Her contributions to the book were the best part. I do hope Harper got royalties eventually. But I do agree with Betsy that Ruth E Harper’s owl illustration is gorgeous. I do not understand the fervent devotion, to either of these tities, that I have heard from people I otherwise respect. “The Kissing Hand” made it into my collection, and then back out again, though it did not leave the lasting yucky impression that “I Love You Forever” did after it left my collection. I love when the two of you dis saccharine kids’ books! I love children’s literature and have a huge picture book collection, a large part of which I get secondhand when I come across titles I recognize or think look interesting. So you see it’s a bit of a twisted story, but, you know, life isn’t always warm and fuzzy (but we survive).Īnd it’s all about the comfort children and parents receive from the book after all, isn’t it? I’m crazy blessed by it 🙂 I found this out AFTER the book was already sold/under contract. Instead, she found a publisher and paid Nancy Leak to fill in-between mine to make it 32 pages.

I declined until we got a contract, so I could add to it IF they wanted more pages. A year and half later the author still didn’t have a contract but asked me for 8 more paintings. The author and I met, and she asked me to illustrate a 24 page book. I have a brief answer on my website – and it goes like this: I’m here to just answer your first question. You sure did your homework breaking the images down.

Hello, and thanks for the ‘show’ and the kudos! Glad you consider it a warm & fuzzy 🙂

Author of the kissing hand