Green” publishing. So this is a wonderful award for my publisher, Immedium, as well.

View the Monster Isle website

Buy the Monster Isle book at Amazon

I am happy to announce that “Welcome to Monster Isle” is now online in digital form through a very innovative and exciting website, astorybeforebed.com, which has partnered with my publisher, Immedium, Inc.

astorybeforebed.com allows anyone with a webcam to record themselves reading a book from their online library, page by page. The user can then purchase their reading of the book and share the link with friends, family, or whoever. Like a picture-in-picture feature on television, the recipient can then see the video of you reading the book, along with the actual book on screen. Check out the site and view the demo. It is pretty cool!

The website also offers discounts to men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces.

For a direct link to the Monster Isle book, click here.

“Welcome to Monster Isle” from publisher, Immedium, is now available! I created all of the illustrations for this children’s picture book and couldn’t be more happy with the way it turned out. Your kids will love this book. Being a parent of three children, one of them a boy, I am particularly happy that my son enjoys the book as much as he does (I attribute this more to the monsters than to my super cool illustrations). But he could be saying all the nice things about my book because he knows I did the illustrations. … nah

You can order the book from many different places, including your local, independent bookseller. The book is also available from Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and many more online retailers.

If you want to buy a copy of the book directly from me (which will be signed and also include an original sketch), head over to monsterisle.net and visit the “Buy the Book” section. You can also choose to purchase a copy of the book signed by the author, Oliver Chin, or download FREE coloring pages and activity sheets for your children to enjoy.

For those of you in the Metro Milwaukee area, tune in to WTMJ-4 TV’s “The Morning Blend” this Thursday, October 30th at 9:00am as I sit down with hosts, Molly and Alison, to discuss my picture book.

To learn more about the book, visit monsterisle.net

Here’s another little taste of art from “Welcome to Monster Isle”, a new 36-page picture book from Immedium, Inc. written by Oliver Chin and illustrated by yours truly.

The book is now available for pre-order at Amazon, or you can wait until Sept. 2008, buy the book from me and I will sign it AND do an original drawing in the book for you.

My first picture book, Welcome to Monster Isle, is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com and various other online booksellers. Written by Oliver Chin, illustrated by you know who and published by the great people over at Immedium, Inc., this 36-page picture book is due in stores September 2008.

Story Description:

A family’s vacation goes bananas when a perfect storm tosses their skipper’s tiny boat off course. Now seven castaways are stranded on an uncharted desert island! Finnegan, his sister, parents, and dog Howl venture into the wild and encounter a menagerie of colorful monsters. Can these hardy survivors befriend seven beasts straight from their wildest imaginations?

Whimsical and lushly layered illustrations invigorate a zootopia of mythical creatures like the Yowie, Abominable Snowman, and Ogo Pogo. Adventurous readers will take a trip they’ll never forget, since being lost was never so fantastic!