Sharing good news of my debut picture book!

Jason Crowley

Having seen you win pretty much every Critique Arena you entered in this comes as no surprise

But I imagine what makes this extra special is that this is your very own story. Congrats!

Lee White

Larue

Fantastic! SO happy for you. I'll definitely check it out.

xin li

@Enni-Heikura, @NessIllustration , @KathrynAdebayo, @Sara_C, @Jeremy-Ross, @Yiming-Wu, @Katt, @Jeanne-M-Bowman, @Jason Crowley, @Lee-White , @larue, thank you very much!

xin li

@willicreate Thank you very much for the tips of local bookstores in NYC. I wish I could visit New York. But after some thought, I felt it would be too time(and money) consuming. Maybe I will wait till my next book comes out. I am in the final stage of revising rough sketches, and hopefully, the book will come out sometime next autumn.

@katt, your suggestions are great! I definitely will organize a small garden party with close family and friends. I often let life chores, work deadlines, and all kinds of worries occupy me, and forget to celebrate good things. When I sold my first picture book manuscript, my first thought was not "Hurray!", but "Am I good enough to pull this off?". The "Hurray!" came after a friend said to me "Go get a drink! You need to celebrate!"

I love your suggestion of journaling. I kept a journal on and off in the first couple of years when I started working as an illustrator. Now looking back, I regret not writing down more thoughts. I have not been journaling for almost a year now. Thank you for reminding me that, I will start it again :-).

Tamzin

How amazing- congratulations!

jenn

@xin-li Congratulations!!

fullofkk

@xin-li Woah!!! Congratulations!!!

Laurel Aylesworth

This is awesome - congratulations!

Pamela Fraley

@xin-li this is amazing!! Congratulations!!

kylebeaudette

Wow

xin li

YOU GUYS! "I Lived Inside a Whale" won the Barnes & Noble Children's & YA award for best picture book of 2024. I am so excited! My little brain could not catch up with the reality, feeling so surreal!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/bn-kids-and-ya-award-winners-2024/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1IRvfhS4_Wipi7Fr6pxI8GgELs91ao9N2dHRayX75yKMD1h-LN8kggLDU_aem_AcefK9D3hVtwv8VRH0Im5jrL-i-iyCMvbssMxQhOJeMZjbFC7hFOiCwyUkAAhfuJfkqR2RinODZu1rfbF_UC-NT1

MarcRobinson

@xin-li amazing! Such fantastic news. Congratulations

evka8D

Congratulations

KathrynAdebayo

@xin-li That's so wonderful and well-deserved!! Congratulations! We borrowed it from our library and it's beautifully made.

xin li

@KathrynAdebayo So glad to hear that you can find the book at your local Library! Yay!
@MarcRobinson @evka8D thank you so much!

ArtistErin

Congratulations!! What a great cover too! Fantastic!

matt_gallagherrr

Congratulations Xin! That's awesome!