Three amazing author/illustrators will be working with Greenwood School students this April. Marty Kelley, Brian Lies, and Matt Tavares will inspire throughout the week. Read more about these talented, award-winning authors.
Marty Kelley: kindergarten and grade two, Friday, April 13
Marty Kelley was born hundreds and hundreds of years ago in Manchester, NH. He is currently a children’s author and illustrator but has, in the past, been a second grade teacher, a baker, a cartoonist, a newspaper art director, a drummer in a heavy metal band, a balloon delivery guy, an animator, and lots of other things. Marty has written and illustrated many published children’s books, including: Almost Everybody Farts; Albert’s Almost Amazing Adventure; Fame, Fortune and the Bran Muffins of Doom; and I’m An Alien and I Want to Go Home!
He’ll probably continue writing and illustrating children’s books for many years to come because there are few other jobs where being able to paint a perfect booger-bubble is an actual job requirement.
Brian Lies: grades one and four, Thursday, April 12
Brian Lies is the award-winning author/illustrator of the New York Times bestsellers Bats at the Beach, Bats at the Library and Bats at the Ballgame, and his latest, Bats in the Band. He's the illustrator of more than 22 other books, including Malcolm at Midnight (by W.H. Beck, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012) and More (by I.C. Springman, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012). Most recently, Brian wrote and illustrated Gator Dad (May 2016).
Brian has won many awards for his work, including the 2011 Bill Martin Jr. Picture Book Award (Kansas State picture book award). Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Brian lives in eastern Massachusetts with his wife and daughter. He has loved libraries and books since he was little, and when he travels, he rarely misses an opportunity to explore the local library.
Matt Tavares: grade 3, Monday, April 9
Matt Tavares was born in Boston, and grew up surrounded by books and reading. From the time he was very young, his mother read to him every night, and his family made countless trips to the public library. Years later, as a studio at major at Bates College, he rediscovered his love for picture books, and decided to try to make his own.
For his senior thesis project, Matt wrote and illustrated a story called Sebastian's Ball, about a boy who caught a magic foul ball at a Boston Red Sox game. Three years later, after much revision, Sebastian's Ball became Zachary's Ball, Matt's first published picture book. Zachary's Ball went on to win an Oppenheim Gold Seal Award, a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, and was named one of Yankee Magazine's 40 Classic New England Children's Books.