Hi Folks! My name is Julia, and I’m a children’s book illustrator currently available for new projects. I have experience illustrating animal characters and children, as well as creating semi-realistic artwork. I’m also available for watercolor-style commissions, including portraits, landscapes, and more!

My starting rates are:

Children’s book illustration (single-page spread): $60 USD Bust portrait: $60 USD

Feel free to send me a DM if you’re interested in working together. I’d love to hear about your project! Portfolio: https://www.behance.net/julialouzada

Heyo gang, I know Halloween is fast approaching, but I also want to take a sec to celebrate Filipino American History Month with some of our favorite books. I'm always looking out for picture books about the Philippines or Filipino culture because I married into a Filipino family, my three kids are half-Filipino, and I still have a lot to learn.

Luckily, there are some absolutely banger titles out there to learn from!

First up is Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young and Kristi Valiant. If you've ever been to a Filipino gathering, you've probably tried, or at least seen, pancit. It's a traditional noodle dish that's usually filled with different meat and veggies. The story itself is very cute, with a little girl learning to cook pancit with her mom while learning about her grandfather and the history of Filipinos in California. I've tried to use this book to get my kids to eat their Lola's pancit, reminding them of how tasty it looked on the page, but it hasn't worked yet.

Our Nipa Hut by Rachelle Abalos and Gabriela Larios is next. It tells a simple story about a family weathering a tropical storm inside a traditional Filipino home called a nipa hut. I didn't think I would like this book as much as I did, but the colors here are amazing. Every page is bursting with hundreds of different hues. Plus, because we're always looking to learn, there are four pages in the back dedicated to nipa hut factoids. Like, did you know the architect behind Chicago's first skyscrapers was inspired by the the resilience of bamboo-built nipa huts? Me neither!

Then we've got Bunso Meets a Duwende by Rev Valdez, which combines Filipino food and cryptozoology! A duwende (little goblin-esque creature) has stolen the party's ube halaya (tasty ube dessert) and Bunso is absolutely determined to get it back. Valdez has some amazing art here, very comic book-esque, with tons of goofy humor that I think both kids and parents will enjoy. There's also a little glossary right at the front to explain some of the Filipino words inside, which is great!

Sari-Sari Summers by Lynnor Bontigao shows off the Philippines' sari-sari stores, which are like little family-run bodegas with everything you could ever want. I was surprised to learn that you can buy cups of rice or a half cup of beans from them, and it turns out, measuring stuff is what Nora loves best when staying with her lola. This story is a love letter to summers in the Philippines and all the lolas who made it so special.

Have you ever heard of tinikling? It's a traditional Filipino dance where the dancers step between bamboo poles that clash together every third beat. I'm terrible at describing it, so here's a video for visuals. Well, in Kailani's Gift, by Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young and Lynnor Bontiago, Kailani wants to learn a tinikling routine to celebrate her lolo and lola's anniversary. Problem is, she's kinda clumsy. I'm a fan of this one because it shows the kind of determination it takes to improve at a skill. Kailani eats, sleeps, and breathes tinikling!

And I saved the sweetest, most heartbreaking book for last. What Lolo Wants by Cristina Oxtra and Jamie Bauza is about an adorable lolo/granddaughter duo who love drawing together. Then Lolo starts forgetting things. His granddaughter won't let him just fade away though, and prepares a special gift to reignite his creativity. Hey, who's cutting onions?! Elder memory loss is such a tough topic, but Oxtra weaves the good and bad to keep things hopeful, and the pages that show black and white drawings leaping into the world are awesome. 

And those are some of our favorites! But obviously, this is by no means a comprehensive list. There's Riding Through Rice Fields, When Lola Visits, Lolo's Sari-Sari Store, Bunso Meets a Mumu, Mabuhay!, more I'm forgetting, and more I've never heard of!

If you have any faves that I didn't name, don't hesitate to share them, and if you like this kinda stuff, I write a weekly picture book newsletter that goes out every Friday and features themed picture book recommendations. You can sign up here if you're interested!

All my life I have wanted to create, illustrate and sell my own children’s book and yet never actually got round to it. Finally last year I wrote and illustrated a book and I’ve finally got copies on Amazon.
Meet “Take the Werewolf for a Walk”.
I never realised how rewarding it would be to have people telling me how much their kids are enjoying it, children are truly honest customers. If it isn’t any good, they will tell you.
Anyway, I’m so inspired that I’m now halfway through creating another.
If you have an idea for a children’s book then take my advice: go for it, you have nothing to lose!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-Werewolf-Walk-Rich-Nairn/dp/1065454805

Forgive my ignorance, I have posted to others on reddit but never created a post, I hope I am doing it correctly.

Anyway, my 4 year old who is a Chinese Brit has been reading some basic text and is bored of just phonics lessons.

I went into my history and immediately went to Roald Dahl and Fantastic Mr Fox, it's a very short book with chapters which are only 2-3 pages long, I do the voices which grabs her attention.

I have the Roald Dahl collection, so what would your recommend next, Matilda seems a step beyond her capability, maybe the Twits?

She has been so smitten with the book it warmed my heart when she told me just before bed "I want to hear how Mr Fox lost his tail" - the machines had already moved in by the time she asked the question, but she recalls and relates to the story.

So what Roald Dahl book should be next or something similar?

My oldest is newly 6, still not fully reading solo, and we plan to continue reading to her for as long as she'll let us even when she can read. She's been really into fantasy chapter books, and I feel like I've run out of lower elementary-geared series to read to her. There are all these middle grade fantasy series that sound really good, but I can't tell whether they're appropriate to read to a 6-year-old. She is strong verbally and has excellent listening comprehension, but of course is still young. I don't have time to read them to myself first.

I want to confirm there's nothing inappropriate in the books (hopefully those get put into the young adult category?), but also that they're not too complex.

Some series on my list:

Wildwood Chronicles

Emily Windsnap

Nevermoor

Wingfeather Saga

Any insight on whether these are OK for a first grader?

I've got theater on the brain so here's me talking about two of my old favorite childhood books that involve a school play. "Miss Laney is zany" from My weird school daze and "Blue princess takes the stage" from Perfectly Princess.

Miss Laney is about the AJ's school Ella Mentry in danger of shutting down due to budget cuts so the speech teacher Miss Laney puts on a school play as something fun for the kids to do. My favorite part was always how AJ and Andrea were playing Romeo and Juliet respectively, it was funny because they hate each other. I also learned from this book how "Romeo and Juliet" ends which was a fun core memory for me.

Blue Princess is about a passionate and admittedly self-centered young girl named Emma who's hoping for a breakout role at her performing arts school, she wants to be the princess in the play. She experiences jealousy when her classmate Kelly is picked to be the princess and she's stuck with the role of the ugly evil witch. I love this book for teaching kids that you won't always get what you want and that's ok. I wasn't expecting that lesson as a kid because at the time, I thought the book would say that Emma was born for this part or something. Emma can be mean in this book and is bossy to her little sister but I don't really care because she's set up to be a flawed but relatable role model. She isn't gonna make the right choices, she's an example of how not to handle a situation. Plus she's called out for her behavior throughout the book and becomes a better person by the end.

Hi everyone! I’m currently developing a teaching guide for a picture book for children aged 4–8. The book draws on a cultural tradition that may be unfamiliar to many students, so I’m trying to balance cultural context with an engaging, child-centred learning experience.

I’d love to hear from teachers who work with this age group and use picture books in their classrooms: What parts of a teaching guide are actually most useful to you? Is there anything teaching guides often include that you rarely use? When working with an unfamiliar cultural context, what helps students stay curious and engaged? I’d love to hear any suggestions or experiences. Thank you so much! ;)

Erin Robin and the Hungriest Cat is the story of Erin, a young robin who’s nudged out of her nest by her greedy sisters. This forces her to take her first flight, which starts as fun but ends with Erin crashing into a window and injuring herself.

As she lies in an empty paddling pool, trying to recover and unable to fly back up to the safety of her nest, Erin is visited byvarious animals who all warn her that the big cat who lives in the house is on his way back.

Erin has to think fast, and asks the mouse, ant, and butterfly for help. All her requests seem strange at first, but when the hungry cat comes back, the reader discovers just how clever Erin has been.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085PYW31J

This was in a pile of books given by a friend, but the pop-up on the last page is ripped. I would like to recreate the image and stick it in the book. If someone has this book, I would be very grateful if you could take a photo of the pop-up and post here or send it to me in a message (as I am in the UK, I can’t open Imgur links 😞).

Hey, does anyone remember the Violet Mackerel books? Does anyone have any at home. I have been searching all over my city to find a copy of "Violet Mackerels Personal Space" - I used to own it. Lmk if you are willing to send pics of it!

Thank you!! :)

Yelloooo y'all (: I'm looking for some good picture books that could work well for teaching my students about the different elements of a story's plot (specifically exposition -> rising action -> climax -> falling action -> resolution, kinda like in the Scratch Garden Plot Mountain video :p) !!

I teach K – 3 early reading after-school classes, and it'd be super helpful to have some stories where these different components are relatively clear + easy for younger kids to follow along with. I'd love to be able to stop as we read and discuss how the events fit into each part of the overall plot, rather than having to do a whole bunch of explaining afterward lol

Ideally, the books would also all be genuinely fun and engaging for the kids, so the plot analysis will feel like a natural part of reading, rather than the only point of reading 😭😭 I'm open to any genre: funny picture books, adventure stories, classic fairy tales, or truly anything with an interesting premise!

Picture books/early elementary books would probably suit my needs best, but I'd be willing to hear about some books for slightly older students too!! My classes have access to Epic! , so recommendations available on there would be especially helpful since students can also revisit them at home if they'd like, thanks :D

[I'm also totally down for some classic (or really, really popular) children's books that my students and I may have already read before, since it'd be cool to revisit a familiar story, but this time focusing on how the different parts of the plot fit together ~]

So many aspiring picture book authors tell me that “Pixar’s jokes for adults” inspired them to write their book. Unfortunately, that thinking makes kids an afterthought, not the audience.

After reading hundreds of books to storytime audiences here’s an essay on what does and doesn’t make kids laugh.

Hello! I am an artist and I’ve been told my style is perfect for children’s books! I also have experience with it.

It’s semi realistic, watercolor-like, whimsical and colorful.

I specialize in animals and all kinds of creatures, but there’s no problem if your book contains some humans or humanoids.

Here’s my portfolio: https://www.behance.net/milesportfolio

I'm currently working on the second children's book in the "Fofles in the Witch's Kitchen" series. This first illustration, which opens the story, describes today's weather and mood perfectly.

And if you feel like making pancakes with your little ones on a day like this, check out the first book ⬇️

https://a.co/d/0cul9prf

Wishing everyone a wonderful autumn day! 🍂

Edit : Here's the link to the table book club - (we'll be starting with our first book on 1st Nov)

https://fable.sng.link/Ali7l/etuk?_dl=%2Fapp%2Fclubs%2Fb036498b-e563-4f9f-928f-fcc11c220cb7&_fallback_redirect=https%3A%2F%2Ffable.co%2Fclub%2Fnever-too-old-with-slokha-lily-419813932041&_smtype=3

I've been thinking about starting a book club for adults where we read children's books together, and I wanted to see if anyone else would be interested in this!?

I sometimes feel like growing up means leaving behind little things that once brought us so much joy. I'd love to revisit childhood favourites, discover new books we wish we'd read when we were younger and just get lost in stories for a while.

The idea is to reconnect with our inner child through reading.

I'm thinking of starting a club on Fable so that it could become a community thing.

Alternatively if an active community already exists I would love to be a part of it instead of starting something new.

(please ignore the dust, yikes)

Most of these are communal childhood favorites of my partner and me! I never read Redwall, those are his, but we were both fans of Diane Diane and Tamora Pierce. My copy of Wild Magic is signed by Tammy herself and is a treasured possession.

(The comics snuck in from another shelf due to lack of space, but I'm counting them as "family childhood faves" because the Superman anthology was my grandpa's and he was a lifelong Superman fan!)

My usual style is realism and portraits, so I am familiar with copying lighting in realistic scenes but I’m trying to develop a more whimsical fun style which would work well for storybooks, and I am hoping I can get some tips on the lighting as I used numerous reference photos to create this scene and so there’s no set lighting for me to follow. I wanted to practice a less detailed style to create a book for my niece but I had such fun with this, and it felt way less restricting than realism.

Basically title. I'll appreciate books or guidance for helping my kids deal with the inevitable from my husbands condition. We don't know how long he has, but i read its usually between months to 5 years. We don't have biopsy results yet.

The kids only know dad has been in the hospital (rehab) to try to get better.

Edit: thank you all for the suggestions..they have been helpful and gave me some idea for how to approach this.

AI is everywhere. I'm curious whether anyone has come across good children's books that explain artificial intelligence in a way young children can understand. My son will grow up with this. I'd like to make it a topic.

I'm particularly interested in picture books for preschool and early elementary ages, not books that teach older children how to use AI tools.

I'd love something that explains what AI is, what it can and can't do, and ideally encourages children to think critically about it, without making it sound either magical or frightening.

Have you read anything like that? I'd love to hear your recommendations!

The second book in the Audrey & Ivy series is now available at Amazon.

Seeking the answer: how many children’s books do you own?

I am about to move and while I probably won’t count, I’m going to be shocked by how many I have accumulated over the years. I want to know if I’m the only insane one out there 😅

Edit to add: what draws you to collecting them? I have a son who loves books and I also teach primary age children and we read at least a book a day!

We are secular with Jewish ancestry. Please name any picture books for age 3 upwards to show my son how his ancestors might have lived. Thanks!

I scored this 1973 edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Arbutus Quality Used Books in Nanaimo, BC (Canada). I haven't seen this version before but I understand it was quite common in the UK.