Reading Inspires by Reading Is Fundamental

Erin Bailey: Welcome to Reading Inspires by Reading is Fundamental.

I'm your host, Dr. Aaron Bailey.

This podcast celebrates the power of books and the joy of reading.

In each episode, we talk with educators, librarians, families, authors, and literacy champions to explore one big question.

What does Reading inspire for you?

Through stories, research, and real world experiences from classrooms, libraries, and homes, we explore what literacy looks like and why it matters.

Whether you're nurturing young readers, shaping learning spaces, or simply love a good book, we're glad you're here.

Be sure to subscribe to get the podcast latest episode.

Let's get inspired.

Today I'm chatting with author and illustrator, Dan Ya Carino to culminate this year's Rally to Read 100 program.

Dan will be reading aloud one of his books at Reading his Fundamentals Live Reading celebration event reading inspires at the Barnes and Noble flagship store in New York City on March 6th at 1:00 PM Eastern Time.

If you are a teacher who's listening now, I will link in the show notes that you can attend the live event virtually with your class room.

So welcome Dan.

Dan Yaccarino: Hello.

Thank you so much for inviting me.

This is so exciting.

I really appreciate.

Erin Bailey: we have some questions that I prepared that which we will dive into.

But first I wanna show off the book that you'll be reading at the event.

Here it is.

Luna Sisters and the Battle for the Moon Blossom.

And I have to share with you that I got this book about a week ago to prepare for our interview and event, and my daughter has asked that.

I read it to her every single night since we got it.

So you have a five-year-old fan in the Bailey household.

And before we jump into our official questions, my daughter's question for you is, will there be more Luna Sisters books?

Dan Yaccarino: Well there are two so far.

So hopefully in the future there'll be more.

And I have lots and lots of ideas for, for the bickering Luna Sisters.

Erin Bailey: I am excited to share that with her.

So let's start with your background.

Your journey into art and storytelling began long before your first book.

Can you share a little bit about growing up in New Jersey and early influences on your work like comic books, vintage animation, and old films?

Dan Yaccarino: Yeah.

Well, I, I have.

Loved drawing ever since I could pick up a crayon and draw all over the basement walls, which I got in trouble for.

But I always, I don't know, I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in creating something and so my childhood, I would.

Draw, I'd make my own little books.

I'd fold some paper together and staple it and make my own books.

I would make, you know, home movies, I would build things.

I would, you know, record.

'cause I had a tape recorder growing up.

I would record things.

So I always had this kind of you know, desire to, to create things.

Now, when I grew up, I watched a lot of old animation.

I love.

Old black and white animation and old films.

And I was surrounded by a very interesting era of design, which was the seventies.

And but I always, even though it was before my time, I always sort of gravitated towards more mid-century, which is apparent in my work, the designs, the colors and things like that.

But I always remember being interested in just simply being creative.

Erin Bailey: Awesome.

And so also your background.

You studied at Parsons School of Design and then transitioned into more commercial illustrations and major publications.

How did your education influence your approach to children's books in animation?

Dan Yaccarino: Well in art school.

I was exposed to a lot of different things that I wasn't even aware of when I was growing up.

So I was the kid in school.

Maybe one or two other people had any kind of interest in, in drawing or art of any kind throughout all of my schooling.

So that was sort of my unique thing about me is that, oh, that's the kid that, that draws all those pictures and, and so.

That was sort of my identity.

And then when I went to art school, it was totally different because in a sense that one kid, you know, in art school was the kid, the one kid in their schools growing up, being the artist, the creative person.

So it was really sort of amazing to me that I was surrounded by all these.

You know, ambitious, creative people.

And I love that.

I felt like, you know, I'm on my home planet, you know, I found my people and so that inspired me to move forward.

I felt like, I guess in my final year at Parsons.

I had to sort of pick a direction, and at that time there were so many magazines and, and things in print.

So I decided I can do that.

You know, I, I I sort of apprenticed under a, commercial illustrator in my last year of art school, and I learned so much just from the real life experience of working
with him that I sort of figured out how the industry worked and, you know, about meeting your deadline, presenting sketches, doing revisions, you know, all of that.

Sort of maintaining a relationship with all these different publications, so right out of school.

The first place I went to was the New York Times.

I went to the book review section because I heard that that art director gave a lot of people their first break, people coming into this country that he gave Steven Heller gave them their first break.

And so in my first meeting, in my first portfolio presentation, I got my first job.

And since then, being that I had sort of.

Had an idea of how the business worked.

I sort of charged ahead and sought out work from other magazines, and then eventually I'd started working for ad agencies doing ad campaigns and posters and different things like that.

And, about five years out of school, really sort of in the thick of this commercial illustration phase of my career.

I met a children's book editor and I didn't know much about children's books to be honest with you.

There were no classes to, you know, there was no master's degree in children's literature.

There was no classes even about how to assemble a book.

So I went to a bookstore and, and looked at how these were, how many pages, how big they are, and all that.

And from there I created my first book Dummy and presented it to this editor at Hyperion.

And once I did one book.

I became hooked.

It's such an amazing canvas.

You know, I'm used to, you know, prior to that I was working for magazine, so they only required most of the time just a single image that would reflect what was in an article.

And now I have this huge opportunity, this canvas, to be able to create sequential art focusing.

On a character and building a world and creating a story, and it was everything that I had been doing growing up in the first place.

So I sort of took to it very quickly.

And again, I love it.

And I've been doing this, I published my first book in, it came out in 1993, so it's a long time, but I am more excited.

Today to be creating books for kids than even when I was just starting off and the whole thing was new.

And so I love it.

It is such a gratifying wonderful industry to be in and I'm so very grateful to be able to continue to create stories and characters and, and fun books for kids.

Erin Bailey: I love that journey so much, and I think that becoming hooked on children's literature, the thing I love the most about children's literature is that it continues to grow.

Isn't that a beautiful thing?

Every year there are.

More and more beautiful children's books and we can still have the classics that we love and in include the new ones.

And I also.

Relate with you so much because I was that art kid in school too.

I always wanted to be an artist and a writer.

If you ask my classmates, who is the best artist in the class, it was Aaron.

I took a different direction than you.

Clearly I went into education, but you can see how things kind of.

Come full circle because now I get to work with wonderful authors and illustrators like, like yourself every day.

So thank you.

So let's talk about your characters.

Many know you as the creator of Oswald and Doug Unplugs and the designer of the Backyardigans, which are animated series.

Can you talk about the difference between developing these type of characters versus picture book?

Dan Yaccarino: There's a big difference.

I had an idea to create some.

Picture books about an octopus.

And that was the original concept was to create this.

And then I thought, well maybe one day I can, you know, dare I dream that I can create an animated, animated series.

And I didn't get a chance to publish the book 'cause I met someone, you know, with Nickelodeon and I pitched them this oddball idea about an octopus that has a pet hot dog and drives a car and has a
friend that's a flower and a snowman and, it's a very different process because with a book mostly it's, it's sort of you know, the, the creator, the book creator and an editor and, and a designer.

And it's a very intimate sort of process.

And I feel like comparing the two, the book.

You know, the, the, the story, the characters and all of that in the book are closer to what I had in my head, but with an animated series.

It's, it's a group project, and I want to be surrounded by very, very talented people who can, you know, do a better job than me.

After I give them the idea, I seek out, you know, designers, storyboard artists, writers, and, and, and then by extension musicians and voice actors and, you know, so it, it, it, I feel like I learned a lot with my first show because.

I never had done anything like that before, but I got over being shy about asking questions and learning, and that was the best thing I could have done because by the time
we finished our first episode, which traditionally took about nine months to create a whole episode from beginning to end I understood how, how to produce a series and.

That I became also sort of hooked on.

I enjoy working with other people.

I really do, but I also enjoy, you know, sitting near my little studio and, and creating my books as well.

So it's a, I have a very fortunate to have a, a nice balance between the two.

So I get a little squirrely when I'm by myself too long and I get a little overwhelmed.

Around a lot of people for too long, and so I could kind of retreat, you know, I could have this nice back and forth in my career that I could sort of slide to one to the other.

And they're very different experiences, but they're both so very gratifying.

Erin Bailey: I had no idea that it takes nine months to produce one.

Dan Yaccarino: Nobody does.

Erin Bailey: Episode.

I mean, I, I mean I can see it now, but Wow.

That, and it really is a full, a full team effort.

Dan Yaccarino: Yeah, absolutely it is.

But they, you know, I mean, not to get technical or anything, but you know, you launch one episode a week, so it's almost like a conveyor belt going by.

Like, okay, this one's still in script, and that moves down the conveyor belt to boarding.

But then we launch a new episode that's in script, and then that'll eventually, but then the first one will go to the next phase.

So it's, at one point you're stacked with maybe 52 episodes, and that's.

Kind of madness, but then, you know, the schedule starts to become a little bit more tolerable after that.

But it's a lot, it's a lot, a lot of coordination, a lot.

I've been so very fortunate to have worked with a lot of really talented people who love what they do, and that just brings everything up to another level.

So I'm very fortunate in that regard as well.

Erin Bailey: If I. Connection the way you're describing the conveyor belt.

You know, we launched Reading Inspires podcast a little over a month now, and it feels exactly like that.

We filmed the first 10 episodes because we knew we needed to go to launch with 10 episodes.

And that was a, that was a lot.

But now we're seeing a steady stream of the episode gets filmed, it gets edited, it gets produced, and then it, it gets aired.

And, you know.

The, I'm the host of course, of this podcast, but it really is a team effort and I'm so grateful for the production team and the marketing team because I could not do this solo.

Dan Yaccarino: That would be impossible.

Erin Bailey: There are people out there who, who do so though which is impressive.

Dan Yaccarino: Bless those people.

Erin Bailey: So thinking about your books, your books have reached readers around the world.

They've been translated into multiple languages.

When you're going to write the books, how do you balance universal themes with your distinct artistic style?

Dan Yaccarino: That's a good question.

It it's a funny.

Phenomenon.

I had done a book about my great-grandfather coming to the United States from Italy, and it was a very personal story because it's based on what my grandparents told me and I thought it was very particular to my family.

And I was a a little shy about creating a book so personal, because I'm in the book weirdly, and my kids are in the book.

But.

All of the messages and emails that I got and continue to get from that book is that it's, it's weirdly, the, the, the further I dug down into my own life and my family's experience, the more it became universal in a weird way.

A lot of people, you know, maybe they were able to relate to or, or connect with certain specific aspects, but the whole overall story about someone coming to a new country and building a new life, that's such a universal story.

So anything that we experience.

Other people experience it.

And we're always looking for that connection of, of seeing yourself out there in some way.

And so I think that a lot of these books that, you know, that I create are about basic, the basic human experience.

Maybe I use you know, a char, you know, some kind of funny character, an animal to tell that story or to be the vehicle for the story, but.

A lot of these things are, are, everybody experiences the same thing.

They experience joy and bliss.

They experience loneliness and anger and sadness.

You know, that's, that's what books are about, is to see ourselves in those books portrayed to, you know, feel like, oh, there's someone else out there.

There's something.

I'm not alone.

And that's the beauty of books is that it connects us all together with these sort of universal experiences.

Erin Bailey: Thank you for sharing that.

I think we've talked a lot on this podcast about the idea of relevance in literature and finding connections to, to characters, and I think for many readers that's what they're looking for.

So.

We're grateful for your characters to, to do that.

Speaking also of the collaborations that you've had, you've worked with some very acclaimed authors like Margaret Weiss Brown.

If, if that name doesn't ring a bell to you, goodnight moon, goodnight room.

What have you learned from illustrating with other, other people's written stories versus writing your own?

Dan Yaccarino: Other people's work.

I usually choose these manuscripts to work on because a lot of times it's something that I would not have conceived of or, or have written, and it's an opportunity for me to.

Interpret someone else's story, and it's, it's a very different experience.

When I'm writing and illustrating, I'm, I'm in the driver's seat and I'm driving and in a sense, you know, when I'm illustrating I'm in the passenger seat, but I'm sort of giving directions.

It's sort of a weird combination, Margaret Wise Brown's, but I mean, she's no longer with us.

But it was so inspiring to be able to illustrate a, a book, a story that she wrote, and it was something that I would not have done myself.

So I always seek that out with stories that are, are, are presented to me to possibly illustrate because I can already come up with ideas that I come up with.

I don't need to do that.

I, I would prefer with the books that I just illustrate to be something that I, that would be unusual for me, but I still have a connection to it.

I also write books that I don't illustrate, and it's kind of a very different way to think about your work and you have faith in the illustrator that they're going to do what
they're going to do and you respect their work and them, you know, so it it, but I'm very careful about those kinds of things who I, who I work with, who I collaborate with.

But it is something that I probably would not have done on my own.

Erin Bailey: So when you write the book, is it usually the words that come first and then you're kind of like scouting an illustrator who can bring those to life?

Do people submit applications for it?

How does it work?

I.

Dan Yaccarino: Well, some of the times it's, it's people that I know and I know, you know, I have a lot of friends and colleagues in this business,
so I. Think about, you know, sort of the vibe or the, the subject matter and the, a lot of times it's, it's, you know, there's humor involved.

So I try to match that up with the manuscript.

I more illustrate other people's manuscripts as a collaboration rather than the other way around.

But I do love writing and it's a very different experience when you have to let go of, you know, all the images in your head.

And see what they do, and it's always, for me anyway, a wonderful surprise.

And it's so much better than I, you know, had it in my head.

So

Erin Bailey: It seems similar to when you're reading a chapter book, one without illustrations, and then you go to see the movie and you're either like, that is spot on, how I pictured that character.

Or you're like, Ooh, not at.

All.

Dan Yaccarino: Yeah.

We all look for being, you know, to be pleasantly surprised, right?

Like, oh, this is way better than what was inside my head.

So that's always, I always loved when that happens, is that I'm bowled over.

I'm like, I couldn't even think of that.

So you know, it's, it's, it's a great experience to see your.

In my, in this case, my words interpreted by someone else.

And I always get feedback from the author whenever I illustrate someone else's book saying, oh, this is nothing like, I thought it would be, you know, not the, you know, the image I had in my head.

And it, it's just a fun, it's fun to collaborate too for me.

Erin Bailey: And then when you are, because you do author and you illustrate books, how do you decide?

Okay, this one I just am going to author and this one I'm just going to illustrate versus doing it both yourself.

Dan Yaccarino: Well.

Erin Bailey: I.

Dan Yaccarino: That's a good question.

Well, I, I just wrote three graphic novels, and I, for some reason, right from the beginning, I decided I'm not going to illustrate these.

And I guess it, you know, I, I've, I've sought out someone who could do different job.

I don't know about a better job.

Yeah.

A better job at this particular thing.

And, you know, it, it's, it's who's the right person for the job, and if I can't imagine myself illustrating it, then I'll offer it to someone else.

So

Erin Bailey: It's a gut feeling.

Dan Yaccarino: yeah, pretty much.

Erin Bailey: That's great.

Looking ahead, are there any projects, whether it's books or animated series or something completely new that you are especially excited about?

Dan Yaccarino: Sure.

There's lots of books coming out.

I recently released or has been released a, a picture book that I wrote, an illustrator called Piccolo, and it's close to my heart.

And, hang on, hang on.

Erin Bailey: Oh, cute.

Dan Yaccarino: Cool.

Right.

3D printed.

Love that thing.

Yes.

Yeah.

Very cool.

Erin Bailey: amazing.

Dan Yaccarino: And it takes place in a sort of a fictitious town in Italy.

And that's the culture I grew up in.

I grew up here, but it was very close to my heart and I wanted to create sort of a showcase for all the things that I love about the culture that I grew up in.

Some of it is about food.

But a lot of it's about, you know, the architecture, the music, and, you know, different aspects of the culture.

So I really feel passionate about that.

And there's a sequel coming actually next, this coming fall.

So that, and another book, a picture book I wrote and illustrated called I Am Murphy and I am Waiting, and it's about a dog.

Little Frenchy Bulldog.

He's more like a Boston.

I, I know him personally.

So he is a real dog and he, he's a good friend of mine, even though he is a dog.

About him waiting for his owner to come home.

That's it.

The whole book is just, you know, all the sort of worry and anxiety he's trying to distract himself, and I'm working on a sequel for that as well.

So, I love these characters.

I love the Luna Sisters.

I love the way that they bicker, but, and they're very different, but they need each other.

And that, you know, drives them both crazy.

And I love characters that, you know, have that kind of tension and conflict.

There's a lot to do, you know, like there's so much fun to be had and it's all in good fun.

It's all in good, good natured fun between the two sisters.

But I really, you know, love the idea of one is very, you know, sort of, they're opposite brains, you know?

So one is right brain, one is left brain, one is creative, one is, you know, sort of intellectual.

I wanted to pit them against each other in situations where they had to deal with each other.

So it, it just is a lot of fun and I just love playing with these characters and inventing worlds, which I absolutely love to do.

Invent a whole new world.

But, so those are coming up.

So it's Piccolo, I am Murphy, hopefully more Luna Sisters books and yeah, I'm looking forward to more, I'm working on more.

There's some.

I can't give away any details yet, but there are two animated series coming hopefully within no more than a year, year and a half, so, and that's all I can tell you.

I can't tell you anymore.

Erin Bailey: A sup, I that's a cliffhanger.

And now that I know that it takes nine months to do one episode, I, I'm looking forward to, to that very much.

I will link for all of our viewers Piccolo and I am Murphy for them to check out as well.

But the cliffhanger, they're j you're all, y'all are just gonna have to wait.

Dan Yaccarino: Yeah, sorry.

Sorry, gang.

Gotta.

Erin Bailey: So thank you so much, Dan.

I always end our episodes by asking our guest, what does reading inspire for you?

I.

Dan Yaccarino: What does reading inspire for me?

Possibilities There are, or I would go to the library every week when I was growing up and I'd come home with.

Big stack of books, variety of books.

Some were art, some were comics, some were picture books and they opened up worlds to me that I didn't know existed or only knew a little bit about and.

It opens up, it, it inspires possibility.

So from that, having not visited Italy when I was a kid, that was my only window in there not having visited outer space or, you know, some other realm or something.

That's my, that was my window into it.

And then that, you know that possibility that, that, that this stuff.

These places, these characters, I can venture forth into them through the book.

And as an adult now creating those books, I always keep that in mind that this may be the introduction to a young reader, to a certain idea or a place or, you know.

And so that to me is so exciting and, I would, every week I'd return those books, get a big stack, and I'd go home and I'd read them over and over.

Sometimes I'd try to draw the pictures out of the book to learn how to draw a little bit better.

So it was all these possibilities for me that opened up once I discovered, you know, all these wonderful books at the library.

Erin Bailey: Now you're creating those opportunities.

When you were talking about traveling to Italy, just then it reminded.

Of a quote, and I read this on LaVar Burton's LinkedIn.

Someone commented on his LinkedIn and said, while my body has not traveled, my mind has because of books, and thank you for inspiring me to read.

So thank you Dan.

It's been so wonderful and inspiring, and please keep doing what you are doing.

Dan Yaccarino: I, I will continue and like I said, I'm very, very grateful to be able to continue to do that.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

It was such a pleasure.

Erin Bailey: And thank you all for listening to Reading Inspires by Reading is Fundamental.

I hope today's conversation sparked new ideas, meaningful connections, and a renewed love of reading.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, share it with a fellow literacy champion, and join us next time as we continue exploring what reading inspires.