The ARTEACHER Symposium at the School of Visual Arts, November 16th

Do you know a high school art teacher in the Tristate area? If so they may be interested in a free, all-day professional development event being offered by the School of Visual Arts on November 16, 2024. The ARTEACHER Symposium will assemble a full roster of speakers, including award-winning illustrators, comic-book artists and educators who will “inform, inspire and energize” through presentations, activities and panel discussions on teaching visual storytelling.

I’m excited to be a featured speaker with a presentation called “Seriously Funny—Using Humor in the Classroom,” because to me, me comedy is serious business. I look forward to connecting with my SVA colleagues and meeting local educators as we discuss working and troubleshooting in the trenches of the art classroom.

For more information, visit The ARTEATHER Symposium website here.

The ARTEACHER Symposium will be held from 9:30am to 4:00pm on Saturday, November 16, 2024 in the SVA Graduate Center Screening Room, 136 West 21st Street, New York City.

Chappaqua Children's Book Festival, Sat., 9/28

One of my favorite days of the year is coming up next Saturday, September 28th—the annual Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. Running from 10am–4pm, at the Chappaqua Train Station, the event brings together an impressive array of kidlit authors and illustrators from all around the northeast. The most hard-working crew of librarians, educators, and volunteers make the day well worth it for those of us who have to travel a distance. Best of all, we kidlit creators get to connect directly with readers.

I’ll be signing copies of my latest picture book collaboration with author Sharon G. Flake, YOU MAKE ME SNEEZE!, along with my other books—including as always, a few science picture books. I hope to see you there!

For more information on all the amazing events of the day, visit the festival website, or Instagram page.

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PARTY ANIMALS—Now Available for Pre-Order!

At long last, I’m pleased to share the cover of Party Animals, the first of two new picture books by the wonderful Tara Lazar and me, to be published by Disney–Hyperion in March 2025. I had a blast with this book, immersing myself into the characters and their whacky, partying personalities. While the book won’t officially be out in the world until March 11th, you can pre-order a copy today from your favorite bookseller.

I’ve been a fan of Tara’s and her books for a long time. I feel so fortunate that the lovely folks at Disney–Hyperion thought of me for this motley crew. (Thank you Art Director, Joann Hill and Editor, Sylvie Frank!) This might be the funniest book I’ve done yet—it really hit a sweet spot.

Recently, Tara interviewed me about my process behind the scenes. We discussed my thinking about the characters, and shared a few surprise nuggets hidden in the art. To read more and for information about a givieaway(!) and information about Tara’s other books, click here.

In the meantime, party on! 🎉

MOCCA Arts Fest 2024

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If you’re heading to the Society of Illustrators’ MoCCA Arts Festival in NYC this weekend, you might see people sporting a tote bag I illustrated for the School of Visual Arts to promote the summer residency program where I teach. This was a very fun collaboration with Viktor Koen, one of my former teachers now colleague in the MFA program, and the Chair of the BFA Comics and Illustration departments as well as founder of the Summer Illustration Residency.

I also spent a few hours reviewing portfolios of prospective students and visiting a few friends who were tabling. It’s always so inspiring to see the volume of work from this community. Best of all, I scored a bunch of my pal ShinYeon Moon’s felted vegetable creatures. Aren’t they amazing?!

It's a Book! Two New Books!

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My advance copies of YOU MAKE ME SNEEZE! and the paperback edition of YOU ARE NOT A CAT! arrived this week. Both books will officially be released on February 20th by Astra Young Readers.

Unboxing a year’s worth of hard work, seeing it glued and bound together as a book never gets old. I had the pleasure of sharing a sneak peek of YOU MAKE ME SNEEZE with some classrooms this week for World Read Aloud Day, and I’m happy to report: the jokes landed!

The lovely folks at Astra also created a very fun promotion for SNEEZE at this year’s ALA conference: tissue packs! They’ve sent me a bunch that I am looking forward to sharing with readers at some upcoming children’s book festivals this Spring and Fall. For more information on my appearance, scroll down this page to the Events section.

I also collaborated with Astra to create coloring pages based on a few of our favorite images from SNEEZE. Those are free for download here and on Astra’s website.

If you’d like to order a copy of one (or both) books, click here. ACHOO!