After a little break from making picture books, I’m back with Fred Gets Dressed, my most personal book to date. If you have a few minutes, I’d like to tell you about the story, and about the inspiration behind it. One day, when I was five years old, I went into my parents’ bedroom and began looking through my mother’s makeup. I loved my mom, and I loved making art, so it was only natural that I was curious about the “paint” she put on her face.  I didn’t know what to do with makeup, of course, and when my… 

So, I wrote my first children’s novel. It wasn’t a graceful process, but I survived the stress and the solitude and the crippling self-doubt, and now my novel has entered the world. It’s called The Wild Robot. If you have a few minutes I’d like to tell you about it. Back in 2008, while working on a picture book called The Curious Garden, I spent a lot of time making sketches like this- I loved imagining scenes of nature living in surprising places. And that got me thinking about scenes of unnatural things living in surprising places, and I made… 

I love everything about books. I love reading them. I love writing them. I love the look and smell and sound and feel of books. I might even love the taste, let me check…yeah, I love the taste of books, too. I also love the culture of books. I love places filled with books. I love talking about books. I love the power of books. And I really love people who love books, which is why I love booksellers. Booksellers are curious and intelligent and interesting people and they’re always finding new things to be excited about, thanks in part to…