TOOT TOOT ZOOM! out now!

Out now, is my second of the two books I have newly released this spring--TOOT TOOT ZOOM!, published by Candlewick, written by Phyllis Root, and illustrated by yours truly. It's a good, fun romp. Four animals, a little red car, a long drive up a tall mountain, a car crash off the side of said mountain... it's crazy. Good stuff! Please check it out online, here, or find it/order it at your local independent bookseller.

And this just in! A nice early review for TTZ! by way of School Library Journal:

ROOT, Phyllis. Toot Toot Zoom! illus. by Matthew Cordell. unpaged.
Candlewick. 2009. Tr $15.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-3452-0. LC 2008934781.

PreS-K­Pierre, a red fox, lives alone at the foot of a mountain. One day he drives off in his little red sports convertible, hoping to make a friend on the other side. Children must turn the book sideways to fully appreciate the spreads showing a "sky-high mountain" with a spiral road. They will love vocalizing "toot! toot! screech!" at each of the cumulative encounters Pierre has as Goat, Sheep, and Bear join in the quest. Although no one lives on the other side of the mountain, a satisfying conclusion marks several successful friendships. The quartet settle down together in a house that incorporates pieces of the car. A large font with generous spacing between the lines adds much to the book's pleasing design. The spirited cartoonlike illustrations are done in ink and watercolor. Front endpapers show Pierre driving alone; final endpapers picture him riding with his three new pals. Expect requests for repeated readings.­Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA



TOOT! TOOT!!

Gimme Spring

Here in Chicagoland, Spring is doing it's best to stay unsprung. Not cool. Spring is my favorite time of year. The promise of warmer temps, heading into summer. Not too hot, but just getting there. So fresh. So clean. Energy burst out of the wintery slump. Temps have been all over the place in the last couple of weeks. Getting a taste of 60's here and there, but then it drops to 30's. Not cool. Supposedly it'll hit 80 this weekend. Let's see.

Still in throes of these two mid-grade novel illustration gigs. They've been kinda neck and neck with due dates. One's a little ahead of the other. The one that's more ahead, I'd like to share some of what's happening. I have, more or less, confirmed character sketches, and this page is what I'm using as my guide for art development.

(Click it to zoom, etc.)


And I just delivered a full set of 50 sketches to the pub (Abrams) yesterday. Waiting for some notes to come back. Here are a couple, from those, that I like. I hope these make the final cut.



In other news, Romy is also ready for spring. She wants to go outside! We're going crazy in here.

Julie, Romy, and Lynda Barry too!

Julie just came back from a writing workshop taught by the great Lynda Barry at our local community college. This is a class Ms. Barry does from time to time and she usually charges for admission. But I guess the school footed the bill for her to come so it was free! So Julie got to check that out and it sounded really great. Lynda's latest book, What It Is, is, sort of, the illustrated version of this class.

Anyhow, afterward, Julie sweet-talked a couple of sketches (Marlys! Monkey!) from Ms. Barry for our lil' Romy's bedroom. Awesome! Thanks, Lynda!

The Winner

Congratulations, Katie! (Um, apparently there were two "Katie" names. The winner is "Katie" and not "Katie N.". Sorry Katie and Katie N. for the confusion...) You were randomly selected as the winner of the MIGHTY CASEY contest. Please e-mail me to let me know your address, and how you’d like the book signed. Here, please: matthew@matthewcordell.com

Thanks very much to everyone for playing. And for playing along. It was a lot of fun to see what you people are getting into.

And not that anybody asked, but for my part, here’s my answers to those questions. Though I must say that these are not “all time” favorites. More like recent obsessions. And though I must say, the perfect and timeless Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood remains my newest favorite television show. But I thought I gushed enough about the late, great Fred Rogers a couple of weeks ago. Just saying. And the classic pig is almost probably my most favorite animal. But, to me, that was just obvious. So, yeah:

Favorite children’s book: What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry
Favorite song: Visions of Johanna by Bob Dylan
Favorite television show: Curb Your Enthusiasm
Favorite animal: Owl
Favorite movie: The Visitor
Favorite snack: CornNuts

Also... when my next picture book “drops,” I will be doing this contest giveaway again with that one. (TOOT TOOT ZOOM! Candlewick, April 28)

Sneak preview, page 6 (click it to zoom):


Stay tuned, ok?

Contest! You can win!

Dear Readers,

How would you like a free copy of my newest book, MIGHTY CASEY? Signed! And even personalized!


All you have to do is enter this here contest! The rules:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post. (Click the link at the end of this post that says "comments", and proceed.)

2. In your comment, leave a name--it need not be your real name. Just don't leave it "anonymous".

3. Your comment has to be this (and in this order):

a) Favorite children's book
b) Favorite song
c) Favorite television show
d) Favorite animal
e) Favorite movie
f) Favorite snack



Don't ask me why. I'm just trying to make it fun, ok? And, you know, it ain't gotta be, like, your absolute favorite. If you're like me, that's too hard. Just name a favorite--current or past. In each category.

You got til Friday to do it. That's April 10.

Then, I'll put each name on a piece of paper, toss them all into a hat, and let my 5-month-old daughter pull out the winner. Or I'll do it if she's not into it.

I will announce the winner by also commenting into the "comments" section at around 5pm (central) Friday. So don't forget to check back! The winner will email me her/his mailing info and I'll take care of the rest.

This is all at absolutely no cost to you.

Good luck. God speed.


sincerely,

M.T.Cordell

p.s. Keep it clean. I got kids reading this.

Yes, I still like to draw pigs.

p.s. This ain't just pig for pig's sake (or for blog's sake, as the case might look). This pig serves an actual, top secret purpose. Natch.

Together Again

Regular readers of this column may remember an interview conducted by James Preller (author of MIGHTY CASEY) with me (illustrator of MIGHTY CASEY) a while back. On Preller's blog here.

Today I turn the tables and interview MIGHTY CASEY's author, J. Preller. This is on our publisher's site/blog here, courtesy of Feiwel and Friends. And soon, believe it or not, Preller has interviewed me a second time and that will soon be up on the F+F blog as well. Sort of the second-string. Outtakes. Didn't make the first cut. Yeah, I know... ANOTHER interview. Groan, if you must.

You'll see. To come.

Go CASEY!

My New, Old Neighbor

Now that I'm doing the stay-at-home dad thing (on top of illustration duties), I've been watching a good bit of PBS kids. Mainly while feeding Romy. I love me some Arthur. I love me some Caillou. Sesame Street. And most of all, I am totally loving the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood reruns.

When I was a kid, I didn't take well to "the Neighborhood" (what Mr. Rogers called the show). I knew enough to know the show was supposed to make a kid feel good, but it made me feel depressed. That shack of a house with the blue and gray backgrounds. Mr. Rogers' piercing stare. Mr. McFeely's creepy hairdo. Those hideous curtains. Not to mention that horrifying Lady Elaine puppet. (Getting the flavor of the kind of kid I was?).

Now that I'm all growed up, the show has taken on a whole new meaning. I feel like I get it more, now that I'm an adult--backwards as that may be. I can look past all the superficial stuff on the set and really take it in. Everything about it is so, so great. I love the Neighborhood of Make-Believe (I actually always had a soft spot for ol' Trolley). And I love when Mr. Rogers goes out and visits factories and athletes and musicians and artists. Love that stuff. And I love the little model houses and town that show up at the end credits. And now I know more about the man himself. What a true saint and hero he was. I wish I were just half as good as he was. Maybe that's something to live up to.

Anyhow, I saw this Mr. Rogers post on kids lit writer/guru and friend, Esme Raji Codell's blog the other day (his b-day was March 20) and it got me all stirred up.

And I saw, there, this great MENTAL FLOSS link of Mr. Rogers anecdotes. He was very well-loved.

My favorite, from that list, is this:

According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

Dang. Kills me.

And if you're really feeling the love of ol' Fred Rogers now, by all means go read this amazing bit of editorial lit written by Tom Junod for ESQUIRE, November 1998.


Long live the sweetness, goodwill, spirit and memory of Mr. Rogers!

"It's such a good feeling to know you're alive!"

But that Lady Elaine. Still creeps me out.

Cordell for Breakfast

Head on over to hip children's lit blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast today to see an illustrator profile Jules, of Seven, did on lil' ol' me. (Turns out she's a big Phyllis Root fan and got an advance copy of TOOT TOOT ZOOM!) She talks about my new titles, MIGHTY CASEY and TOOT TOOT ZOOM! and there's some ramblings I did when she asked me to write something about my work. They do a real nice job with the site and blog, so click on this and give it a look?

Getting Into Character

Maybe I'm just stating the obvious here. To an illustrator maybe this is obvious. Is it?

Any illustrator of sequential art--picture books, mid-grade novels, comics, graphic novels, etc.--should always start by pitching, and getting approval on, character sketches for said project. Even if they're not asked for (in my experience, not always), and even if it feels so right that you just wanna dive into the thing and start sketching pages. Personally speaking, in my humblest opinion, it's best to get the look of the character or characters down relatively tight, and agreed upon by both parties, before attempting to do the rest of the work.

I'm working on two middle-grade (3rd-4th-5th grade) novels right now that are asking for about 50 drawings each. The first book's sketch deadline was right around the time Romy was born. Needless to say, at that time my brain was fried and probably re-fried. Probably, I spaced. I did not show character sketches on that book. Instead, cranked on 55-ish sketches and sent them in. And... Ehhh... Ohhh... Didn't come back so well. Could've been a LOT worse, but the point is, I went right in without a lead. I did some character sketches but did not share. I used those to get going and sketched all the pages. Today, I'm currently near approval on a set of character sketches for this book, and pretty much back on track.

Needless to say, I was quickly reminded before the second book's sketch deadline (soon!) of my old rule of thumb. Gots to show them character sketches!

And, er, what're character sketches you might ask. A group of sketches (full-body is best, plus maybe some head shots for face details?) that show each of the main characters I'd be working with on a book. Sometimes I like to show each character from a couple of different angles. Either way, each sketch should show the personality and look I'm going for--of the person/animal/thing I'll be drawing many times over.

Here is a group of character sketches for book 2, in various states of approval.