Lea Lyon is an award-winning children’s book illustrator, painting teacher and portrait artist who has made a childhood dream come true.
Lea loved to draw and paint as a child. She took art classes and began to paint in oils when she was twelve years old. She wanted to be a children’s book illustrator when she grew up. But life, as it often does, got in the way: college, raising a family, running a small doll and puppet business, then back to school for an MBA and into the corporate world. Now, at long last, Lea is a children’s book illustrator with four published picture books.
Her fifth book, Operation Marriage, by Cynthia Chin-Lee will be available in October, 2011. Lea is an active member of the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.) She is the Illustrator Coordinator of the San Francisco region of SCBWI and arranges conferences featuring nationally famous illustrators and art directors.
2012: Operation Marriage has received a Gold Medal in the annual Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, in the Spirit/Compassion category, for dedication to children’s books and literacy and for inspired writing, illustrating and publishing.
Operation Marriage
SKU: 9781604864229
Author: Cynthia Chin-Lee • Illustrations: Lea Lyon
Publisher: PM Press/Reach and Teach
ISBN: 9781604864229
Published: 10/2011
Format: Hardcover, ePub, PDF, mobi
Size: 8.5 x 11
Page count: 32
Subjects: Children’s Picture Book, Family
Praise
“Operation Marriage is an honest, insightful, and touching story illustrating the many ways that lack of marriage equality impacts kids’ lives. Its messages—perseverance, trusting oneself, facing adversity and standing up to it—are universal, but its approach to the particular social challenge of marriage inequality fills a void in the children’s book world. There is power in seeing a problem from a child’s perspective, and much that we grown-ups can learn from looking at the world through a child’s eyes. This book belongs in every school library and on every public library shelf.” —Sarah Hoffman, author of Pink Boys
“Cynthia Chin-Lee very sensitively deals with the subject of same sex marriage by telling the true story of one couple and their children. Children are very ready to start talking about the civil rights issues of our time and this book is a great jumping off point to get those conversations started.” —Jacinta Bunnell, author of Girls Are Not Chicks Coloring Book
“Even 3rd-graders know that commitment ceremonies are not weddings and domestic partnerships are not marriage. Operation Marriage shows how important marriage is to children and that they understand that anything less, is less than equal.” —Dr. Davina Kotulski, psychologist, and author of Why You Should Give A Damn About Gay Marriage (2004) and Love Warriors: The Rise of the Marriage Equality Movement and Why it Will Prevail (2010)
“Cynthia delights audiences, with careful consideration not to leave anyone out. Her books are winners.” —Heidi R. Kling, author of Sea
“The strength here is Lyon’s watercolor illustrations in summer greens, golden yellows, and coppery browns that evoke the heat of warm days spent with friends.” —School Library Journal, on Playing War
Book Events
april, 2024
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Reviews
- Operation Marriage on Book Dragon
- Palo Alto Family’s Experience Depicted in Children’s Book on Gay Marriage
- Palo Alto Family’s Experience Depicted in Children’s Book on Gay Marriage
- Operation Marriage: Inspired by a Palo Alto Family, Fictional Kids Convinced Their Gay Parents to Get Married
- Operation Marriage: A Kirkus Review
- Operation Marriage: MidWest Book Review
- Marriage Equality for Kids: A Review of Operation Marriage