ABOUT THIS BOOK:
All children dream of fabulous futures, and those dreams shape who they will become. George Ella Lyon was no different. Growing up in a Kentucky mountain town, she planned on becoming a creator of magnificent neon signs, a circus tightrope walker, and an astronaut rocketing to the moon. Her future took a different path, but her dreams never left her. Now in A Sign, she explores how all these dreams led her to the same place.

MY THOUGHTS OF “A SIGN”:
When I read “Borrowed Children” I knew I wanted to work with George Ella Lyon. I was given an opportunity to illustrate one of her stories and when I read “A Sign” I jumped at the chance. I was attracted to her words which playful text is packed with rhymes. Here’s an interesting trivia, the model in the circus tightrope scene is played by my wife. No, she really isn't on a tightrope. She was on a ladder. -Chris Soentpiet

BOOK REVIEW:
Soentpiet's luminous watercolors evoke the aura of the 1950s and the 1960s, from Main Street's beckoning neon signs to Alan Shepard's breathtaking venture into outer space.

Together Lyon and Soentpiet have created a memorable tribute to the power of dreams and the joy of the written word.

"Soentpiet's realistic watercolor are suffused with light and bring this autobiographical essay to colorful life." -School Library Journal

"Soentpiet's interior watercolor are splendid recreations of small town scene in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as dazzling circus lights and the black-and-white view via a television screen of Alan Sheperd's launch into space. The book initially appears to be simply a nostalgic look back, until Lyons expands on her three childhood aspirations and, with great simplicity, shows reader how elements of each have influenced her as a writer. Both Soentpiet's shimmering depiction of flickering stars in the vast rosy darkness and Lyon's musical poem glow with beauty and a hopeful message for readers that dreams really can come true."
-Publisher's Weekly

"Soentpiet's handsomely rendered realistic watercolor artwork both evokes the 1950s and 1960s, when Lyon was growing up, and extend Lyon's point about the various ways dreams can come true.
-Booklist