www.5sparrows.com Portrait of the Son marks Josephine Nobisso's 104th book, almost all of them for children, with several translated into various languages. (She, herself, is fluent in three languages, and conversant in four others.) Her work has won dozens of awards, and she has earned significant personal citations, the most recent being her investiture as "Honorary Dame" into the Order of Saint Michael of the Wing, a Roman Catholic, royal and dynastic order. The author has a special love for the arts, especially as they apply to picture books. Two of the only six original titles released by the publishing house she launched were short-listed for the Caldecott Medal. Throughout her 20's, Miss Nobisso acted as representative for an art gallery in New York City, placing original prints into private and major museum collections. A mentor to many writers, she spent 25 years presenting 100 author programs and writing workshops per year, in an innovative method she developed, and she published a landmark children's picture book, HOT CHA CHA!, which models myriad poetry styles, and includes an instructive essay with illustrative tips on the subject.