First printing 10,000 copies Author Arthur Geisert has been making picture books for 40 years and is an illustrator of the highest caliber. He is a skilled craftsman of copperplate etching, making meticulous, rigorously conceived work. He is an illustrator's illustrator and is held in the highest esteem among his book world peers. This is important. Geiser's work MATTERS. Every illustrator worth his/her salt knows this. An LA transplant, Geisert is steeped in the Midwest, which he has made his home and which he has documented and celebrated in his picture books. In doing so, he has specifically given us a record of Iowa's gorgeous natural world and a loving portrait of the people populating small town America. This matters to MIBA, to Iowans, and to many, many others even within urban America. Arthur's book party in Bernard, IA for THUNDERSTORM was the first book party to be covered by NPR. People traveled from as far as Chicago and DC to come. Arthur signed 500 books in the back of Coe's Bar, sitting by the meat slicer. His book party in Elkader will be equally spectacular and worthy of coverage.