Upcoming Events 2025
Jan. thru March – School Visits! Click here for information about my visits.
April 22 – Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony – Mr. Fox is a finalist!
ART-A-WHIRL – Open studio event
Northrup King Building, Studio #210
Friday, May 16: 5:00 – 9:00 PM
Sat., May 17: noon – 8:00 PM
Sun., May 18: noon – 5:00 PM
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News
New Story Sold!
This is always exciting news. I am so happy to be working with the wonderful editor Andrea Tompa at Candlewick on this project!
Bear’s Magic Show comes out fall 2026.
February – 2025
Yahoo!
Look where Rex went and got himself! On the Texas 2×2 Reading List and the 2025 ALSC Notable Children’s Books list!
February – 2025
See the Cute Little Books
It’s always nice to receive copies of my books that have been printed in other languages and to see the changes they’ve made. Not only is it fun to see the Simplified Chinese characters on and throughout these two books, but they’re also a smaller trim size.
February – 2025
Bird by Bird
January – 2025
Fantastic News
January – 2025
Books and Pumpkins
David LaRochelle and I appeared on KARE 11 Saturday to talk about Mr. Fox’s Game of No! and to give a pumpkin carving demonstration. The “sKARE 11” pumpkin is my addition to The Backyard.
October – 2024
Fetching Alphabet Book
Here’s what Today cohost and award judge Dylan Dreyer had to say about the book:
“It is simply a joy to read out loud. The alliteration and the teaching of letters made both my son and me smile every time. The payoff at the end with the final letter being ‘D’ also taught young ones comedic timing. It was so well paced and absolutely enjoyable!”
October – 2024
Almanac Appearance
October – 2024
Another Star for Rex!
Click here to read the review.
September – 2024
South Dakota Rocks!
August – 2024
The Great Outdoors
I enjoyed doing some plein air painting at Lake of the Isles – here in Minneapolis.
July – 2024
Target Book Club!
Go and Get With Rex is one of Target’s Kids’ Book Club Picks for the month of May. So, you’ll be able to find the book at Target. But, of course, you can also buy it from your favorite independent book store!
May – 2024
A Star for Mr. Fox!
Mr. Fox’s Game of “No!” received a starred review from Booklist.
Here’s an excerpt:“LaRochelle and Wohnoutka, the brilliantly witty writer and illustrator, take kids on a vicarious adventure of sneaky questions designed to trip up and amuse listeners in equal measure. A clever, hilarious picture book!” Thank you, Booklist!
May – 2024
New Edition of DAD'S FIRST DAY
I just received the Complex Chinese edition (left) of Dad’s First Day. It’s wonderful to see this book come out in different languages. It’s especially fun when a different illustration is used for the cover, which happened a few years ago with the Chinese edition (right).
March – 2024
Rex gets a STAR!
Go and Get With Rex received a starred review from Booklist!
Here’s an excerpt: “From the creators of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award–winning See the Cat, here’s another genuinely funny book. Well attuned to its audience of prereaders and beginning readers, this book is zany, fun, and downright irresistible.” Thank you, Booklist!
January – 2024
Four Best Book Lists!
I’m thrilled See the Ghost made the following Best Books of 2023 lists: School Library Journal, Bank Street College, Kirkus, and Chicago Public Library.
Max and Baby Cakes are in excellent company.
December – 2023
Star Tribune Recommendations
I was excited that See the Ghost and Ups and Downs were on this list of 40 books to get you through the winter. Thank you, Star Tribune!
November – 2023
Mr. Fox
I’m happy to report the paintings for Mr. Fox’s Game of “No!“ arrived safely at Candlewick Press. This book will be the 8th collaboration with my fantastic friend David LaRochelle. Publication is scheduled for Fall 2024. Here I am in my studio with the paintings before mailing them off.
November – 2023
YAY!!!
Stunned, and very happy, to see Ups and Downs show up at #3 on the Midwest Indie Bestseller List!
November – 2023
Mini Book Tour
David LaRochelle and I enjoyed a week of visiting schools and bookstores in Chicago and Milwaukee.
Thank you to all the librarians, teachers, students, and bookstore employees who welcomed us so warmly and made the week such a success!
October – 2023
See the Pumpkin
At the See the Ghost launch party at Red Balloon Bookshop we had a drawing for a pumpkin carved by me. The winner was my friend, Wendy, who is a 2nd grade teacher at Northrop Elementary in Minneapolis. If you look closely you will see that Max is reading one of Wendy’s favorite books.
October – 2023
Cow turns 10
Happy book birthday to MOO!
If I owned the farm, there would be a 10th Anniversary Edition with gold foil on the cover.
This is my first collaboration with David LaRochelle.
October 8th – 2023
Rex Cover Reveal
I’m excited to share the cover for Go and Get with Rex.
The book comes out May 7, 2024 from Candlewick Press.
Thank you Good Comics for Kids for being the first to reveal the cover!
∗ Go and Get with Rex is a Junior Library Guild Selection ∗
September – 2023
Ups and Downs
I just received an advance copy of my new book! Someone asked if I liked how it turned out, and my response was “Well, I didn’t throw it across the room.” Here I am with the book, unharmed. It comes out September 19th.
Click here to read the first reviews. Click here to read my YABC interview.
July – 2023
MN Book Awards Ceremony
It was a very fun evening at the Minnesota Book Awards where David LaRochelle and I presented the winner in the children’s literature category. Congratulations to Kristen Schroeder for her beautiful book, “So Much Snow.”
Congratulations also to the other finalists, Lauren Stringer for “The Dark was Done,” Bao Phi for “You Are Life,” and Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy for “Where We Come From.” So much talent in Minnesota!
May – 2023
Authors in April
April – 2023
Go and Get with Rex
April – 2023
Go and Get with Rex
January – 2023
Read the Interview
Thank you, Nerdy Book Club!
October – 2022
See the Happy Dog and Cat
September – 2022
Ups and Downs
August – 2022
BYU Symposium
July – 2022
Beehive Nominee
June – 2022
See the Spanish Editions
May – 2022
Minnesota Book Award
April – 2022
Children's Literature
Here are the finalists in the Children’s Literature category for the 2022 Minnesota Book Awards. I’m excited How to Apologize made it to the final four. Winners for all nine categories will be announced at a ceremony on Tuesday, April 26, at Ordway Center for Performing Arts in St. Paul.
January – 2022
Best of 2021
How to Apologize was chosen as one of the Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Books of 2021! See the Dog was selected for the Chicago Public Library’s Best of 2021 list and Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2021 for Beginning Readers!
December – 2021
See the New Book
The paintings for See the Ghost: Three Stories About Things You Cannot See arrived safely at Candlewick Press. This will be my 33rd book and the third book in the See the Cat Series written by David LaRochelle. Publication is scheduled for Summer 2023. Here I am in my studio with the paintings before mailing them off.
December – 2021
Happy Fall!
♠♣♠
New HOW TO APOLOGIZE Editions
It’s so fun to see How to Apologize in different languages. Clockwise from top left, Complex Chinese, Dutch, French Canadian, and Italian.
November – 2021
Feeling Good
I sold a story! This is always exciting news. I’m so happy to be working with the wonderful editor Andrea Tompa at Candlewick on this project!
Ups and Downs comes out fall 2023.
September – 2021
See the Medal
Celebrating winning the 2021 Theodor Suess Geisel Award
for See the Cat with author David LaRochelle.
Click here to listen to The Yarn interview with Travis Jonker.
June – 2021
Wordplay Draw-Off
It was very fun to face off against three other illustrators (Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, Linda Bondestam, and Jon Klassen) at the Loft’s WORDPLAY Illustrator Draw-Off, moderated by Raul the Third. We were given a series of four different prompts and then asked to come up with an illustration in just a few minutes. The four prompts were: draw yourself playing your favorite sport, draw a favorite childhood book character, draw yourself as a favorite food, and create a superhero animal. That’s me as a cheese burger with french fry arms.
May – 2021
See the 3D Dog
This is what my amazingly talented wife, Anna, made me for Valentine’s Day!!
February – 2021
See the happy author and illustrator!
David LaRochelle and I received the incredible news through a surprise Zoom chat that See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog was awarded the 2021 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award from the American Library Association. The award is given to “the author and illustrator of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers.” Above is a screen shot of the Geisel Award committee holding up copies of our book with the medal!
January – 2021
Baby Cakes is back
The paintings for See the Dog: Three Stories About a Cat arrived safely at Candlewick. This book is written by David LaRochelle and is the sequel to See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog.
• See the Dog cover reveal and interview extravaganza with Betsy Bird!
November – 2020
See the happy dog!
See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog received a Nerdy Award and is the winner of the 2020 Cybils Award for Early Readers!
October – 2020
New Picture Book
I was fortunate to have a big project to keep me busy during the Stay at Home order. Here I am in my studio with the paintings for the book How To Apologize written by David LaRochelle.
June – 2020
MOO-chas Gracias!
My publisher requested an image of Cow to use in a thank you to all the teachers who requested permission to use MOO! during distance learning.
As you can see, Cow was happy to oblige. Thank you, all teachers and librarians, for learning to teach in a new way and for caring about our students!
May – 2020
Star of the North
See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog is one of ten nominees for the 2022 “Star of the North” picture book award! This award will be voted on by students across Minnesota during the 2021-2022 school year.
See the Cat is also one of 15 books nominated for Florida’s Sunshine State Young Reader Award Jr., another children’s choice award. Fun to know that while kids in chilly Minnesota will be reading and voting on our book next year, so will kids in sunny Florida!
7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
I was recently interviewed by Jules Danielson from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast about creating the illustrations for How to Apologize. I am so honored to be featured on this outstanding blog about books!
Click here to read the interview and see some “behind the scene” sketches.
20th Picture Book!
Very happy to receive an advance copy of my new book Croc & Turtle: Snow Fun which comes out on October 8th, 2019. This is my 20th trade picture book. Here they all are in chronological order starting at the bottom with my first picture book, Cowboy Sam and Those Confounded Secrets written by Kathy Combs and Kitty Griffin. Though sometimes this ride makes me feel like Turtle, I hope it continues!
See the Book
I’m so thankful that my paintings for See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog arrived safely at Candlewick. I’m also very thankful to have been able to illustrate another wonderful story written by David LaRochelle! It was fun to have David over to my studio to look at the final art before shipping it off.
The book comes out in 2020. Look for more details soon!
Redbud Read-aloud
Croc & Turtle made the 2020 Redbud Read-Aloud masterlist! This is Oklahoma’s children’s choice picture book award. As you can see Croc and Turtle are in excellent company.
SO happy!
So Big is featured in The Best Books of 2019 / Kirkus Reviews!
Moo?
I’m very excited that a Persian edition of Moo! has been published! Since the text in this book follows the illustrations closely, they have flipped the pictures to go along with the words which read right to left. This is fun to see!
Happy Fall!
I’ve been working with a new medium – Pumpkin! Thank you, David LaRochelle (the Pumpkin Carving Master) for encouraging me to try this and for the tips.
Junior Library Guild
So Big and Croc & Turtle are Junior Library Guild Selections!
Wordplay
I was honored to be a part of the inaugural book festival, Wordplay. It was fun (and a little scary) to meet Stephen King who was also one of the featured authors. His band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, played at First Avenue the night before the festival.
ALA in Seattle
The stunning Seattle Public Library. This is where I gave a presentation on the making of Croc & Turtle as part of the 2019 American Library Association Conference.
Authors in April
I had a wonderful week visiting schools in Michigan for Authors in April. I visited with the kindergarten and first grade students at 15 different schools. Every school welcomed me with beautiful artwork that the students created based on my books.
Here I am with the authors that visited the older grade levels: Neal Shusterman, Cynthia Lord, and Lenore Look.
Minnesota Book Award Finalist
I was very excited to learn that This Is NOT a Cat! is a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in the Children’s Literature category. This is my fourth year in a row that one of my books has been a finalist!
KARE11 Sunrise with Belinda Jensen
David LaRochelle and I were interviewed by Belinda Jensen on KARE11. It was a live show, so it was a little scarry, but Bel put us at ease and we enjoyed talking about the creative process behind This Is NOT a Cat!. Belinda is also a children’s book author. She has a great series about weather.
MOO! Edition
The MOO! board book is now available!
Red Balloon Poster
So honored to create the 30th Anniversary poster for the Red Balloon Bookshop. Thank you Holly Weinkauf and everyone at the Red Balloon for selecting me as the illustrator!
Red Balloon Poster
There was an awesome crowd at the launch party for Dad’s First Day at the Red Balloon Bookshop on August 15th. Here I am with the real Oliver, my son, Franklin.
Thank you to everyone that was there to help me celebrate my second book as both illustrator and author!
Moo! is first selection for Once Upon a Reader!
David LaRochelle, Cow, and I traveled to every corner of Minnesota and visited 59 libraries with our presentation/puppet show for preschoolers. Thank you to everyone who came out to see the show and thank you to Once Upon a Reader for choosing MOO! as their inaugural book!
Once Upon a Reader is an early literacy program designed to encourage young children and adults to read together.
See the videos: Creating MOO! and MOO! The Moo-vie!
Mazza Museum
I was honored to be a keynote speaker at the Mazza Museum Summer Conference in Findlay, Ohio. What an amazing conference!
Photo from left to right: Jarrett Krosoczka, Ben Sapp (Director of Mazza), Mike, David Shannon, and Loren Long.
MOO! is a Star in the North!
David LaRochelle and I received the Star of the North Picture Book Award for MOO!, an award that was voted on by 38,000 kindergarten to 2nd graders across Minnesota.
Here we are with Marsha Hayles, author of Breathing Room, and Stu Gibbs, author of Belly Up, winners of the Maud Hart Lovelace award voted on by older students.
MOO! wins!
David LaRochelle and I were thrilled when, on the evening of April 5th, MOO! won the Minnesota Book Award in the Children’s Literature category.
Here we are at the Awards Gala held at the beautiful Union Depot in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Hannukah Bear wins!
I traveled to New York City to accept the National Jewish Book Award for Illustrated Children’s Book for Hanukkah Bear.
Here I am with Eric Kimmel (the author) at the ceremony.
Hanukkah Bear was also selected by the Bank Street College of Education as one of “The Best Children’s Books of the Year.”
