While still a magazine Art Director I had my first books published. The OSCAR series was an early pioneer of STEM books for kids and is published across the globe from the USA to Korea. From France to Taiwan. Based on my real pet cat Oscar who I had to leave in the UK for two years when I flew to Sydney to be Art Director of Vogue Australia. We missed him so I made him into a book!
JUST ONE BITE for Chronical Books in the USA was fun to do. And took a while to work out how to get a giant squid and a sperm whale life size into a book just 12 inches square. But we managed it in the end, and even had room for a giraffe and an elephant!
BLACK MEETS WHITE by Justine Fontes was my first published book and a lesson in minimalism. Eric Carle once said a novelist starts with an idea and has to get to 80,000 words while a children’s book creator has to get an 80000 word idea down to 800 or less!