Marshmallow Martians How to Draw Videos!

MUSEUM SLEEPOVER, the 3rd book in the Marshmallow Martians series published by Penguin Random House will be released January 23 2024 and we’re getting ready by kicking off our HOW TO DRAW AND CREATE Youtube series where Neil will show how to draw…and Deanna might throw Neil some wacky “WHAT IFS” to try out.

You can check out our first Marshmallow Martians How to Draw Snug video on our Youtube channel. Subscribe to get alerted with new How to Draw content for kids.

The Marshmallow Martians Show and Smell Land!

The Marshmallow Martians have landed! Our local bookstore, Mosaic books in downtown Kelowna, let us have the kids’ area windows and we had some GIANT marshmallow martians made… The result was a Sunday morning of marshmallow-y shenanigans!

Deanna and Neil set up the Marshmallow Martians Show and Smell book display!

Marshmallow Martians: Earth School! Cover reveal...and a story

We’re so excited to share the cover of the second book in the Marshmallow Martians young graphic novel series! Here is EARTH SCHOOL which comes out Summer, 2023 and is available for preorder now!

There’s a fun story around this book. While we were working on it, we were invited by a friend to visit Galiano Island in BC, Canada on Vancouver Island. (Thank you, Sarah!)

We visited the Galiano Community school and did an interactive session with the amazing kids, educators, and library people (Like you, Lori!) who inspired us to try and capture the community’s enthusiasm and curiosity.

Marshmallow Martians is on sale July 25, 2023.
Please feel free to pre-order your squishy giggles now!
(Pre-ordering is really helpful for creators.)

We’ll be giving updates along the way as we create the Marshmallow Martians graphic novels for young readers. We hope that Snug, Squishy, Woof, Fuzz, and G.L.O.W. —on all their funny Earth adventures—make kids laugh.

@RHKidsGraphic and @RandomHouseKids #welovecomics #comicparty

Marshmallow Martians Book 1 Cover Reveal and Book Trailer!

A tribute to the bedtime-story rituals we had when our boys were small, we hope the Marshmallow Martians book series (for kids 5-8) will provide many squishy, snuggly, storytime giggles.

It is COVER REVEAL and TRAILER day for Marshmallow Martians “Show & Smell”, the first in a graphic chapter book series for young readers coming April 2023. This series idea came to us during the pandemic lockdown when we were feeling anxious and confused—and needed to remind ourselves of the everyday things that are quirky and delightful. The result was a moment at the kitchen table when Deanna stood up and said, “What if… MARSHMALLOW MARTIANS?!” Neil didn’t know what she meant but he laughed, too. (This odd type of “what if…” kitchen table convo happens at our kitchen table more often than you’d imagine.) The result? Wide-eyed, curious characters plopped into the weirdness of Earth. We hope this quirky marshmallow ensemble generates contagious giggles. Here’s the description:

Meet the Marshmallow Martians: sweet, squashy buddies who journey through their backyard portal in search of adventures on their favorite planet—Earth! A hilarious graphic chapter book for the youngest readers that will make kids look at life on Earth through fresh eyes!

In this adventure, the Martians—along with their space cat, space dog, and marshmallow robot assistant—learn about something called "show and smell." (Does that sound right? It sure doesn't smell right!) They go in search of Earth's smelliest smells to bring back to their home planet, Moop. Where will they find the best smells? An amusement park, of course!

This silly graphic chapter book, with its ensemble of lovable Martians, will have kids laughing out loud while gaining confidence in reading. Graphic chapter books serve as a great bridge to graphic novels and longer chapter books.

And the book trailer…

If we do say so, our nephew and nieces are pretty spectacular as Marshmallow Martians character voices in this video! We also had a couple of talented friends help us with the sound and the animation. Neil and I met David and Jenny when we were all working at The Walt Disney Company together. David Fairfield did the audio and SFX treatment for this trailer and Neil and Jenny Weightman worked on the character animation.

Please feel free to pre-order your bedtime story squishy giggles now! (Pre-ordering is helpful for creators).

We’ll be giving updates along the way as we create the Marshmallow Martians graphic novels for young readers. We hope that Snug, Squishy, Woof, Fuzz, and G.L.O.W. —on all their funny Earth adventures—make kids laugh.

@RHKidsGraphic and @RandomHouseKids #welovecomics

Ready. Set. Sparkle!

We’re getting excited for the Glam Prix Racers series to launch on May 11, 2021. We’ve been working with the great Macmillan Kids Books team to help introduce it and they’ve created a VERY fun Glam Prix Racers landing page here with a video. Very special thanks to David Fairfield for some of the sound production on this. David helped us with the sound of the Snazzy Cat Capers book trailers, too.

We’ve had a lot of people ask lately how we do books, work full-time, and deal with our 4 kids. All we can say is that we love it. We love making things. We love collaboration. And while this series has been a special kind of challenge—because it’s a really, really labor-intensive format and we’ve somehow managed to do it in the pandemic— all the extra early mornings and the discipline we’ve mustered around some tough deadlines make this launch feel extra good. We’re forever grateful for all the support—whether you buy or borrow our books, say nice things about our books to a friend, or write a short review on Amazon or Goodreads, all of it helps us to keep creating. So thank you.

You're invited to Snazzy Cat Capers 2 book launch party!

"She's the pussycat love child of James Bond and Zsa Zsa Gabor, and who can't love that?" —Kirkus Review of Snazzy Cat Capers

Everyone’s invited to the Snazzy Cat Capers Book launch for “The Fast and the Furriest”—Book 2 in the Snazzy Cat Capers Series. Even if you don’t like stealthy cat burglars, stubborn fish inventors, or pesky robo-dogs, there will be cupcakes.

More than the launch of a book, this gathering is a way for us to celebrate our community for endless opportunities and spaces to exercise our own creativity. From our school and city librarians to all the teams we work with, to the coffee shops, local bookstores, Accelerate Okanagan and the Innovation Centre, there are hundreds of people and places that support making stuff in Kelowna.

Snazzy Cat Capers Book 2 Trailer!

Two months til launch!

The 2nd in the Snazzy Cat Capers book series, “The Fast and the Furriest” will be released September 17, 2019!

We had a lot of fun with book 2 because we had a bit more room to send Ophelia to a few international places. The stakes are high as the world’s #1 cat burglar needs to outsmart her ambitious, devious cousin Pierre AND the CCIA (Central Canine Intelligence Agency) to save cat-kind. We’ll do a few posts on the making of this middle grade novel. There are graphic novel pages throughout and about 100 illustrations.

Check out the trailer!

A fun Snazzy Cat Capers review!

We’re pretty thrilled with this nice review from Booklist Online!

Snazzy Cat Capers

By Deanna Kent. Illus. by Neil Hooson

Sept 2018. 224p. Macmillan/Imprint, $13.99 (9781250143433). Gr. 2–5

World-renowned cat burglar Ophelia is the best the Furry Feline Burglary Institute (FFBI) offers (and she always looks fabulous, too). Director Mew thinks she needs a sidekick, but the independent thief disagrees. No one is good enough to work alongside Ophelia and her greatness. She’s rejected 16 inventors in just one year: one was smelly, one too boring, one told bad jokes, and the last one threw fart bombs. But the director has a trick up his sleeve. When the FFBI offers the ultimate challenge—to steal a giant Himalayan diamond—Ophelia must work with her newly appointed inventor, Oscar Fishgerald Gold, to become the best catnapping team. She needs to learn to trust her partner and his skills of invention, all while foiling her rival's plans. Black-and-white, graphic-novel-style panels, complete with dialogue bubbles, break up the text and add to the action. This first book in the Snazzy Cat Capers series is full of humor, mystery, and adventure. — Rosie Camargo

Snazzy Cat Capers Book Launch Fun!

Thanks to so many of our friends and the supportive Kelowna community (including the Innovation Centre and Mosaic Books!), the Snazzy Cat Capers book launch was SO MUCH FUN! We had over 150 people come to celebrate with us and check out the art installation we created that showcased the process of how Snazzy Cat Capers went from idea to a published series with Macmillan’s Imprint.

Here’s a short video of the event made by our friend Rob LeLacheur. We couldn’t be more grateful for the support and love we’ve got with the Okanagan Tech community.

Snazzy Cat Capers book 'process' display is up!

Yesterday, with the help of a couple of friends, we set up our Snazzy Cat Capers art display in Kelowna's Innovation Centre! It will be there for the whole month of September and we hope you'll go take a look at it. If you're planning on coming to the Snazzy Cat Capers Official Book Launch, you can take it in then.

While there's some cool "final" art on display, it actually aims to show the messy process of idea to publication. Everyone's publication and creative process is different. Snazzy Cat Capers started as a graphic novel with the fish as the protagonist and morphed into a chapter book series with the villain cat, Ophelia von Hairball as the protagonist.

The display shows rough art, rejections, rough drafts, and talks about some of the adventures along the way. It's a glimpse into our personal journeys with this book series. We hope you can check it out... and we hope you'll come to the book launch party! 

Inside the okanagan innovation centre on doyle ave. in Kelowna, with the help of one of an art gallery professional, we put up the process display. 

we showcase rough art, rejections, the editing process, and some concept art that was never used.