Why making art for kids is important

I’ve said this in practically every conference talk I’ve ever given: working on books for kids is rewarding because you might work on the book that lights a fire (and when it comes to conflagrations, kids are much more combustible than adults). I’ve never said it nearly as well as Shaenon K. Garrity does in this blog post about the G.I. Joe silent issue wherein she tries to explain “how a soft-spoken gun nut with a work-for-hire gig can derail a boy's life—half a million boys' lives—without a word.”

By Michael Slack Gross Body Science Series Illustrator

Being a connoisseur of all things drippy, gooey, crusted, and slime covered, I was very excited when I received a call asking if I would be interested in illustrating a series of books titled Gross Body Science.

Ummm . . . YES!

When working on kids’ books, and especially on educational kids’ books, I'm generally asked to tone down the edginess. So when I received the art notes for the Gross Body Science books, I instantly knew this project was going to be great fun. Some of the art requests were as follows:

Some type of art to go with the text, “Next stop: Large intestine. There, the melted-ice-cream-like goop becomes full-fledged poop.”

Maybe an ice-cream-making machine with ice-cream like goop going in, and poop coming out?

A big, bloody, messy pile of alien worms.

A glob of subcutaneous fat that looks cute ( goes with text, “So this bottom layer of skin is called super-cutie layer”).

A talking poop saying the line, "Did you know poop can talk?"

I can safely say that this was the first (and probably the last) time I have had someone ask me to draw a talking turd.

Throughout the series, I created tons of quirky human characters. But being a huge fan of monsters, monster movies, and science fiction stories, I had the most fun creating all the strange critters, creatures, and germs. On the left is a sketch of one of my favorite illustrations from the books. And on the right is how the finished illustration tuned out.

This is how the

These are some of my other favorites:

 So you are probably thinking, “Wow, how cool! I'd love to draw grumpy viruses.” Or maybe you’re thinking, “Wow, this blog post is a snoozer. I wonder how many new friend requests I have on my Facebook page?” Anyway, I'm going to assume you’re thinking drawing grumpy viruses would be cool. So here is how you do it. Pens and paper ready?

1. Draw a shape. Any shape.

2. Add eyes. When it comes to virus peepers, more is always better. Make them goofy.

3. Remember, this is the little guy who makes you feel miserable when you are sick. Give him an agitated, mean scowl.

4. Finish it off with some squiggly lines, scratchy scruff, and a few noodley appendages, and there you have it! Coxsackievirus.

Well, I hope you don't have it. Coxsackie, that is.

Click here to find out how drawing a virus could win you an original drawing from Michael Slack, along with a free book from the Gross Body Science series!

Switching over

It's official. My imprint, Carolrhoda, has a blog, so that's where I'll be. Please come visit.

carolrhoda.blogspot.com

Alice Pope Interviews Me

Check it out.

More Mondays like these please!

Last Monday, Maggie Stiefvater's Lament nabbed a starred review in PW. This Monday, a book whose success I'm inheriting, Angel Girl by Laurie Friedman with illustration by Ofra Amit hit on the CBS Early Show, and The Dust of 100 Dogs, a book whose success I now watch as spectator, landed an awesome, nuanced review on Jen Robinson's Book Page.

Excuse me while I go buy a lottery ticket.

Painful but necessary reading

If you're a new author, this will not necessarily be a fun blog post to read, but you should anyway. Wiley marketing director Andrew Wheeler muses on "skips." A lot of what he says about SFF applies neatly to YA. [Via Galleycat]

A Good Thing

Marshall Cavendish Children's Books is launching a "classics" line, mining the out-of-print backlist and reissuing titles with new covers and "Classics" branding. The "classics" part is whatever-able in my opinion, but that aside, I'm really encouraged to see YA in particular gain some perspective by adding strong voices from the past to the conversation. Really, the only reason many of these books were OP was that their packaging got stale. Fix the covers, and the writing can find a whole new audience. (Speaking of covers, it would be a brave and clever publisher who included the original cover on the inside of the reissues. I think that would be fascinating.)