LITERATURE + LECTURES

Friday, September 9 at 5:00pm, Blue Willow Bookshop presents Loren Long. Loren Long will discuss and sign his new picture book, Otis and the Tornado..

Otis and his farm friends are enjoying a summer's day playing their favorite game, follow-the-leader. The bull, however, has no interest in playing and stays in his pen, where he delights in intimidating the other animals. Suddenly the day turns frightening: the birds stop chirping, the wind picks up, and the sky turns dark and stormy. It's a tornado! Otis rouses a game of follow-the-leader to get all of the farm animals safe and sound in the dried-up riverbanks of Mud Creek. But Otis hears a cry in the distance - it's the bull, still locked in his pen! Quick as his tires will take him, Otis putt puff putted chuffs back to the farm to save the day.

This brand-new adventure is a perfect accompaniment to any Otis lover's bookshelf and story time.

Loren Long is the #1 New York Times best-selling illustrator of Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could and Madonna’s Mr. Peabody’s Apples. Loren’s other New York Times best-selling books include: Toy Boat by Randall DeSeve which was awarded the 2007 Publisher’s Weekly Cuffie Award for Favorite Picture Book of the Year and the 2008 Great Lakes Book Award for Children's Picture Book, Angela and the Baby Jesus by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt, and the chapter book series Sluggers that he created with Phil Bildner.

Recently, Loren has both written and illustrated two picture books, Drummer Boy and the New York Times Bestseller, Otis, about a friendly little tractor. In 2010, Loren illustrated President Barack Obama’s book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.

Loren lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife and two sons. You can visit him at www.lorenlong.com.