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About Dayne Sislen
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Blog postThis is an oldie. It’s important to stress the impact of reading to your little ones at this time of year.
Dayne Sislen Children's Book Illustration
These six steps will start your children on the road to a lifetime of learning and reading.
Read to children as often as possible. If you expose them to reading early and often, it will become a pleasurable experience they will want to repeat when they read on their own. Picture books can help struggling readers to compre -
Blog postWhen I tell people I meet I illustrate children’s books, they almost always say they have always wanted to write a children’s book. Many parents and grandparents already have great children’s book ideas from the stories they have invented for their little ones. Most tell me they have a great idea for a picture book but have no idea where to start.
“Don’t Be a Pig in a Panic!” picture book I illustrated for Leila Leidke
I work with new authors all the time. I know what it takes -
Blog postEach year I write about thankfulness. We all should be thankful every day of the year. I know that I am, but I don’t always express this feeling out loud. So once a year, I make a point to let everyone know how important they are to me and how thankful I am that they are apart of my life.
Thankful for my daily bread
First I want to thank my family and friends. In so many ways they make every single day better and fuller. My dear husband puts up with my erratic hours and patien -
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Blog postI have shared this post from one of the great blogs I follow. It has a lot of fun ideas for enjoying picture books.
Read. Learn. Repeat.
I’m very excited to join the blog tour for Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave by Jessica Hische (Penguin Workshop; ages 3-7). This book is an upbeat, inspirational call to look toward tomorrow and all its possibilities. Tomorrow you can be anything. Use this post to help you and your littles be CREATIVE!
REWRITE A STORY: Find -
Blog postI read a lot of picture books. You could say picture books are my “thing.” Every once in a while I run across a picture book I absolutely love. When this happens I tend to tell everyone I know, even people who (you won’t believe this) never read picture books even to their children or grandchildren. Last month I was lucky enough to run across two picture books that found that special place in my heart. I would like to share them with you.
“With Your Paw in Mine” Is a beautiful and -
Blog postWe all know the old phrase, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Is it true? The big publishers believe covers sell books. They spend mega marketing dollars testing out covers for their big-name authors. Will a red background sell better than a yellow background? Should the main image be a close-up of the main character or show the character at a distance? As an indie author, you probably don’t have the funds or the ability to test market different covers. But ask any author who had a poor
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Blog postBringing the main character for a chapter book to life. When I illustrate books for other authors it is a collaborative process. I want the author to love the characters I create for them as much as I do. Many of my clients send me photos of people they know that they would like the characters to resemble. I say resemble because I don’t create portraits for each page. That would require many photos from many angles of each character and take much too much time to get them just right.
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Blog postIn my last post titled “The Birth of a Chapter Book”, I talked about the process of breaking down the pages to make sure your story will fit on the number of pages available and to make sure the illustrations are distributed throughout the book.
When I started with the author, Nell Jones, all the illustrations ended up in the first 10 pages. After that, the illustrations popped up every 8-9 full pages of text. Some early chapter books use a small black and white illustration at every -
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Blog postI am very lucky to be working as the illustrator with children’s book author Nell Jones on a new chapter book Called Little Dreamer. It will be the first book in the Institute of Higher Fun and Learning Series. Many authors I work with prefer to keep their covers a secret until publication date. When that is the case, I can’t share anything I am working on.
Nell has agreed with me that the sooner friends and potentials customers can become a part of the process the better. Nell’ -
Blog postSome self-published children’s books look unprofessional because of the poor quality of the illustrations. It won’t matter that your book is well written, has great characters, and a terrific plot. Customers will only see the cover. All your hard work will be judged not worthy in a few seconds.
Self-published children’s books need professional illustrations. I encourage you to hire a professional illustrator/designer to present your book in the very best possible light. Hiri -
Blog postMany children’s book illustrators are resistant to work with self-publishing authors. As a professional illustrator, I get emails from self-publishing authors all the time. They love my illustrations and want me to illustrate their book. They want me to quote a price by return email. But they don’t tell me anything about their book. Is it a picture book, chapter book or middle grade? How many illustrated pages they need or how many characters? Occasionally an author will say I don’t nee
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Blog postYour manuscript is finished. You’ve had it critiqued and beta read and proofread several times. Now, what? It can take months or sometimes a year to hear back from traditional publishers or agents. Maybe, you don’t want to wait that long or go through the lengthy process.
So you’ve decided to go the self-publishing route. There are so many choices, you don’t know where to turn. The information you find online is sometimes misleading. Every site seems to have an agenda, pushing you t -
Blog postThis blog is from an EBSCO Post. I thought it was valuable reading for those with young children or teaching young children. For young readers, picture books are an important part of learning how to read. Usually, this type of format marks the first step in introducing a child to reading and is often the start of language development for many children. Libraries that include picture books to promote literacy to young readers are boosting beginner-level vocabulary skills, introducing sentence
Books By Dayne Sislen
Shark Dentists and Other Stories
Jan 31, 2018
$2.99
$15.65
Get it by Wednesday, Mar 27
Only 7 left in stock (more on the way).
Only 7 left in stock (more on the way).
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$11.65
(18 Used & New offers)
$9.99
Get it by Wednesday, Mar 27
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$9.98
(2 Used & New offers)
Gigi and Grandma Remember
Oct 25, 2016
$5.14
$16.99
Get it by Wednesday, Mar 27
Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).
Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).
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$3.00
(17 Used & New offers)
$9.99
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$9.99
(22 Used & New offers)
There's a Mouse on My Head!
Aug 3, 2015
$15.99
Temporarily out of stock.
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$15.99
(22 Used & New offers)
$5.18
$9.99
Get it by Wednesday, Mar 27
Only 16 left in stock (more on the way).
Only 16 left in stock (more on the way).
More Buying Choices
$5.18
(24 Used & New offers)
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