Reading Rocket’s exclusive interview with author and illustrator Henry Cole — creator of Celeste, The Worrywarts, Katy Duck, and many other beloved characters — talks about his early career as a science teacher (who always drew for his students!), why it takes patience to draw what you really see, how he gets those comical animal faces to look just right, and why he loved using a plain Number 2 pencil to create the evocative illustrations for his book A Nest for Celeste.

Gail Gibbons writes the kind of non-fiction books that young children pore over. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Gail Gibbons discusses how she comes up with the idea for her books and the daunting task of explaining complex topics in a few pages.

Eric Rohmann believes that each story needs illustrations that match its tone, content, and sensibility. As a children’s book illustrator, this means knowing how and when to use different media and techniques. For The Cinder-Eyed Cats Rohmann painted with oils. For his Caldecott Medal book, My Friend Rabbit, he used wood cuts. For his 2008 picture book, A Kitten’s Tale, Rohmann spent two months experimenting with a watercolor ink he had never used before. Trying new media can be scary, Rohmann admits, but it also keeps his artwork fresh. “Anxiety’s a good thing,” he says with a smile, “even for a children’s book illustrator.”

Deborah Hopkinson writes history and historical fiction books for young children and teens. As a child, she noticed a decided lack of information about women and girls in her history textbooks, and many of her own books reflect her love of history and her keen interest in presenting children’s — particularly girls’— contributions to U.S. history.

In our interview Hopkinson discusses her mission to make history come alive for students, her meticulous attention to historical details, and her love of sharing good books with her own children.

Charles R. Smith is a talented children’s book author and photographer. His expressive poetry — frequently about sports and music — has been praised for its playful language and clever rhymes, while his expressive photographs beautifully illuminate the texts. Smith’s books are especially appealing for read alouds and to engage struggling or reluctant readers.

Candace Fleming has always been a storyteller. As a preschooler, she told neighbors all about her three-legged cat named Spot, and in kindergarten, she told classmates about the ghost living in her attic. Her parents encouraged these stories, and, once Fleming could write, she filled notebooks with her stories, plays, and poems. As a children’s and young adult author, her fiction titles — books like The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary and Tippy-Tippy-Tippy, Hide! — are known for their lively humor, while her non-fiction titles — Our Eleanor and The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary — are praised for making history come alive for young readers.

Bill Martin Jr’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear book is almost required reading for parents of young children. In video clips below from A Visit With Bill Martin Jr (1996), he talks about his “jazzy” writing. Bill Martin Jr also corresponded with Reading Rockets in an e-mail interview in which he answered questions about his writing career and famous “bear books” illustrated by Eric Carle.

Betsy Lewin, the illustrator of Click, Clack, Moo, takes a playful approach to her work. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Betsy Lewin discusses her career goals as a child and the inspiration she gets from exotic trips abroad.

Ashley Bryan (1923–2022) was an eclectic artist who used painting, poetry, music, collage, and prose to tell stories. Bryan fused these seemingly separate art forms within his books for children. “I try not to accept walls and boundaries and definitions in a strict way,” he says. “I would hope that everything I do is interrelated.”

Bryan is known for retelling African folktales in a distinct, rhythmic prose that is heavily influenced by African-American poetry. In 1981, his collection of Nigerian folktales, Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum, received the Coretta Scott King Book Illustrator Award. In 2012, Bryan was awarded the Coretta Scott King — Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.