I'm Bea Garcia, artist! I draw pictures of everything!
This is my family.
Just kidding! My mom doesn't have a mustache.
This is Yvonne, my first and only used-to-be-until-
she-m0ved-a-million-miles-away best friend.
Here I am, flying around the world to visit Yvonne in Australia.
I WISH!
Here I really am, sitting in the crabapple tree in my backyard
with Sophie, the world's only tree-climbing dog.
Except thanks to Bert the Monster...
she's the world's only tree-climbing-up-but-not-down dog!
This book is the story of my life.
It's filled with dancing elephants, my best friend, Yvonne,
a magic crabapple tree, my little brother The Big Pest,
Mrs. Grogan, Mount Everest, and that monster named Bert.
I drew the pictures with this pencil.
Just kidding! Deborah Zemke wrote and illustrated this
first book in a series about me, Bea Garcia, artist!
written and illustrated by Deborah Zemke Dial Books 144 pages 5.7x8.5 hardcover
You can order my book at your favorite store or online at:
Amazon Barnes and Noble Books A Million Indiebound
Make your own Life in Pictures with this free download:
Here's what people say about My Life in Pictures:
In her blended visual and textual narrative, Zemke has a gift for portraying the trials and tribulations of elementary school, as well as weaving running gags through Bea’s daily school and home life in both the text and the...drawings. The book smartly avoids an overly tidy ending, eschewing the saccharine for the realistically hopeful and creating a promising launch to this new series. Pass this one to aspiring artists, those missing a friend, or anyone who could use a laugh as she navigates childhood.
---Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
My Life In Pictures is a short book with lots of comic strips. I love My Life In Pictures! I love this book because it is a really fun book to read. The main character, Bea, likes to draw pictures about her life. On Bea's birthday her wish came true! Her wish is to have a friend. To find out who her friend is you will have to read the book!
---Gretchen, Age 7, from Kid Advisory Board, Bookpeople of Moscow (Idaho)
Bea Garcia is an artist. As far as she’s concerned, the world is her canvas; however, her family insists that she confine her drawings to her own book, titled My Life. It’s all there: things she likes, things she doesn’t, places to go, and things she’d like to happen. Readers meet Bea just as her best friend and next door neighbor Yvonne moves all the way to Australia...This is the first in a forthcoming series and offers young readers (both reluctant and otherwise) a smooth transition to chapter books with plenty of pictures breaking up the text. This precursor to diary-style middle grade books has enough action and personal conflict to hook readers early in the story and keep them coming back for future installments. VERDICT Bea Garcia is an honest and funny protagonist with whom readers will identify and want to check back with regularly.
–-Starred review, School Library Journal, Lindsay Jensen, Nashville Public Library
Zemke introduces a creative, young protagonist whose skilled artistry captures imagination in a new series for early readers...There isn't anything real or imaginary that the endearing Bea cannot draw; she straddles fantasy and real life, and Zemke's black-and-white depictions are appealingly unadulterated. Readers will find inspiration to write, draw, explore, and imagine.
---Kirkus Reviews
Bea shares her travails in a journal-style narrative filled with b&w illustrations—Bea is a talented artist, though it can cause trouble, as when she draws on the family’s TV (“I think Wendy the Weather Woman looks good with a mustache”). Zemke resists solving Bea’s problems too neatly—at book’s end, Bert is still annoying, and Yvonne is still in Australia—yet she clearly shows how art, self-expression, and humor can be solid allies when life doesn’t go as planned.
---Publishers Weekly