ANicholasville author has teamed again with a well-known folk artist to produce another children’s book illustrated with photographs of wood carvings.
The project has been about 20 years in the making for Mike Norris and Minnie Adkins. Norris lives in Nicholasville and worked for 31 years at Centre College in Danville before retiring two years ago. Adkins lives in Isonville and has received national awards for her carvings.
The two started working on “Bright Blue Rooster” in 1993 when Norris gave Adkins a tape of the song he had written by the same name and Adkins sent him a rooster carving in the mail. They self-published the book in 1997, and it was published by Joey Books with new wood-carving art on every page in February.
Norris and Adkins’ first book, “Sonny the Monkey,” was published last year and was the first children’s book available illustrated completely with wood carvings. “Bright Blue Rooster” is simpler than “Sonny,” written in the tradition of a nonsense song, Norris said.
“It’s a hard-times song where you talk about hard times and how things got bad and then got really bad, but in a kind of a humorous way.
Norris and Adkins will be giving presentations and doing book-signings at two Lexington events this weekend — Kentucky Crafted at the Lexington Convention Center on Vine Street from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Barnes and Noble at 1932 Pavilion Way from 2:30-3:30 p.m.
The bookstore versions of “Bright Blue Rooster” and “Sonny” — both include CDs with accompaniment songs — are available at www.acclaimpress.com as well as at major retail outlets and online vendors.
