Interview with Author/Illustrator Ed Young

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a huge fan of Ed Young's. So imagine my thrill at getting to

interview him. Here's what he had to say to me, you, us!

AIIS: What is your favorite thing about making books?

EY: My favorite thing about creating books is the pleasure of turning readers on in stories of the past, present and even future, The wonder of words and pictures!

AIIS: What is your favorite thing about visiting schools?

EY: School visits simply verify that books are made by people like themselves who also struggle with everyday mundane activities and face difficulties like everyone else.

AIIS: Would you describe your typical day in a school?

EY: My day at school depends on the need and limitations of the school. Some schools are so poor, I simply talk and draw pictures to tell stories, but often those were the best, students and teachers, in their thirst for knowledge and in their appreciation of visitors. I do workshops, large groups or small and all ages.

AIIS: How do your school visits benefit students?

EY: I know my visit benefits students; It's a win-win situation, if I'm not excited and receive a kick out of being there, they cannot be benefited by the visit either. 

AIIS: How do your visits benefit the teachers?

EY: Same with teachers. helpers (parents), everyone involved if they put in their minds, they receive many times more. 

AIIS: What do you want schools to know about planning author visits?

EY: Plan it well like all Mazza bookfests, It's well run if it appears so easy. Not so, a lot of work and heart in everyone who's involved without exceptions. The better prepared the students, the higher the spirit and anticipation.

AIIS: Is there anything else that you would like students and schools to know about you?

EY: That I am human and I have my limitations like all human beings. 

Thank you, Ed, for taking the time to visit with us. I was lucky enough to see you speak at Mazza, and know that any school would be lucky to have you visit!

Check out Ed's website at: http://edyoungart.com/about.html

Back to School!

As a visiting Author/Illustrator it's that time of year again. Like all the other teachers out there, we're going over our teaching materials, updating anything that needs to be updated, and rethinking our teaching strategies--what worked well last year? What could be improved upon? What could be done to make my visit more impactful to the students?

Ed Young at the Mazza Museum Summer Conference

I'm up to my eyeballs in documents, creating more streamlined files, and marking upcoming author visits on the calendar. And that's what's taking me away from my blog. But life is just that way--we have a lull where everything seems to fall into place, and then there's a rush where there's not enough time in the day.

I hearken to what Ed Young said about creating a predictable life. It really is the unexpected, or the extreme (even extreme busyness) that gives us something to look back upon and said "Wow, what a ride!"

What are your preparations like for the new school year? What's your ride like out there, and what has you busy right now?

Mazza Museum Summer Conference Day 3

Our day began with Michael Hall (My Heart is Like a Zoo) speaking about his books.  Michael had a fun presentation style, sharing pictures of the women in his life—his wife, daughters, agent, and editor, all of whom came into his story as the presentation progressed.  After a while I decided that, despite his classic looks, he reminded me of Bob Newhart, so I’m now dubbing him the Bob Newhart of the kidlit world. Bob—I mean Michael—showed us some of his design work, and it’s easy to see how he went from that to the books he And he did. Brilliantly!

does. One logo was a pelican. “I would never draw a pelican,” he said, “there are people who do that much better than me, but I would try to find a pelican in a few simple shapes.”

Michael also shared that he was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 8. I can’t help but think that this “disability” might be the driving force in the kind of artwork he excels at. He takes simple shapes and flips them, rotates them, and moves them around the page until he has created something else entirely. He also works a great deal with negative space—more divergent thinking.

Toward the end of his talk, Michael shared his 2014 release, It’s an Orange Aardvark. Cute stuff!

Michael is a quiet man with a story of hope for all the kids out there that struggle with any type of disability. As much as these things can be a struggle, they can also be something that kids grow into in a way that makes them unique, and uniquely abled.

Michael commented, “Brokenness is the source of all beauty,” followed quickly by “we are all broken.”

  

Next up was Ed Young, illustrator of nearly 90 books, one of which won a Caldecott.  Ed, who was born in China but has lived nearly 60 years in the U.S. considers himself to now have a mostly American mindset. Yet what I heard from Ed rang with a deeper, more philosophical tone than I normally encounter.

Ed was transparent in his generous sharing of his life story. He spoke of a time when he left an entire book of final art in a taxi cab and could not recover it. This happened at a time when his wife had just been diagnosed with cancer.  He promised his editor that he would recreate it, but he wasn’t sure when. His wife died two months later, leaving him with two preteen daughters to help grieve and heal. After a time, Ed left his daughters with friends for a week and went home where he worked on the book from 6 am until 11 pm. In a week’s time, he had “most of it down,” (and he feels the second version is better than the first.)

Ed feels that losing something, while stressful and unnerving, “is not the end of the world. It’s the promise of something more.”

Ed went on to tell us about growing up in China in a house his father built, (The House Baba Built). He shared artwork from the book at various stages, and photos, as he told stories of his family. He even told of the Jewish German family that came to live with his family at the end of WWII. With them, he said, was a blonde-haired little girl name Jean, whom he referred to as his "Jewish sister, and me, her Chinese brother." To our surprise, he asked a tiny woman in the front row to stand. It was Jean.

Ed was warm, funny, and sensitive, letting us take in a peek of his fascinating life, and I think we could have listened to him all day!

 

Exciting Illustration Conference Next Week!

I skipped my Friday post last week as I saw my brilliant-blogger sister, Rebecca Blood, off to the airport after a wonderful extended visit. Following that, I hustled around my house, catching up on

"must-dos" as I prepare for a week of illustration fun and learning at the Mazza Museum's summer conference. Here are the featured illustrators:

Monday: Walter Wick and Jon Klassen
Tuesday: James Dean, Julie Paschkis, and Sheila McGraw
Wednesday: Michael Hall and Ed Young
Thursday: Tom Lichtenheld and author Sherri Duskey Rinker
Friday: Roger Roth and Chris Raschka.

I'll be tweeting from the event @AIISblog, and will be posting here in the evenings. Can you say "EXCITED!"? That's what I am!