Kidsday talks with author Dan Yaccarino

We interviewed author and illustrator Dan Yaccarino at the Books of Wonder store in Manhattan recently.
 
Do you have any messages for children’s inside of your books?

Yeah, I guess so. A lot of my books are about characters that find friends like in “Unlovable,” or share some time with their parents like in “Every Friday” and also never give up in finding your friend as in “Lawn to Lawn.” I always think about the readers and what they’re interested in and good messages. It’s why I do the books. For you guys.
 
How long does it take you to illustrate your books?

All the books are different. A book like “Lawn to Lawn” took about five months to illustrate because there were so many illustrations. A book like “Five Little Pumpkins,” which is a board book took maybe half of the amount of time because there’s so few paintings. I would say to do a picture book like “Friday,” “Lawn to Lawn,” or my book about Jacques Cousteau, they take about four to five months to do.
 
Do you ask children to give you ideas for your books?

Yes, I have two children, my children. Michael who’s 11 and Lucy who’s 9. They constantly give me ideas and they’ll come into my studio and I’ll show them paintings and they’ll either give me the thumbs up or the thumbs down. And I always ask them what they think about stories and paintings and ideas because I know that kids like them are going to be reading books. And I want to make sure that everything that I’m putting into my books is understandable to the readers.
 
What inspired you to make the show “The Backyardigans”?

I designed the characters for that show. I really didn’t anything other than create the most fun characters that I could imagine. They called me up and asked me if I would be interested in designing a penguin, a moose. And everyone asks me what a Unequa is and they asked me to create an animal that was not a real animal. Every time I do a book signing or talk to people they ask me what Unequa is. She’s sort of a made-up animal. I don’t even know what she is, but I know I wanted to do something with cool polka dots and sort of weird things on the top of her head.
 
Do you plan to write more books for older kids?

I would love to because my children are getting older. I’m more interested now in what they’re reading and how they enjoy it. I’ll always do picture books, but at the moment I see what my son and daughter are reading in their chapter books. And my son is already on young adult novels. So it’s really inspiring me and making me think, hum, I got some ideas there. I have been writing down some ideas and definitely been thinking about that.
 
What author that you worked with you liked the best?

I really loved working with Jack Prelutsky. I did a “Halloween Countdown” book with Jack and he is just such a personality and so funny. I really enjoyed collaborating with him on that book. I tend to not have favorites. If I’m doing a book it probably means, doing a book that someone else wrote, it probably means that I liked the manuscript. And sometimes we meet the authors, illustrators meet the authors and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes we talk on the phone. I did meet Jack and I spent some time with him and I really enjoyed working with him.
 
What advice would you give a kid who wants to make cartoons?

Draw every day. Draw and try to find books in the library about animation. I’m sure with your parent’s help you can go online and find some websites about animation. Simple animation. You can download the simple, simple programs online. I would say if you really love doing it, you’re probably drawing every day anyway, and there are tools now that can help you animate.
 
What made you come up with Oswald?

I wanted to do something about octopus. They’re sorely underrepresented in the children’s animation market. I felt that it was about time that there was an octopus on TV, and if he would be able to wear a hat, even better. I love that creature and I wanted to create a show for really young kids that was quiet and gentle and very slow paced.
 
What job did you dream of when you were younger?

What I’m doing right now. This is it. Other than being a cartoonist, but drawing pictures, making up stories and having a TV show. I pretty much did everything I wanted to do. I’m very happy and I’m lucky and I’m sure that all of you guys, whatever it is that you enjoy doing now, I’m sure you guys are smart enough to figure a way to be able to do that when you grow up.
 
What made you decide to be an author?

That’s a hard question to answer. Ever since I was even younger than you guys, I’ve written stories and I made comic books and I made a movie with my brother and I would always tell stories. So ever since I could talk or grab a pencil I’ve been creating stories. So I don’t know if one day I decided to do that because I think I’ve been doing it all along. But only over the last couple of years have I’ve been doing them for books.
 
What is your favorite character?

Of my books? My favorite character is usually from the book I’m working on at the moment. My next book is about my great grandfather coming to this country from Italy. So I guess I have say, at the moment, it's my great grandfather.
 
Who was your favorite teacher in school and why?

I liked a lot of teachers. I had a fifth-grade teacher, Miss S, who I really liked being in her class. That was the year I moved from one area in New Jersey and we moved to Montclair, New Jersey and she was my first teacher and she knew that I was new and she knew that I was nervous. She knew that I didn’t know anyone. She was very, very kind to me and she let me do the bulletin board. I got to draw the pictures for the bulletin board. And when I was in seventh grade I gave an art lesson to the class. So she was very kind to me.
 
Your books are popular in Japan. Have you ever visited Japan?

Yes, I’ve been to Japan a few times and I really enjoyed it. They’ve great food and very nice people and I found a really incredible toy store when I was over there. I bought so many toys that I had to box them up and ship them home because I couldn’t fit them in my luggage
 
What is your favorite book from other authors?

There’s so many, but when I was growing up there was one book that I would get out from the library very, very often. It was a book called “The Thing in Dolores’ Piano,” and it was written and illustrated by Robert Tallon and from seeing that book and loving that book so much, I found a few of his other books. And now when I moved to New York City I called him up. Now I’m good friends with him. He is a very nice man and that was my favorite book growing up. I would trace all the pictures all the time.
 
Do you love to draw?

I absolutely love to draw. When I don’t get to draw I get very cranky.
 
Do you have any pets?

No. I’m allergic to dogs and I’m even more allergic to cats. If I wasn’t allergic I would probably have a dog.
 
Do you love animals?

I do love animals. I absolutely love animals.
 
What plans do you have for the future?

Definitely make more books. I love writing and illustrating books and maybe do some television projects. But always books because I just love the whole process of putting the books together and creating characters and painting the pictures and writing the stories. Hopefully, I will be able to do my books forever.
 
When you were young, why wouldn’t your mom let you read?

What makes you think I’m not young anymore? It’s not that my mom didn’t let me read. We just didn’t have books in my house when I was growing up. So any of the books that I would read I would go to the library, which I still do till this day. I go to the library every week and get stacks of books and bring them home. It’s just something that we really never had around the house.