If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor by Barbara Ehrentreu

Paired with the red long-sleeved T- shirt, they looked so good on the mannequin I’ll look like a stoplight. Don’t faint Carolyn, I tell myself, panting.ĭangling over the chair are those size twelve jeans, clown pants- hardly a fashion statement. My body curls into a fetal position, and I throw the covers over my head. Math class and Jennifer gym class with Jennifer. Suddenly it hits me, and I get this dizzy let-me-plop-on-the-pillow feeling. I see my new book bag is packed and ready by the door with the initials C. Worse luck, I have to do it, not as the slender blonde beauty in my dream, but as the real Carolyn Samuels with my brown curly hair hanging like shriveled spaghetti, mud brown eyes, and a body too large for fashion. Slamming my fist onto the snooze button, I get this nagging feeling. The dream evaporates, and I realize it’s the darn alarm piercing my sleep. The other cheerleaders run up to us laughing and kidding around, and I’m about to speak.

I ignore it because I’m thin and blonde and floating in the arms of my dark-haired crush. He places the cake box in my locker so he can put his arms around me. I don’t have to worry about eating it because I can eat anything I want and not gain weight. He smiles and feeds me a forkful of cake. I look up into his blue eyes and give him the box so I can touch his cheek as I smooth his dark hair. Inside is a piece of luscious chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. My Crush! He hands me the box, and I open it. She and her team also created a book trailer video for it.I spot him walking toward my locker with a small box in one hand and a plastic fork in the other. The cover features a lenticular graphic that fingerspells A, B. I n addition to teaching both online and in the classroom on children’s book illustration at UCSD Extension, she art-directed, designed, and prepared the electronic files for a definitive children’s American Sign Language dictionary for Gallaudet University Press, alongside a team of illustrators and editors, the culmination of a five-year project. She also designs digital and print graphics for corporations and small businesses. She has art directed and designed hundreds of books for more than 20 book publishers all over the country. After several years as art director for Harcourt’s trade division, she left to start her own studio, Joy Chu Designs.

She re-located to San Diego, only to discover that the trade division of Harcourt was also moving there. Crowell (which was later absorbed into HarperCollins) to senior designer at Holt, all in New York City.

Straight out of college, she went from design trainee at Alfred A. Joy Chu has been associated with book publishing most of her adult life. Visit her public Facebook page, “ Got Story?. An interview! View Joy Chu’s on-line portfolio here.

If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor by Barbara Ehrentreu