Yaccarino is a children’s book illustrator and writer with more than 50 books to his credit, including "Lawn to Lawn," "Backyardigans," "Willa’s Wild Life" and "Doug Unplugged." He also has created toys, maps, games and television shows.
"Writing books is a way for me to share the weird, cool, and funny things I love,” Yaccarino said.
His most recent book, "Delivery of Doom," is about a pizza delivery boy who battles evil robots in outer space. His best known characters include Oswald, the octopus who wears a hat, and Willa, a girl who collects animals in her city apartment.
Media Center Librarian Marie Girolamo invites authors to Ridgefield Academy every year. She wants students to know that authors are people too.
“Authors are people like you and me -- they had a dream and worked hard to achieve that dream,” she said.
Yaccarino explained his own creative process starts with creating characters and he showed them several iterations of characters he had drawn. He told students he tries to tell a story with pictures. What he can’t say with pictures he puts in words. He also walked the students through the animation process.
“Being an animator is a real job,” Yaccarino said.
After his presentation, Yaccarino took questions from the audience.
“What’s your favorite book you’ve written?” one student asked.
“Whichever book I’m working on right now,” Yaccarino said.
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