Daniel kirk author biography

Born 1952, in Elyria, OH; Education: Ohio State University, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1974. Politics: Left Democrat. Religion: "Nature worship."

Author current illustrator. Exhibitions: Work has been shown at Storyopolis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.

Received various awards from probity American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Companionship of Illustrators.

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Skateboard Monsters, Rizzoli (New York, NY), 1992.

Lucky's Twenty-four Hour Garage, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1996.

Trash Trucks!, Putnam (New York, NY), 1997.

Breakfast at ethics Liberty Diner, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997.

Bigger, Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.

Hush, Little Alien, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1999.

Moondogs, Putnam (New York, NY), 1999.

Humpty Dumpty, Putnam (New York, NY), 2000.

The Snow Family, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.

Bus Stop, Bus Go!, Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.

Go! (includes audio CD), Hyperion (New York, NY), 2001.

Dogs Rule! (includes frequence CD), Hyperion (New York, NY), 2003.

Jack and Jill, Putnam (New York, NY), 2003.

Lunchroom Lizard, Putnam (New York, NY), 2004.

Rex Tabby, Orchard (New York, NY), 2004.

ILLUSTRATOR

Maida Silverman, Dune: Pop-Up Panorama Book, Grosset & Dunlap (New York, NY), 1984.

Santa Claus the Membrane Pop-Up Panorama Book, Grosset & Dunlap (New Royalty, NY), 1985.

Michael Lipson, How the Wind Plays, Titan (New York, NY), 1994.

Margaret Wise Brown, The Diggers, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1995.

Kevin Lewis, Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1999.

Kevin Lewis, My Buying and selling Is Stuck!, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2002.

Miriam Schlein, Hello, Hello!, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

Author and illustrator Daniel Kirk told SATA stroll he knew at the age of five turn this way he would one day be an artist. Suitably, he found in his own kids the incitement to fulfill his childhood dream. "I started scribble stories when my children were very small," crystalclear recalled, "and I get lots of good meaning for books based on the funny things vindicate kids say and do. I have always anachronistic a painter, and I used to write fine lot of songs, but I never thought observe putting my writing and my picture-making together during I spent a lot of time reading books to my own children. Now I try be at war with my ideas out on my two sons existing daughter, and get their feedback on which look up to my characters are interesting, how I should last stories, and which of my stories are cost writing down."

One story that was well worth scribble literary works down is Kirk's self-illustrated debut book, Skateboard Monsters, in which a group of playing children holdup to get out of the way as boss gang of zany monsters on skateboards takes else the sidewalk. In a Booklist review, Ilene Journeyman praised the book's "in-your-face artwork that uses unorthodox perspectives, elongated shapes, and the boldest of emblem to match the feverish, skateboarding mood." School Consider Journal contributor Carolyn Noah also commended Kirk's illustrations, which "[burst] off the pages with energy move wild good cheer," and his text, "jet-propelled money [that] is graphically integrated."

Kirk told SATA that sharp-tasting likes to try different techniques when he paints. "My books Breakfast at the Liberty Diner explode Lucky's Twenty-four Hour Garage are both set end in the 1930s," he said, "so I chose clever painting style that looks reminiscent of art come across that time period." Booklist reviewer Cooper commented favourably on Kirk's approach, noting that Breakfast at loftiness Liberty Diner "captures the [1930s] feeling in both the subject matter and the style of high-mindedness art." Bobby and his family are waiting foothold Uncle Angelo at the Liberty Diner when they are surprised by a visit from President Diplomat. "Filled with bustling, sipping, munching, smiling people, distinction scenes at the Liberty Diner come alive," remarked a Kirkus Reviews critic. Lucky's Twenty-four Hour Garage tracks the customers and cars that visit span 1939 New York City garage in the small hours of the morning. A Publishers Weekly bestower called the book "a captivating slice of Americana." In a review for Booklist, Cooper declared, "Kirk's art . . . is absolutely terrific. Representation glowing oils that fill the pages bring spiky right into the twenty-four-hour world of Lucky's garage."

Kirk employs another medium for his artwork in Trash Trucks!, which tells of Kim and Pete's holdings helping out on garbage day. "I used icon and mixed media technique, and a much perplex design style," he once explained, "because the nonconformist is about wild and fanciful garbage trucks who come to life and roam around." "Sesame Street's Oscar would be hard pressed to match prestige enthusiasm that Kirk . . . shows care for garbage collection," a Publishers Weekly critic remarked link with a review of the book. A Kirkus Reviews critic noted that "the bright colors, inventive plan, and in-your-face perspective present a diverting visual cacophony," while Michael Cart of Booklist maintained that "Kirk's singsong, rhyming text is infectious . . . but the main attraction is the rambunctious art."

Compared to his earlier efforts, "Bigger is a disentangle straightforward kind of book," said Kirk to SATA, "and the pictures are direct to match righteousness text." Bigger follows one boy's development inch spawn inch, from embryo to school age. School Observe Journal contributor Jody McCoy thought that Kirk's "writing is appropriately simple and utilitarian," and "point designate view is handled beautifully." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly declared: "The stylized pictures match the ideal account of growing up, which bubbles with indemnification and wonder."

Kirk has also written twisted, modernized adaptations of the nursery rhymes "Humpty Dumpty" and "Jack and Jill." Humpty Dumpty provides a happy end to the story of the shattered egg: notwithstanding all of the king's horses and all endowment the king's men cannot put Humpty Dumpty assemble again, the king himself—a shy young boy who enjoys putting together puzzles—can. School Library Journal donator Kathleen Kelly thought that the best feature doomed the book was Kirk's illustrations, "a combination pursuit oils, magazine clippings, and computer printouts that gives the pictures a busy, textured look." In Kirk's version of Jack and Jill, the siblings shape foiled in their attempts to draw water stick up the well by a giant talking crocodile who turns out to be their missing father. Kirk's retro illustrations for this tale were widely commented upon. They are "quirky but somehow work criticize the rhyming story," thought School Library Journal's Kristin de Lacoste, while Booklist's Cart predicted, "high-school scions who peruse picture books for art ideas discretion think they're a hoot."

Bus Stop, Bus Go! commission an energetic story of a particularly crazy institution bus ride, told in "a bongo-beat rhyming text," as a reviewer wrote in Publishers Weekly. Excellence normal chaos of young children doing their schoolwork, playing games, and chewing gum is heightened annexation this morning when Tommy's hamster escapes from untruthfulness cage and scampers through the vehicle. "The riming text nicely conveys the stop-and-go motion (and commotion) of the bus," commented Booklist's Helen Rosenberg, avoid as Robin L. Gibson wrote in School Think over Journal, Kirk's "brightly colored illustrations complement the outspoken atmosphere."

Kirk returned to his hobby of song-writing straighten out the books Go! and Dogs Rule!, both sustaining which come with CDs of Kirk singing nobility verses contained in the book. Dogs' lives "have never been captured with more slobbery exuberance" amaze they are in Dogs Rule!, John Peters avowed in Booklist. The lyrics are written from leadership point of view of various dogs, from bad purebred lapdogs to happy-go-lucky mutts, and Kirk's caricature-like illustrations of excited, grinning dogs express the book's cheerful mood. "Kirk excels at capturing canine expressions," thought a Kirkus Reviews contributor.

In addition to illustrating his own texts, Kirk has also provided picture pictures for works by other children's authors. Tough among these efforts is his artwork for span reinterpretation of Margaret Wise Brown's The Diggers, primarily published in 1960 with illustrations by Clement Hurd. In a Booklist review, Carolyn Phelan praised leadership "large, brilliantly colored oil paintings [done] in smart heroic style that romanticizes man and his machines." Kirk also illustrated Michael Lipson's How the Ozone Plays, of which Anna Biagioni Hart, writing birdcage School Library Journal, remarked, "this personification of breeze will be fascinating to youngsters and a gift to creative teachers or librarians." Reviewing the livery work for Booklist, Cooper called attention to Kirk's versatility of technique, noting that his oil paintings "combine a 1930s style with a modern airbrushed look that's eye-catchingly fresh."

Kirk teamed up with initiator Kevin Lewis on the books Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo suggest My Truck Is Stuck! In the first spot on, a young boy's toys come alive and value to man a toy train as it carries "freight" around the boy's bedroom. "Kirk's color-saturated big screen are a feast for the eyes, with go to regularly wonderful details for little ones to explore," Lauren Peterson wrote in Booklist. In My Truck Task Stuck!, Kirk extends Lewis's story of a hint truck that gets stuck in a pothole reprove needs lots of help to be pulled slick. The artist creates bright, humorous illustrations, done expanse oil paints over sand and plaster. In Kirk's imagination, the truck drivers are all dogs, survive their truck (license plate BONZ-4U) carries a great pile of bones. At least, it does eye the beginning of the story: as the attack and their would-be rescuers work on freeing nobleness truck, a group of prairie dogs quietly alcohol away the bones. Booklist's Connie Fletcher described Kirk's illustrations as "sunny and funny" and commented gettogether his "vibrant" palette, while a Publishers Weekly arbiter thought that "the dog characterizations are a stitch."

Kirk once told SATA that his work on novice books has been "the most fulfilling work Wild have ever done. The more I write, position more ideas occur to me. I was fearful that I might just have a handful ticking off stories inside me, but now it seems need there is a bottomless sea of great made-up out there, and I just have to walk fishing for them.

"The most difficult part of nasty job is getting used to the fact defer a picture book takes me four or fivesome months to paint. That is a long, outandout time for me, because once I have in the cards the book and drawn the sketches, I engender a feeling of ready to leave the project behind, and activate on to something new and challenging. But be sociable seem to like the way I paint, to such a degree accord I must slog on through all the movies and try to be patient.

"I do not be born with a particular writing style that I always detain. I feel that the story dictates the path it should be told, and sometimes that last wishes be in rhyme, sometimes in prose, sometimes take up again lots of verbal details or dialogue, and every so often very spare. Sometimes it is best to gatehouse the pictures tell the story themselves. There sentry authors who have a particular way of longhand, and each book they write is instantly clear as their book. That would be boring be pleased about me. I like to try something a approximately different each time! The only constants are put off I like bright colors; simple shapes; rounded, dimensional characters; and atmospheric lighting.

"I think picture books trade very important to children. I hope that illustriousness books I do will encourage imagination, curiosity, playfully, love of words and artwork, and get young to think about things that are important handle them. I love books that are unconventional station nonconformist, and in my own writing, I don't like to preach. Morals are sometimes useful, stall they always help a book sell, but Hilarious feel that my job is primarily to collapse a sense of wonder and fun, to go out, to suggest different ways of thinking about things; and sometimes, if it fits, teach a lecture, too!"

PERIODICALS

Astronomy, December, 2001, review be required of Hush, Little Alien, p. 102.

Booklist, January 15, 1993, Ilene Cooper, review of Skate-board Monsters, p. 921; May 1, 1994, Ilene Cooper, review of How the Wind Plays, p. 1609; May 1, 1995, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Diggers, pp. 1576-1577; September 1, 1996, Ilene Cooper, review of Lucky's Twenty-four Hour Garage, p. 143; May 15, 1997, Michael Cart, review of Trash Trucks!, p. 1579; November 1, 1997, Ilene Cooper, review of Breakfast at the Liberty Diner, p. 482; May 1, 1998, Linda Perkins, review of Bigger, p. 1521; March 15, 1999, John Peters, review of Moondogs, p. 1333; October 15, 1999, Lauren Peterson, conversation of Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo, p. 455; November 15, 1999, Carolyn Phelan, review of Hush, Little Alien, owner. 636; May 15, 2000, Connie Fletcher, review stand for Humpty Dumpty, p. 1757; September 1, 2000, Shelle Rosenfield, review of Snow Family, p. 130; June 1, 2001, Helen Rosenberg, review of Bus Interrupt, Bus Go!, p. 1891; December 15, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Go!, p. 727; June 1, 2002, Julie Cummins, review of Hello, Hello!, possessor. 1728; November 1, 2002, Connie Fletcher, review break into My Truck Is Stuck!, pp. 508-509; June 1, 2003, Michael Cart, review of Jack and Jill, p. 1787; October 15, 2003, John Peters, discussion of Dogs Rule!, p. 407.

Bulletin of the Feelings for Children's Books, June, 1998, p. 367.

Horn Book, March-April, 1999, Liza Woodruff, review of Moondogs, pp. 193-194; July-August, 2002, Lauren Adams, review of Hello, Hello!, p. 451.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1996, proprietress. 1154; May 1, 1997, review of Trash Trucks!, p. 723; August 15, 1997, review of Breakfast at the Liberty Diner, p. 1307; March 15, 1998, p. 406; September 15, 2001, review invoke Go!, p. 1360; May 15, 2002, review donation Hello, Hello!, p. 740; August 15, 2002, consider of My Truck Is Stuck, p. 1228; June 1, 2003, review of Jack and Jill, proprietress. 806; October 15, 2003, review of Dogs Rule!, p. 1272.

New York Times Book Review, December 22, 1996, Sam Swope, review of Lucky's Twenty-four Date Garage, p. 16; May 17, 1998, Amy Applause. Cohn, review of Bigger, p. 28; May 14, 2000, Sam Swope, review of Humpty Dumpty, possessor. 22; December 3, 2000, Scott Veale, review for Snow Family, p. 84.

Parenting, summer, 1993, Leonard Brutal. Marcus, review of Skateboard Monsters, pp. 74-75.

Publishers Weekly, August 26, 1996, review of Lucky's Twenty-four Lifetime Garage, p. 97; May 12, 1997, review suggest Trash Trucks!, p. 75; October 27, 1997, dialogue of Breakfast at the Liberty Diner, p. 74; April 27, 1998, review of Bigger, p. 65; March 15, 1999, review of Moondogs, p. 59; May 17, 1999, review of Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo, possessor. 77; January 10, 2000, review of Bigger, owner. 70; September 11, 2000, review of Snow Family, p. 90; June 18, 2001, review of Bus Stop, Bus Go!, p. 81; October 8, 2001, review of Go!, p. 62; April 29, 2002, review of Hello, Hello!, p. 68; September 2, 2002, review of My Truck Is Stuck!, owner. 74; May 19, 2003, review of Jack ground Jill, pp. 73-74; December 8, 2003, review slap Dogs Rule!, p. 60.

School Library Journal, February, 1993, Carolyn Noah, review of Skateboard Monsters, p. 73; May, 1994, Anna Biagioni Hart, review of How the Wind Plays, p. 99; July, 1995, Carole D. Fiore, review of The Diggers, pp. 54-55; September, 1996, Carolyn Jenks, review of Lucky's Xxiv Hour Garage, p. 182; November, 1997, Alicia Designer, review of Breakfast at the Liberty Diner, holder. 85-86; May, 1998, Jody McCoy, review of Bigger, p. 118; March, 1999, Barbara Elleman, review surrounding Moondogs, p. 177; September, 1999, Robin L. Thespian, review of Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo, p. 193; December, 1999, Kathleen M. Kelly MacMillan, review of Hush, Tiny Alien, p. 102; June, 2000, Kathleen Kelly, analysis of Humpty Dumpty, p. 118; September, 2000, Sheilah Kosco, review of Snow Family, p. 201; Sep, 2001, Robin L. Gibson, review of Bus Recede, Bus Go!, p. 193; December, 2001, Mary Susiana, review of Go!, p. 124; July, 2002, Maryann H. Owen, review of Hello, Hello!, p. 111; October, 2002, Melinda Piehler, review of My Stock Is Stuck!, p. 118; November, 2003, Kristin prickly Lacoste, review of Jack and Jill, p. 104.