Tentative Ventures Into Anthropomorphism

Once upon a time I really wanted to make pictures of animals behaving like people, but the illustration projects I took on only featured people behaving like people. Fortunately, my niece Nyssa had a dollhouse inhabited by rabbits and my niece Emily's dollhouse was overrun by badgers and both abodes needed some interior decorating, so one Christmas I made these portraits in ink and acrylic paint on museum board. The rabbit measures about 1.75 x 1.25 inches (including the frame) and the badger is about 2 inches square.

Every Raccoon Speaks Bliss To Me...

A scene from Little Raccoon's Big Question. And while these normally nocturnal animals shouldn't really be roaming in broad daylight, they shouldn't really be wearing pants and sweaters, either. My mistake!

Sleepyhead Bear (and a butterfly)

Sleepyhead Bear (and some frogs)

Everybody Pukes

Go West, Young Pig

With apologies to Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who was not a pig.

Teddy Bear Pow Wow

In anticipation of this coming Sunday's Teddy Bear Picnic, here is a painting I made of some teddy bears having a pow wow. You might recognize the one playing the drum from his starring role in Black Angus: Terror of the High Seas!

August 9th Book Signing in Clinton, NJ

I'll be signing copies of Read It, Don't Eat It! and Cat & Mouse from 1 to 3pm on Sunday, August 9th, during the Old Time Teddy Bear Picnic held at the Red Mill Museum in Clinton, New Jersey. Bring a picnic lunch and enjoy an afternoon with your favorite teddy bear - and yours truly! The picnic itself runs from 12 to 4pm and admission is $5 per person (children ages 3 and under free). Here's a map.

If you would like to pre-order books for this event, or if you can't make it and would like me to sign books for you anyway, please contact the terrific Clinton Book Shop.

While you're out there, grab some breakfast, brunch, or lunch at The Fine Diner and say hello to my sister and brother-in-law. And why not order something to go and bring it to the picnic?

Fun!
Crafts!
Games!
Story time!
Theatricals!
Face Painting!
Bear Claw Bake-Off!
Sing-Along Contest!
Old Fashioned Ice Cream Making Lessons!
Special Guest Appearance by “Smokey” the Bear!

Summertime

A summer idyl from Little Raccoon's Big Question

Read It! Review Round Up

Columbus Parent Magazine calls Read It, Don’t Eat It! a "gorgeous picture book".

The Toledo Blade says:

This pleasant work shows young children how to treat books. Lively animals dressed as children demonstrate what not to do - turn down, tear, sneeze on, or deface pages. They also tell what to do - read the stories and then turn the books back into the library so others can enjoy them. White backgrounds highlight the appealing characters and the simple text conveys the message without being preachy.

Meanwhile, at the University of Maine, Jan Kristo, author and professor of literacy education, says "keeping reading on children's radar will help them maintain and strengthen the gains made in reading over the school year" and recommends the "delightfully funny" Read It, Don’t Eat It!

And Muse Reviews calls it "a terrific tale":

I think this book would be especially valuable to teachers or librarians, but as a parent, I love reading this to my kids so they'll know even better how to respect property. (And wouldn't this be a terrific book to donate to your local town or school library?)

Hear! Hear!

Father's Day

Since the fifth grade, one of my best and constant friends has been Carl Zimmer, the science writer. Not long after Carl and I met, my dad made some illustrations for The Illustrated Dune by Frank Herbert, which were also used in a Dune calendar. Well, with his ever-watchful eye, Carl noticed that the cover art for both items found its way into John Hodgman's speech before President Obama at the Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner and then talked about it (and my dad and me) on his blog. Makes a nice Father's Day gift. Thanks, Carl!

And This Little Pig Cried, etc. etc...

Poor creature. Is it the relentless rain? Weeks in steerage?

Emmett's Pig

One of my favorite books was (and still is) Emmett's Pig by Mary Stolz and Garth Williams. So when I found out my friends were going to name their son Emmett, I decided to honor both boy and book with a painting. I made it with acrylic and ink on paper and scanned it before adding salutations in the banners. Oh, and the pig is holding a playing card because Emmett's middle name is Ace.

Reprint It, Don't Eat It!

Both the trade and library editions of Read It, Don't Eat It! are reprinting! Get your first printings before they run out.

Also, the Toledo Blade has this to say:

This pleasant work shows young children how to treat books. Lively animals dressed as children demonstrate what not to do - turn down, tear, sneeze on, or deface pages. They also tell what to do - read the stories and then turn the books back into the library so others can enjoy them. White backgrounds highlight the appealing characters and the simple text conveys the message without being preachy.

The ABC Not-a-Dinner and (Mostly) Silent Auction

I usually don't have the heart to part with my originals unless it's for a special occasion or a good cause. Well, here's one:

Each year the Association of Booksellers for Children asks illustrators to donate a piece of artwork for their Not-a-Dinner and (Mostly) Silent Auction held during Book Expo America (BEA). This year's event happens on Friday, May 29th, at The New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge.

Elizabeth Bluemle, president of the ABC, gives a sneak peak of what's in store on Publishers Weekly's website. She also provides a handy link to an album of all the pictures.

I made my painting with ink and acrylic on paper. For some reason, I thought the contributions were supposed to feature a letter of the alphabet, but I must have been following a directive from a prior year. Oh, well!

Laundress Mice Carrying Linen

My mother has a collection of laundry-related art and objects and she also loves mice, so I made a little painting for her birthday, based on "Laundresses Carrying Linen" by Edgar Degas.

Scans of Read It, Don't Eat It!

Some scans from Read It, Don't Eat It! appear on HarperCollins's "Browse Inside" site.

Read It, Don't Eat It! Released Today!

Today is the "Release Date" of Read It, Don't Eat It! which (I think) means it has officially been released from warehouses across the country. So, you should be able to find it in a few days at your favorite, independent, brick-and-mortar bookshop. Or, it should ship today from Amazon.I hope you're hungry!

A Sketch for Read It, Don't Eat It!

Here is an early pencil sketch for the jacket of Read It, Don't Eat It! which will be released next week!

Publishers Weekly on Read It, Don't Eat It!

Publishers Weekly just said some good things about Read It, Don't Eat It!

...Simple, direct and knowingly funny, this book is worthy of a permanent spot on the desks of youth librarians everywhere.

Piggyback

An illustration for an unwritten story, made with acrylic paint and ink on paper.

A Starred Review in School Library Journal!

This just in from School Library Journal regarding Read It, Don't Eat It!:

In a picture book sure to make every librarian's heart sing, Schoenherr has created a simple rhyming primer on how to take good care of a library book....

Read Publishers Weekly, Don't Eat It!

The cover of Publishers Weekly for the week of February 16th features one of my illustrations from Read It, Don't Eat It! Well, actually it's on the official inner cover, as opposed to the outer advertising cover (brought to you by American Girl, featuring four girls reading a mystery by flashlight).

An early review of Read It, Don't Eat It!

This just in from Fuse #8, the blog at School Library Journal. It is by far the longest review of any of my books, but it's also among the nicest.

Coming in May: Read It, Don't Eat It!

Black Angus!

Angus is a teddy bear with a very active imagination. Here he is performing a take-off on N. C. Wyeth's cover illustration for Treasure Island. I made this picture with ink and acrylic paint on plywood.

Pistachio on GalleyCat

Pistachio, my cat and sometime model, is pictured today on GalleyCat - "The First Word on the Book Publishing Industry" - which is brought to you by Mediabistro. He is holding a Christmas stocking which appears to say "FRAM SANTA WITH LUVE". I think he must have knitted it himself. Here's another shot from the same photo session.

Unsurname

My grandfather was born Johannes Ferdinand Schoenherr 108 years ago today in Flensburg, Germany, in a house subsequently destroyed during World War II. The house was a stone's throw from Nordertor, the city's old north gate - and somewhere on the left in the picture, I think.

I've always pronounced my surname "Show-in-hare", but I'm not sure if I should, after all. I know the first part ought to be pronounced as it is in the German phrase "Danke Schoen" - somewhere between "shern" and "shane", depending on the dialect (and, yes, I've left out the umlaut issues, for clarity's sake). And "herr" ought to be pronounced "hare" or "hair", not necessarily "her". Thus, "Shern-hare" or "Shane-hare". Right?

Well, I've been trying to ferret out the source. I haven't had much luck tracing my Schoenherr line back very far, but I recently found that my grandfather's grandfather, Carl Gottlieb Schoenherr, was born in or very near Kleinpelsen, Sachsen (about midway between Leipzig and Dresden), in 1834. For a yet-unknown reason, he left his wife and three sons (including my great-grandfather) in Flensburg and moved to America in 1866. By 1869 he was living in Missouri and finally settled in Carterville, where he worked as a blacksmith and saloon-keeper, and where he died in 1909. Then, in the wake of World War I-era anti-German sentiment, his sons (my half-great-great uncles or great-great half-uncles) legally changed their surnames to Shaner.

So I've been wondering if Carl Gottlieb Schoenherr pronounced his surname "Shay-ner" all along, rather than "Shern-hare" or "Shane-hare" - not to mention "Show-in-hare". And should I do the same?

I need a second opinion...

Gray Area

Regarding my middle name, Gray: it was carried to Manhattan in 1860 by an Irish laborer and sometime hod-carrier, who planted it in Hell's Kitchen (including 20 years in the tenements of "Battle Row") before his butcher/boxer son uprooted it, brought it across the East River to Woodside, Queens County, in 1899 or 1900, and pinned it to his thirteen children, including my grandfather (born, coincidentally, the very day before Howard Pyle died), who passed it on to his three daughters. And then my mother presented it to me. Somewhere along the way I shed it from my "professional" name, but, having traced the colorful history of the Grays, I regret not keeping it - especially since it's the only part of my name that's easily pronounced.

Speaking of "Battle Row" - I first came across the term in The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury, but I just found another reference to it in The Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor for the Year 1879 (published about the same time my people moved to the block):

On West 39th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, stand a block of tenements known as "Battle Row," and almost equally well as "Murderer's Row." For years this place has borne an evil reputation, having always been a source of great trouble to the police. Its inmates are the terror of the neighborhood. It is the cradle of some of the worst Tenth Avenue gangs, and the scene of constant broils, both domestic and with whoever the roughs may chance to pick a quarrel. Arrests are of such frequent occurrence as to excite but little remark. The police themselves are frequently attacked, one, nicknamed " The Brute," having been knocked senseless with a brick only three or four weeks ago; another, the officer with whom I conversed, was himself struck with a similar missile....

More can be found here. It's no wonder the Grays escaped!

Pronouncing Myself

On my website bio I say that my name is pronounced "Yahn Show-in-hare". Legend has it that my father's fondness for the paintings of Jan Vermeer led him to want to call me Jan (pronounced "Yahn"), but there was concern that folks wouldn't understand and call me Jan (as in Jan Brady, or something). My mother, meanwhile, being English and Irish, liked the name Ian (pronounced "Ee-in"). So they compromised and named me Ian, but always called me "Yahn" - as do most people who know me well. I'll answer to "Ee-in", but, frankly, it grates a little. I've tried to justify the odd or alternate pronunciation by explaining that the old German (or Latin?) alphabet didn't contain the letter "J", so even Jan (a diminutive of Johannes) Vermeer used to spelled his first name with an "I", but even I find this rationale barely convincing. Then again, I still think "Yahn" is really more of a permanent nickname and that my actual full name is Ian Gray Schoenherr, pronounced "Ee-in Gray Show-in-hare". So I half-wish that I was named and called either Jan Schoenherr or Ian Gray Schoenherr instead of occupying this uneasy middle ground.