On Friday, June 13, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art opened its exhibit The Art of Grace Lin: Meeting a Friend in an Unexpected Place with a special members' preview. I wasn't able to attend — but my parents did and reported a fantastic conversation between Grace and exhibit curator Melissa Hung along with wonderful art and tasty food. What better way to spend a Friday night?

The next day, I visited the exhibit with my son, a Grace Lin superfan, and what a time we had. We first got to say hi to Grace and Alvina Ling, fresh off a live recording of their Book Friends Forever podcast. Then we entered the exhibit. From the Carle's website: "This career retrospective of more than 80 works will celebrate all aspects of Lin’s creativity with original art, sketches, manuscripts, and videos." The exhibit is arranged in seven sections: Celebrating Culture & Traditions, Ling & Ting, The Stories of Food, Myths & Journeys, Modern Mom Myths, Grace Lin’s Studio, Adventures Through Imagination. It's hard to pick favorites, but Modern Mom Myths, featuring A Big Mooncake for Little Star and A Big Bed for Little Snow, was right up there; and it's always a thrill to see original Horn Book art "in the wild" (this gorgeous piece was in Adventures Through Imagination).

Bonus: Open + Shut: Celebrating the Art of Endpapers, which I'd been meaning to check out, was also on exhibit. In addition to featuring Grace Lin's Big Mooncake endpapers alongside Robert McCloskey's for Blueberries for Sal, there are over fifty pieces by more than thirty artists — and many Horn Book favorites (too many to name!). As always, if you're out and about in Western MA, the Carle is a must-visit (and I'm not just saying that because they gave us an award)!