Illustration, writing
& design
JENNIFER PLECAS
JENNIFER PLECAS STUDIOS
Celebrating Life, Love, Friendship
and Laughter
Recent News
Coming Spring of 2019
I recently completed illustrations for Cari Best's BUG OFF! A STORY OF FIREFLIES AND FRIENDSHIP for Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan Kids.
It is a lovely story about kindness and inclusion that also has fun facts about fireflies.
I loved working with this story about two girls as they navigate their new relationship with each other and with their neighborhood friends. I also loved having so many spreads where I was able to work with the lovely purple-blue hues of a night sky, and the soft glow of fireflies.
PRETEND takes the stage at Dollywood
For the second year in a row, PRETEND will be performed by the talented Penguin Players as a musical on stage at the Little Engine Playhouse at the Heartsong Theater in Dollywood during the 2018 summer season.
It will share the season at Heartsong with Dolly Parton's own children's book COAT OF MANY COLORS and the classic THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD by Watty Piper.
The performances are an outgrowth of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a book-gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth until they begin school, no matter their family’s income.
The program began in 1995 in Dolly's home state of Sevier County, Tennessee and became such a success that national replication efforts began. To date, the program has mailed out many millions of books all over the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
PRETEND was selected for the Imagination Library, and later selected for adaptation for the Penguin Players to perform. So many talented people worked to bring the story to life on stage. In addition to music that was written for the performance, some of my illustrations were animated into scenic projections for the actors to interact with.
You can get a peek of the show and some of those involved in bringing the performance to life on the contributing animator's site at Bigfott.com.