Author gives inside look at children's books

Richard Jesse Watson hosts “The Up-Close, Far-Out World of Kids’ Books” at the next Field’s End Writers’ Roundtable at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18 at the Bainbridge Public Library.

Watson examines how writing and illustrating for kids requires looking through both ends of the telescope. Children stargaze by reading books. Bring your pointy hat and join one alchemist in a look beyond the mists to re-enter the dream that was childhood.

As a writer and illustrator of picture books, Watson has snooped around Egyptian tombs, sipped python soup in a Malaysian jungle, chewed the fat with chimpanzees, and shared breakfast with an orangutan. He has hung out of an airplane over Port Townsend, pulled rabbits out of hats, dinked around with petrified dinosaur dung, and been wounded by his T-Rex maquette — real blood.

His version of “The Night Before Christmas” was a New York Times bestseller and his book “The Lord’s Prayer” received a Kirkus Reviews starred review. The online book reviewer also proclaimed “The Magic Rabbit” to be “exuberant.”

The evening includes a question-and-answer period and closes with an opportunity to network with other writers.

Field’s End monthly Roundtables are free and open to writers of all levels and interests. No registration is required.

For more information, visit www.fieldsend.org or call the library at 206-842-4162.

Field’s End, an affiliate of the Bainbridge Public Library Board, offers workshops, classes and an annual conference focusing on the art, craft and profession of writing.

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