Moonbeam Children's Book Award

Jenkins Group announced the winners of the 2012 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards (Traverse City, MI Oct. 16, 2012). 

My illustrated picture book  Tales of Tutu Nene and Nele was awarded  the "Best Illustrator" category Bronze Medal! Out of the 39 categories of this awards, this was the category that my favorite children's illustrator Becky Kelly was once awarded, so I am soo honored~:) This year's Moonbeam Awards medal ceremony will be held in conjunction with the 3rd annual Traverse City Children’s Book Festival, to be held on Saturday, November 10, 2012. 
The book can be ordered here.

Tales of Tutu Nene and Nele
written by Gale Bates, illustrated by Yuko Green
Island Heritage Publishing (ISBN: 1-61710-087-0)

picture book app!

My very first picture book app (for iPad and iPhone), "Song of the Sea: ocean animals coloring book" was published last week from interactive touch book (interactivetouchbook.com), so yay!

It is my first effort for digital picture activity book, and I happened to build this myself (with necessity) with lots of technical assistance from the publisher :) The book is a combination of coloring book of ocean animals and their sounds. While a child enjoy coloring 10 ocean critters, he/she can listen to the sounds of dolphin clicking, whale singing, seal calling and more. Plus, there are fun games and puzzles, such as word search, crossword, maze, and secret code included. It can be downloaded from the bookstore in their website or iTune store for $1.99. 21 pages, targeted for ages 2-6.

Song of the Sea: ocean animals coloring book
Picture activity book App from
interactive touch book
(www.interactivetouchbook.com)

summer book signing

Thank YOU for everyone so much for coming and chatting with us on our last book signing event at Hualalai Four Seasons Hotel, Big Island.  It's always extra special when book lovers gather and talk about anything about creating, developing and sharing about children's books. I have just came home from researching at Oahu for upcoming children's/activity books, and some of the discussion with people at this book signing gave me one clear direction for these books. So, thank you for this opportunity~ and always, we had lots of fun :D

Summer Book Signing, 2012

with mother and daughter authors Kimberly and Keli Jackson

at Hualalai Four Seasons Hotel, Big Island, Hawaii

Art Workshop #24

April 2 - May 1, 2012
After School Art for Children (K - 5th)
Waikoloa Elementary School
808-883-6808
5 weeks, Mondays & Tuesdays
2:15 - 3:15 pm (K - 2nd)
3:30 - 4:30 pm (3 - 5th)


Painting, drawing, printmaking, clay and mixed media :D

Kahilu Theatre Keiki Art 2012

Annual Keiki Art Exhibit (March 7-April 2, 2012) at Kahilu Theatre at Waimea, Big Island. This is 9th Annual Keiki Art Show for young artists between the ages of 5-10 years old. Over 60 young artists proudly displayed their work in the Kahilu Gallery (www.kahilutheatre.org), sponsored by State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

Kohki's amazing butterfly!

Mihi's "Dream" self-portrait:) Congratulations!

Clay Art

In our 3rd quarter, our focus was "the clay art". Among many available clays, I chose air-dry clay "Laguna Modeling Clay" for its reliable consistency and its easy use for children. We used both earth color Red and White. As we have mostly done drawings and paintings in past, children really enjoyed playing clay to experiment 3-d art. In my part, it took way more preparation than other materials, but seeing how excited children were I am planing to continue incorporating this medium.

K~2nd
Coil pots and pinch pots; children enjoyed being creative
adding other materials like feathers, sea shells and branches.

K~2nd

K~2nd

3rd~5th
Making clay piggy banks was much harder than it looks.
Hardest part was to cover up round balloon with a clay sheet.
But they enjoyed adding elements like ears, feet and nose.
The popular animals were elephants, cows, and pigs :)
In the second week they painted their dried creations with acrylic.

3rd~5th

3rd~5th
Students made clay tiles.
After designing and cutting pieces, putting together like puzzles
was a little hard, but look at these beautiful tiles they created!:)

3rd~5th

Postcard Project

Hearing the "Postcard Project for Japan" organized in the Big Island , 3rd-5th graders in my art classes created these bright miniature art in the size of postcard with Hawaiian motifs.

Bible Fun Activity Book

Bible Fun Activity Book (written and illustrated by Yuko Green. (c) 2012 Yuko Green. Dover Publications ISBN-10: 0-486-48251-0) 46 pages

My first Bible theme book! This is an activity book to introduce children to the stories of the Old Testament with puzzles, such as crosswords, mazes, word searches, hidden pictures, secret codes and other activities. Each of the 35 puzzle pages is based on a specific story from the Old Testament and includes a caption with a Bible chapter and verse. Children can help Noah's dove find its way from the ark to dry land, connect the dots to discover who tricked Eve in the Garden of Eden, fill in the letters to find out what King Solomon's one wish was, and solve a coded message to figure out the meaning of Jacob's dream. Solutions included. My prayer is that these puzzles help children know some of these Bible stories while entertaining them. This is also the first book I illustrated all by computer. 

The book can be found here.

Art Workshop #23

January 31 - March 8, 2012
After School Art for Children (K - 5th)
Waikoloa Elementary School
808-883-6808
5 weeks, Tuesdays & Thursdays
2:15 - 3:15 pm (K - 2nd)
3:30 - 4:30 pm (3 - 5th)

This quarter's theme medium will be clay!

Meow! Meow!

I have been teaching after-school art program at Waikoloa School for 6 years now and I enjoy doing it more and more each year. Despite its some hardship of course (disciplines, no storage, etc.) I fall in love with children's "natural" abilities and attitudes toward creating their artwork. They don't pretend or afraid. Especially young children in K~2nd classes, I am convinced that what they are doing is experimenting, enjoying the process and  plainly expressing themselves, without concerning how their work would be perceived by others. I know this because many of my students fold their "masterpieces" into one eighth or so (!) to put in their backpacks after they finish (many parents report to me that they have to unfold the work to admire them or put them on refrigerators). Working more than 20 years now as a professional illustrator myself, how I appreciate learning from them about discovering something "new" all around us and expressing through art. There is no dull moment in life and in my art classes :D 
"Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso


Here are some of cat artwork K-2nd  children did.  I always try to read one picture book (that relates to the subject of the project) for this age to inspire them before they start their work. The book I chose for these cat art was When Cats Dream by Dav Pilkey. The illustrations in this book change their forms and styles dramatically from realism in a cat's real world view to free and imaginative styles in a cat's dream.  Children really enjoy this project; their wild colors and abstract forms are so inspiring, fun and wonderful! Enjoy!

Postage stamp self-portrait

Every year, in both K~2nd and 3rd~5th grader classes, we do self-portrait. With the changes in children's art skills and their rapid growth, comparing every self-portraits would be fun! In 3rd~5th grader class, students designed their images in postage stamps. The idea was using a bit of pop-art concept. Students first design the compositions with pencils, then used sharpie markers, and colored with oil pastels. Here are some of their work. 

The Mouse House Village

Happy New Year!
Praying everyone a healthy and blessed new year. :)
I have made some goals for this year; for both work and outside work...but main thing is going outside my comfort zone, trusting God. There are many things I have been shy away in my attitude in past, and I would like to make my effort to "reach out" more this year! :D 
As far as my own art, one of things I would like to do is to try my hands on different medium. Last year, one of my Japanese friends came to Hawaii and wanted to teach me Polymer clay. I was always curious about this versatile medium and wanted to try one day, so I gratefully accepted her offer. I alway enjoy to learn new thing! I made two little mice and have been dreaming about how to incorporate this fun medium into making picture book 3D illustration somehow... someday...I love these process...anything is possible.


So when I heard about "The Mouse House Village" I was so excited to visit. Yesterday, I finally had that opportunity to go with my cartoonist friend. It was a wooden, hand-crafted, miniature creation by beloved island paiter and Kona resident Martha L. Greenwell. Assembled more than 30 years ago, a miniature Christmas village is on display at the Isaacs Art Center at Hawai'i Preparatory Academy through January 5, 2012. 
I was so fascinated by the artist' cares and love for the smallest details, like mouse artists' art materials! Like Jill Barklem who created such a detailed illustration world of mice family, these artists surely have kindred spirits :) Though her realistic oil paintings have completely different mood and atmosphere I now interested in viewing them as well. I enjoyed this visit... which surely inspired me to keep creating my art "with love"...that Greenwell did whole life in Hawai'i.

The Isaacs Art Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday

For information, call 808-885-5884