Yesterday was really something.

I saw that Booklist had nice things to say about The Day-Glo Brothers:

Organizing his material well and writing with a sure sense of what will interest children, Barton creates a picture book that celebrates ingenuity and invention.

Then I saw that Cynthia Leitich Smith did, too, in this School Library Journal article, “What’s On Your Summer Reading List?“:

The picture book I’m most excited about is The Day-Glo Brothers…

And then I found out that Kirkus will be running a starred review of the book in its June 15 issue. I haven’t seen the text yet, but I honestly don’t think there’s anything they could say that would make me feel better than the enthusiastic responses I got from family and friends and acquaintances yesterday when I shared this news with them.

An editor I know only through friendly visits at conferences was the one who first told me — via Facebook — about the Kirkus star, and the good news quickly got around on Twitter. That’s some speedy, modern word-of-mouth for a book that’s been eight years in the making and was inspired by an article a dozen years ago in a dead-tree edition of a newspaper.

Thank you all for looking forward to this book, and for helping me celebrate its arrival.