I have been writing and illustrating books since 1992. I have illustrated more than 30 books, many of which I also wrote. In 2023 I won the BIMA Brava Award for excellence in Children’s Book Illustration. My books have received honors from the NYT, from Horn Book, from The Junior Library Guild and the Americas Award.
I love picture books because the words and art are inseparable. Picture books made indelible impressions on my mind when I was a child. I remember phrases and images still, the feel of the paper, and the mood of the stories. I lived inside those books.
It is a privilege to create for children because they see and feel deeply. I want the stories and pictures made in my studio to matter to them.
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My books can be purchased at bookshop.com or on line at Secret Garden Books, or from Amazon.
I also blog about children’s books at Books Around the Table, together with my critique group. Please join us at the table!
Newest books:
Crick, Crack, Crow! by Janet Lor
This book tells the story of one mischievous crow. Here’s what Kirkus had to say in a starred review:
“Lord’s lyrical writing and pacing make for an edge-of-your-seat journey, while Paschkis’ lively, folk-inspired illustrations bring humor and emotional resonance… A compelling, joyous, informative romp that captures the craftiness and effervescence of corvids.”
Please click here to read a blogpost that I wrote about Crick Crack Crow.
Please click here for a video with Rocco Staino at Storymakers where he talks with Janet and me
Please click here to buy the book at Bookshop.org
MAKING LIGHT BLOOM by Sandra Nickel
The untold story of Clara Driscoll, the woman who created what are known as Tiffany Lamps.
Here’s how it was described in a starred review in Horn Book
⭐Making Light Bloom:
Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps
by Sandra Nickel; illus. by Julie Paschkis
Primary Peachtree 32 pp.
6/25 9781682636091 $18.99
This picture-book biography of stained-glass artist Clara Driscoll (1861–1944) opens on a bucolic scene of the gardens and “the house on a hill” in Ohio where she grew up. In the foreground, apple blossoms, morning glories, daffodils, and a dragonfly foreshadow motifs in her iconic work—work attributed to Louis Tiffany until years after Driscoll’s death. That idyllic setting was never far from her mind after she moved to New York City and began working for Tiffany’s stained-glass window company. Nickel follows the path of Driscoll’s career from selecting and cutting glass for windows, to being put in charge of “a new workshop of women,” to her innovative design for her butterfly-and-primrose lamp. Paschkis’s luminous, cheerful illustrations, rendered in pen-and-ink and gouache, appropriately resemble stained glass with their thick black lines, geometric shapes, and bright, rich colors with “dappled and streaked” effects. The engaging text provides an accessible overview of the labor-intensive stained glass–making process and insight into Driscoll as a person (e.g., she read nature poetry to her “Tiffany Girls” to inspire them). An author’s note provides more information about Driscoll’s life, her legacy, and the five design steps involved in producing her lamps; a selected biography and source notes are also appended. See Rubin’s recent Dragonflies of Glass (rev. 5/25) for another portrait of this long-overlooked artist. KITTY FLYNN
Please click HERE to buy the book at Elliott Bay Books
ZIGZAG
ZigZag is about a crocodile who loves the taste of words. By mistake he swallows all of the vowels in the word tambourine. The world is dry and dull without vowels so he sets off to get them back.
Kirkus says “Words… gambol gleefully throughout her colorful, lively artwork featuring al-animal characters and intricate patterns…A veritable feast for word connoisseurs.”
Please click here to read my blogpost about ZigZag.
Please click here to buy the book at Bookshop.org
THE WORDY BOOK
The Wordy Book is a collection of paintings that are bursting, babbling and bubbling with words. Each painting is paired with an open ended question.
In the NYT Naomi Shihab Nye said ” Some children’s books feel like classics the first time one encounters them. “What does a word think about?” the artist and writer Julie Paschkis asks on the first double-page spread of “The Wordy Book.” This and other evocative questions punctuate a dazzling array of richly colored, riveting paintings... Absorbing layers of waves, leaves and petals, boats, birds and people, all threaded with words, sustain the magic of her visual language. “
Please click here to see a blog post I wrote about the Wordy Book.
Please click here to purchase it at Bookshop.org
Older Books:
The Barking Ballad
A bark-along, meow along story of the unlikely friendship between a cat and a dog.
Please click here for a blog post about The Barking Ballad.
And please click here to purchase it at bookshop.org
Where Lily Isn’t , illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
When my dog Lily died I was bereft. I felt her absence everywhere. This book grew out of that experience. It was illustrated by my dear friend Margaret Chodos-Irvine who also loved Lily.
Please click here for a blog post that I wrote about Where Lily Isn’t. And please click HERE for a read-aloud by Margaret.
Please click here to purchase it at Secret Garden bookshop
Here are some older titles:
Julie Paschkis 