Farty Marty Arrives on Our Doorstep, Ready to Sing.

We get a lot of mailings from publishers to promote books, from excerpt booklets to pencils to tattoos to specially printed posters. A few weeks ago we received a package from Simon and Schuster, with a drawing of Farty Marty, by Steven Kellogg. How were they able to do this? Well our kids rep (not the Simon rep) who worked with Kellogg said that from his experience working with this illustrator at school and public events, he is extremely fast. Hey, it got the job done. We all looked at the book again, and I got our illustration framed. The story is by B.J. Ward.

Here's a little more about Farty Marty. Marty’s a cat with a special talent. At first, Mary Jane is embarrassed when she brings Marty to school, but she soon figures out that feeding Marty French food has him tooting Parisian melodies and a helping of Boston baked beans equals a rousing chorus of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Does it still stink? Of course it does, but even that liability is turned into an asset, with a custom perfume named “Le Farte.” Kellogg’s classic illustrations are filled with crazy details that will entertain a kid for hours, accompanying Ward’s story that demands compulsory giggling.

In short, I love pretty books and I love silly books, and there’s no way around it, Farty Marty is pretty silly.

Oh, and I should note we also sent out our email newsletter yesterday.