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Matt Phelan

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Matt Phelan made his illustrating debut with Betty G. Birney’s The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs . Since then he has illustrated many picture books and novels for young readers, including Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli , Very Hairy Bear by Alice Schertle , and The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron winner of the 2007 Newbery Medal.

Matt studied film and theater in college with the goal of one day writing and directing movies. But his first love was always drawing, and the more he saw the wonderful world of children’s books, the more he realized that this was the place for him. Being an illustrator is in many ways like being an actor, director, cinematographer, costumer, and set designer rolled into one.

Matt writes: “I have a fascination with the decade of the 1930s. The movies were learning to talk , the music was beginning to swing, and the nation was thrown into tremendous turmoil. On one hand, you see a level of suffering documented in the dramatic and gritty photography of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. On the other hand, consider what the American public was flocking to see in the movie theaters: the glamour and grace of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing in a series of perfect musicals. For my first book as both writer and illustrator , I naturally gravitated to this complex decade, specifically the strange world of the Dust Bowl.”

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Matt Phelan

Matt Phelan

Books from Matt Phelan

Bluffton: My Summers with Buster

Around the World

Flora's Very Windy Day

Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook

Marilyn's Monster

Where I Live

A Kite for Moon

Turtle Walk

Very Hairy Bear

Sweater Weather

Druthers

Knights vs. Dinosaurs

If Wendell Had a Walrus

Comics Squad #3: Detention!

What Are You Waiting For?

Big George: How a Shy Boy Became President Washington

Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists and Other Matters Odd and Magical

Knights vs. Monsters

Leave It to Plum!

A Box Full of Kittens