Field Trip

Saturday I went to Vermont (and I went through New Hampshire on the way). I admit I rather like this small state conglomerate that is New England; where friends can ask you what you did that day and you can say, "Oh I went two states away and came back" like it's nothing (try that in California). Anyway I diverge from my point. I went to Norwich, Vermont with my picturebook class to visit the illustrator David Macaulay in his studio because, you know, that's the way we roll. I enjoyed going on a mini roadtrip with my school friends, but I rather wish it had been some weekend other than Easter/Conference (even if it was 84 degrees in Vermont).

If you aren't familiar with the name David Macaulay, he won the 1991 Caldecott for the book Black and White as well as writing books such as Castle, Cathedral, and City. Though he is perhaps best known for his rather large picturebook The Way Things Work and its companion The Way We Work, which won the Boston Globe Hornbook Honor award last year (where I just happened to be present because I'm cool and live in Boston and study Children's Literature like that). Like any true artist, he had many random things in his studio, including, but not limited too: fossils, Justice League figurines, tin soldiers, a skeleton, a windmill, and so on. Anyway David talked to us about three of the projects he has cooking at the moment. He just finished reworking his books Cathedral and Castle with new color illustrations to be put in an anthology type book, Built to Last with Mosque. He's also beginning books on Evolution and Inventions.

He demonstrated a quick sketch


and his new computer toys.


We got to see some of the original artwork for Black and White,

and then we took a picture.

(While posing for this picture I realized there is a hidden requirement to admission at Simmons--you must fall within the 5' range, preferably around 5'5" {which I might add is the perfect height, just saying})