James Preller's Blog

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My education in children’s books began, oddly enough, in my adulthood. The youngest of seven children, I have little memory of reading books as a child — some P.D. Eastman, for sure — and no memory of either of my parents reading to me. That’s not a complaint; they had their hands full. In 1985, I was hired as a junior copywriter for Scholastic at a cool $11,500 a year. I was one year out of college, a mere welp. My primary assignment was to write the SeeSaw K-1 Book Club. You remember those, right? The following year, I was asked to help launch Firefly Book Club. And, later, as a freelancer in Albany, NY, I started the Carnival Book Club out of my home at the behest of Barbara Marcus. You could say I got my Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature at 730 Broadway in New York, working for Scholastic.

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That’s when, in other words, my head exploded just a little bit. 

I was given a cubicle, a typewriter, a lifetime’s supply of Wite-Out Correction Sheets, and a bottle of Liquid Paper. Less than a year later, that typewriter was swapped out for a Gateway computer that arrived in a distinctive, black-and-white, cow-patterned box. I dumped my Wite-Out for a lifetime’s supply of floppy disks and added “booting up” to my vocabulary.

My education really stepped up when I was asked to co-author a book with Deborah Kovacs, titled Meet the Authors and Illustrators: 60 Creators of Favorite Children’s Books Talk About Their Work. Deborah and split the assignment: I took the picture book authors and illustrators, she handled the middle-grade writers. We talked and supported each other and mostly stayed in our lanes.

Two years later, we wrote a sequel, Volume Two. And sometime after that, Scholastic collected my sections of the first two books, we added another 15 new profiles, and put out The Big Book of Picture-Book Authors & Illustrators. It contained 75 profiles in all.

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Not only did I research each creator, but I got the opportunity to interview most of them. At one time, I had a shoebox of cassettes containing hour-long conversations with James Marshall, Barbara Park, Faith Ringgold, Mem Fox, Vera B. Williams, Pat Hutchins, Bill Martin Jr., Barbara Cooney, Peter Spier, Bernard Waber, Jack Prelutsky, Tomie dePaola, Kevin Henkes, Karla Kuskin, Joanna Cole, Donald Crews, Tedd Arnold, Patricia Polacco, Charlotte Zolotow, Shonto Begay, Bruce Degen, Gail Gibbons, and more — real treasures — which I ended up throwing away. Because sometimes I’m just a big dope.

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But what an education! Not only the wisdom they imparted about their artistic process, but their demeanor and professionalism, the kindness they showed me. The goodness of their intentions. The quality of their work. It’s a little sad to realize how many of those folks we’ve lost over the years, gone but not forgotten.

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“You want to write from the heart, that’s the important thing.” — Bernard Waber.

“The most enjoyable part of creating a book is doing the initial sketches, putting the book together, the thinking part.” — Peter Sis.

“My work has allowed me to dream.” — Jerry Pinkney.

“Don’t worry about what other people are doing. Don’t try to emulate. Work from what is inside you, crying out — however softly, however timidly — for expression.” — Emily Arnold McCully.

“If I don’t have a good character, then I don’t have a book.” — James Marshall.

“Writing is very difficult and gives me a great deal of pleasure, partly because it is so difficult.” — Maurice Sendak.

“I get a lot of personal gratification thinking of those people who don’t get any attention in the world and making them really valuable in my fiction — making them absolutely shine with their beauty.” — Cynthia Rylant.

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These books came out at a time when Whole Language instruction was on the rise, when many teachers employed “real books” as a crucial part of the daily curriculum. They hungered for books and eagerly scooped up information about their favorite artists. At that time, many teachers considered it part of their job to be well-versed in children’s literature. These days, for a variety of reasons, I feel that’s no longer the case. Or certainly much less so. Now we have the demands of standardized testing, drastic cuts to librarian positions, and teachers who feel aggrieved, abused, overworked and under-appreciated. They just don’t have the time or the incentive to keep up with the tsunami of books published these days. 

When I started this blog in 2008, I continued to put a spotlight on creators I admired. I still try to do that today, though I don’t think many people read my blog here in the year of two thousand and twenty-six. Whatever. It’s not much different than writing a book. You make the thing and hope folks find it, or not. 

By using the search bar here, you should be able to locate long interviews with the following:

Aaron Becker * James Bird * Elizabeth Bird * Judy Bradbury * Lewis Buzbee * Nancy Castaldo * Carmen Deedy * Lesa Cline-Ransome * Matthew Cordell * Bruce Coville * Cynthia DeFelice * Liza Donnelly * Matt Faulkner * Ralph Fletcher * Alex Giardino * Mary GrandPre * Charise Harper * Susan Hood * Travis Jonker * Alan Katz * Deborah Kovacs * London Ladd * Jeff Mack * Vikram Madan * Daniel Mahoney * Matthew McElligott * Wendell Minor * Florence Minor * Susan Verde * Hazel Mitchell * Jeff Newman * Jessica Olien * Matt Phelan * Deb Pilluti * Lizzy Rockwell * Kurtis Scaletta * Chris Sheban * Jordan Sonnenblick * Hudson Talbott * Liza Gardner Walsh * Audrey Glassman Vernick.

In addition, I’ve featured contributions from the following writers and illustrators:

Tony Abbott * Paul Acampora * Heather Alexander * R.W. Alley * Jennifer Arena * Nora Raleigh Baskin * S.A. Bodeen * Nick Bruel * Laurie Calkhoven * Jay Cooper * Barbara Dee * Erin Dionne * Julie Fortenberry * Donna Gephart * Nikki Grimes * Keely Hutton * Laurie Keller * David Kelly * Jo Knowles * Mikki Knudson * Kevin Lewis * Lois Lowry * Elaine Magliano * Greg Neri * Jerdine Nolen * Barbara O’Connor * Aimee-Joan Paquette * Parker Peevyhouse * Yvonne Printz * Aimee Reid * Jen Sattler * Liz Garton Scanlon * Steve Sheinkin * Alan Silberberg * Charles Smith * Tonya Lee Stone * Todd Strasser * Don Tate * Matt Tavares * Chris Tebbetts * Rachel Vail * Eric Velasquez * Charles Waters * Eugene Yelchin * Suzanne Bloom * Joe Bruchac * Mem Fox * Patricia Reilly Giff * Cheryl Harness * Karen Hesse * Simon James * Eric Luper * Ellen Miles * Linda Sue Park * Karen Roosa * Jerry & Eileen Spinelli * Kyra Teis * Raul the Third * Nina Crews * Hannah Barnaby * Robin Pulver * Elizabeth Zunon.

I’m sure I’ve missed a couple dozen names along the way. Gratefully, I’ve learned something from each and every one of them. That’s the essential thing: the education never ends. There’s so much great work out there. So many good books. It’s an honor to be in this fine company, to stand on their shoulders, and perhaps to see just a little farther than I would have without them.

And if I haven’t said it yet, thank you, thank you all.