Award-Winning Author and Illustrator Inspires Lower School Students

Author and illustrator Dan Yaccarino, known for Parent's Choice Award-winning animated TV series Oswald and Emmy-winning Willa's Wild Life, visited with Lower School students today to discuss the idea of nurturing the creative process through writing and drawing.

 

Says Yaccarino on the value of speaking to students, “I think when they see the real human being behind a book or a television show, the creative process becomes more accessible.”

 

Yaccarino, who also created character designs for Nickelodeon’s The Backyardigans, has written more than a dozen books, including Doug Unplugged, selected by the Children's Book Committee as one of the Best Books of the Year for Children and Young Adults. His work has been recognized with a host of prestigious awards including the Bologna Ragazzi, The New York Times 10 Best Illustrated, and the ALA Notable.

 

Yaccarino coupled his presentation with samples of his early sketches in order to illustrate to students his progress as an artist. “I wanted the students to know that I wasn’t always an adult,” he says. “I wanted to show them how hard work makes you improve.”

 

The author, hailed by Animation Magazine as "an American original," joins other authors who have visited Colorado Academy Lower School students, including award-winning author of more than a dozen bilingual children’s books, Monica Brown. According to Lower School librarian, Allison Peters Jensen, visiting authors help to foster an appreciation for literature, and also help to inspire creativity in students.

 

“Whatever it is that students want to do,” says Yaccarino, “getting the idea is always the first step. Everything that was ever made began as an idea. And then somebody pursued it.”


See the trail book trailer for Doug Unplugged here: