SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: How We Got to the Moon:
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: www.roccoart.com
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 318
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born July 9, 1967, in RI; married Aileen Leijten (an author and illustrator); children: Alaya Marzipan.
EDUCATION:Attended Rhode Island School of Design; graduated from School of Visual Arts (New York City).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Illustrator and author. Dreamworks, pre-production art director; Epcot, Orlando, FL, attraction designer and DisneyQuest art director; ImagineAsia, Manila, Philippines, animation director. Has also worked as an art director for film and television, and museums, including Newseum and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame; freelance illustrator, 2004—. Founder of artist/illustrator consortium The Bookmakers Dozen. Exhibitions: Work included in Original Art Show, Society of Illustrators—New York; solo show at Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, 2012; and at galleries including Books of Wonder, New York, NY, 2010.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
AWARDS:Borders Original Voices Award for Best Picture Book of the Year, 2007, National Parenting Publication Gold Award and Storytelling World Resource Award, both 2008, and Society of Illustrators—Los Angeles Silver Medal, all for Wolf! Wolf!; One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing selection, New York Public Library, and Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award, both 2009, both for Fu Finds the Way; Best Book Award, National Cartoonist Society, 2011, Best Book selection, New York Times, Best Book selection, Wall Street Journal, and Caldecott Honor Book selection and Notable Book selection, both American Library Association, all 2012, and Cybils Award finalist and Best Book selection, Association of Booksellers, all for Blackout; (with Jay Primiano) New England Book Award finalist, 2014, for Swim That Rock; Best Book selection, Bank Street College of Education, and Irma Black Award finalist, both 2015, both for Blizzard; National Book Award for Young People’s Literature longlist, 2020, for How We Got to the Moon.
WRITINGS
Author’s work has been translated into nine languages; author of a blog.
Blizzard was adapted as a live-action feature film by Fox.
SIDELIGHTS
John Rocco is the author and illustrator of Blackout, which was named a Caldecott Honor Book. Rocco has several other award-winning self-illustrated stories to his credit, and his paintings have been used as cover art for numerous children’s books, including Rick Riordan’s popular “Percy Jackson” series. “I guess the best way I can put it is I tell stories, whether it’s with picture or words; whether it’s working as an art director or making books,” he remarked in a Publishing Perspectives interview with Dennis Abrams.
Rocco worked for many years as an art director in the entertainment industry. He served as the pre-production art director at Dreamworks, where he worked on the animated film Shrek. He also designed attractions at Disney’s Epcot and worked as an art director for the virtual reality theme park DisneyQuest. Overseas, Rocco has worked as the animation director at the Philippines’s ImagineAsia, where he oversaw production of computer-generated animation, story development, and motion capture for various projects.
Rocco completed his first picture-book project, Whoopie Goldberg’s Alice, while he was employed as a bartender, and his images were praised for their surreal depiction of the tale’s contemporary urban setting. Despite this success, he left the publishing realm for more than a decade to work as an art director on films such as Shrek as well as on projects for television, museums, and theme parks. In 2004 Rocco decided to re-focus on book illustration, inspired in part by his wife, illustrator Aileen Leijten, as well as by the birth of their daughter.
In his self-illustrated picture book Wolf! Wolf!, Rocco presents what School Library Journal contributor Genevieve Gallagher dubbed a “twisted treatment of Aesop’s fable” about the boy who cried “Wolf!” Featuring a nostalgic setting that evokes a China of centuries ago, the story introduces a dapper but elderly wolf with a hearing problem. When the well-dressed creature hears a boy cry “Wolf, wolf!,” he mistakenly thinks he is being summoned for lunch. He therefore feels tricked by the youngster when a group of angry villagers arrive and tag him as a menace. Praising Rocco’s unique take on a traditional tale, Gallagher cited his “purposeful use of frames, unusual setting, and visual humor,” while a Kirkus Reviews critic described Wolf! Wolf! as “good-humored fun all around.”
In the fantasy adventure Moonpowder, an inventive youngster named Eli ventures into space to repair the machinery that creates the magical substance necessary for sweet dreams. Booklist critic Ilene Cooper remarked of the self-illustrated story here that “Eli’s foray to the factory in his hello-rocket-copter provides ample opportunity for Rocco’s fabulous artwork.”
Fu Finds the Way, another of Rocco’s self-illustrated tales, examines character traits such as courage, discipline, and commitment. Fu, an impatient Chinese farm boy, accidentally provokes a great soldier named Chang who challenges the youngster to a duel. With only one night to prepare, Fu seeks help from the Master, a wise mentor who teaches the child an elaborate tea ceremony in lieu of combat skills. When Fu meets Chang the next day, armed with only a tea set, the warrior reacts in a most surprising manner. “Rocco’s story flows smoothly and his illustrations are rich and appealing,” a writer in Kirkus Reviews noted. A contributor to Publishers Weekly stated that Rocco “has a wealth of ways to convey information visually in this off-beat tale.”
A celebration of community, Blackout concerns an impromptu block party thrown by a group of city dwellers after the power goes out one hot summer night. Rocco’s story chronicles the activities of one family, whose members find that the darkness offers a respite from their busy lives. “The plot line, conveyed with just a few sentences, is simple enough, but the dramatic illustrations illuminate the story,” observed a Kirkus Reviews critic, and in Booklist Ian Chipman noted that the “lustrous, animation-quality artwork somehow manages to get richer the darker it gets.” Rick Moody, writing in the New York Times Book Review, applauded “the beautiful and nearly monochromatic tonalities of Rocco’s nighttime illustrations” for Blackout, writing that “rarely has a children’s book featured so much unalloyed navy and black.”
In Rocco’s self-illustrated Blizzard, he shares his memories of ablizzard that hit his Rhode Island hometown during the winter of 1978. With school canceled, the book’s young hero is excited to jump into his snow boots and spend the day playing outside, but soon the snow is so deep that it is impossible to walk. After a few days, with worries about supplies voiced by his parents, the boy devises a novel solution to the snow-covered sidewalks. Inspired by his reading about Arctic survival, he ties tennis rackets to his boots and uses these jury-rigged snowshoes to walk to the grocery store. Mixing an upbeat story and “stellar” art, Blizzard shares “the message that even kids can be heroes in a time of a crisis,” noted Peter Blenski in School Library Journal. A Kirkus Reviews critic predicted of the winter-themed picture book that “young readers will be tickled by a young boy’s resourcefulness,” and in Horn Book Robin L. Smith wrote that “little details” in Rocco’s artwork “amusingly extend the story.” Imbued with a “nostalgic air of Americana,” Blizzard captures a boy’s “eagerness to be a hero,” noted a Publishers Weekly contributor, “and his display of Yankee ingenuity offers plenty of satisfaction.”
Suggesting that his story is based on personal experience, Rocco adopts as his hero in Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom a young lad named Rocco, who has been blessed with a particularly lush head of curly hair. With this amazing head-topper, the boy decides, must come amazing abilities, and in high-energy illustrations he is shown testing the limits of bike riding, ball throwing, and swinging while hanging topsy turvy, all while costumed in an appropriate super-hero cape. With what a Publishers Weekly critic characterized as a “light, humorous touch,” Rocco emphasizes the story’s comic-book inspiration by using using grey-toned “halftone dots” to depict the real world and full-colored art to capture the world of the child’s imagination, and Daniel Kraus wrote in Booklist that he “does not let a single illustration go by without an emotional undercurrent.” Citing the “Sampson complex” of the upbeat narrator in Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom, a Kirkus Reviews critic recommended Rocco’s story as a “go-with-the-flow bit of imaginative silliness.”
In addition to his solo efforts, Rocco has illustrated a number of works by other authors, including Kathleen V. Kudlinski, Rick Riordan, Tom Angleberger, Jason Carter Eaton, and Todd Tarpley. Originally published in 1910 and retold by Katherine and John Paterson, The Flint Heart centers on a magical amulet that changes the life of a kindly farmer and his children. Viewed as a feature of this new edition, “Rocco’s periodic full-color paintings embellish the goings-on with a steampunk sheen and art-nouveau flourish,” wrote Thom Barthelmess in his review of the newly illustrated work for Booklist. In creating the “intricately detailed, digitally colored graphite” artwork for Eaton’s How to Train a Train, Rocco plays with perspectives and contrast, noted a Publishers Weekly contributor, and a Kirkus Reviews critic described the artwork as “a successful blend of striking, painterly spreads … and humorous cameos.” Appraising Tarpley’s Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! in School Library Journal, Marianne Saccardi noted that Rocco’s multimedia images “greatly extend the text” in this “delightful tale of bedtime role-reversal.”
With Swim That Rock, Rocco added a new aspect to his career, teaming up with friend and coauthor Jay Primiano to share a story grounded in their shared coastal New England roots. Set in on Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, the story focuses on Jake Cole, a fourteen-year-old haunted by his fisherman father’s disappearance at sea a year ago. His mother has been struggling to pay the bills and worries that they may be forced to move to her mother’s house in Arizona. Hoping to remain in their home, Jake signs on with a boat going “quahogging”—fishing for hardshell clams called quahogs—during the day and at night teams up with a local fisherman to clam in a section of shoreline that is now off limits. Reviewing Swim That Rock, a Kirkus Reviews writer noted that Rocco and Primiano’s novel comes to life in “distinct, clearly realized setting details,” and School Library Journal critic Liz Overberg dubbed it a “feel-good story [that] illustrates the value of hard work and determination.” As John Peters wrote in a Booklist appraisal of the collaborative novel, the “autobiographical elements” in Swim That Rock “lend the tale’s cast and setting a salty authenticity.”
(open new)How to Track a Truck presents itself as a how-to book for treating a truck as one’s pet. Young readers are given a range of advice in choosing the truck that is most suitable for them before they can play with it and give it a name. The account introduces all types of trucks, from moving vans and dump trucks to snowplows and ice-cream trucks, helping readers better be able to identify what kind of trucks exist. Reviewing the book in School Library Journal, Amy Shepherd called it “a lovely storytime read-aloud,” adding that “children will be lining up to check this out.”
In Big Machines: The Story of Virginia Lee Burton, Rocco illustrates Sherri Duskey Rinker’s tribute to the creativity of Virginia Lee Burton. Burton would frequently tell her children stories about big machines. Rinker and Rocco add to Burton’s range of big machines by introducing a steam shovel, a coal engine, a cable car, and a snowplow while imaging what Burton’s children’s reactions to these would be. Writing in School Library Journal, Jennifer Costa found Big Machines to be “a lovely tribute, both to a marvelous creator of books for children as well as the creative process itself.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews observed that it is “alive” and “bursting with color and action.”
With Noah Builds an Ark, young Noah builds an ark for the animals that live in his backyard when heavy rains last for days. While he and his family stay dry in their house, the miscellaneous animals take refuge in the ark. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews stated: “Bringing the beauty of and responsibility for nature to the city, this will win over readers.”
In Susan Choi’s Camp Tiger, a family on a camping trip welcomes an unexpected visitor to join them when a tiger asks if he could sleep in the extra tent they have to keep warm overnight. The tiger bonds with the son and enjoys a fun weekend together as the go fishing and relaxing in a canoe. The tiger helps the boy to become comfortable in his first camping experience. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described it as being “a multilayered coming-of-age story filled with exquisitely executed art.” Writing in School Library Journal, Marianne Saccardi claimed that “this beautiful paring of text and illustrations is an excellent choice for group sharing and can spark discussion about ways to cope with new situations.”
Rocco shares his perspective with young readers in the process leading up to the moon landing in How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure. He begins by setting the context of the space race before looking at how the rocket looked and the problems scientists had with building it just right to be able to go into lunar orbit. The excitement of the launch day is illustrated as well as the entire moon landing and return of the spacecraft. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called it “a soaring tribute.” Booklist contributor Angela Leeper similarly referred to it as “a triumphant undertaking that places readers in the historic moment.”(close new)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, December 1, 2008, Ian Chipman, review of Boy, Were We Wrong about the Solar System!, p. 67; June 1, 2011, Ian Chipman, review of Blackout, p. 90; September 1, 2011, Thom Barthelmess, review of The Flint Heart, p. 119; October 15, 2011, Melissa Moore, review of Return to Exile, p. 60; May 1, 2013, Daniel Kraus, review of Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom, p. 94; April 1, 2014, John Peters, review of Swim That Rock, p. 87; August 1, 2015, Sarah Hunter, review of Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep!, p. 70; October 1, 2015, Carolyn Phelan, review of Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes, p. 79.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, April 1, 2007, Deborah Stevenson, review of Wolf! Wolf!, p. 343; October 1, 2013, review of How to Train a Train, p. 85; June 1, 2014, Elizabeth Bush, review of Swim That Rock, p. 539; December 1, 2014, Deborah Stevenson, review of Blizzard, p. 191.
Horn Book, September 1, 2011, Betty Carter, review of The Flint Heart, p. 94; March 1, 2014, Dean Schneider, review of Swim That Rock, p. 127; November 1, 2014, Robin L. Smith, review of Blizzard, p. 77; September 23, 2020, Roger Sutton, author interview.
Horn Book Guide, March 22, 2014, Pam Yosca, review of How to Train a Train, p. 28; March 22, 2016, Patrick Gall, review of Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep!, p. 17; March 22, 2017, Sheila M. Geraty, review of How to Track a Truck, p. 30.
Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2007, review of Wolf! Wolf!; October 1, 2008, review of Boy, Were We Wrong about the Solar System!; August 15, 2009, review of Fu Finds the Way, April 15, 2011, review of Blackout; April 1, 2013, review of Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom; July 15, 2013, review of How to Train a Train; February 15, 2014, review of Swim That Rock; July 15, 2014, review of Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods; September 1, 2014, review of Blizzard; July 1, 2015, review of Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep!; July 1, 2017, review of Big Machines: The Story of Virginia Lee Burton; January 15, 2019, review of Noah Builds an Ark; March 1, 2019, review of Camp Tiger; August 15, 2020, review of How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure.
New York Times Book Review, June 5, 2011, Rick Moody, review of Blackout, p. 26; September 18, 2011, Jerry Griswold, review of The Flint Heart, p. 21.
Publishers Weekly, February 19, 2007, review of Wolf! Wolf!, p. 168; September 7, 2009, review of Fu Finds the Way, p. 43; March 7, 2011, review of Blackout, p. 63; March 25, 2013, review of Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom, p. 69; September 1, 2014, review of Blizzard, p. 67; spring, 2014, review of How to Train a Train, p. 46; July 6, 2015, review of Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep!, p. 68.
School Library Journal, February 1, 2007, Genevieve Gallagher, review of Wolf! Wolf!, p. 94; October 1, 2009, Barbara Scotto, review of Fu Finds the Way, p. 103; July 1, 2011, Lauralyn Persson, review of Blackout, p. 77; August 1, 2011, Alana Joli Abbott, review of The Flint Heart, p. 82; December 1, 2011, Mara Alpert, review of Return to Exile, p. 127; October 1, 2014, Peter Blenski, review of Blizzard, p. 94; September 1, 2015, Marianne Saccardi, review of Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep!, p. 129; October 1, 2016, Amy Shepherd, review of How to Track a Truck, p. 74; October 1, 2017, Jennifer Costa, review of Big Machines, p. 126; February 1, 2019, Margaret Kennelly, review of Noah Builds an Ark, p. 47; May 1, 2019, Marianne Saccardi, review of Camp Tiger, p. 82; September 1, 2020, Angela Leeper, review of How We Got to the Moon, p. 92.
ONLINE
Bookmakers Dozen website, http://bookmakersdozen.blogspot.com (August 1, 2017), author profile.
BookPage, https://bookpage.com/ (September 1, 2017), Julie Danielson, author interview.
John Rocco website, http://www.roccoart.com (January 17, 2021).
National Book Foundation website, https://www.nationalbook.org/ (January 17, 2021), author profile.
Pine Reads Review, https://www.pinereadsreview.com/ (November 17, 2017), author interview.
Publishing Perspectives website, http://publishingperspectives.com/ (May 16, 2012), Dennis Abrams, “John Rocco: ‘Committed to Telling Stories.’”
Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast blog, http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/ (May 31, 2011), author interview.
John Rocco is a New York Times Bestselling author and illustrator of many acclaimed books for children, including Wolf! Wolf!, winner of the Borders Original Voices Award for best picture book; Moonpowder; Blizzard, and Blackout, a winner of the Caldecott Honor. Rocco also illustrated Whoopi Goldberg's Alice and the covers for Rick Riordan's internationally bestselling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles,The Heroes of Olympus and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. He also was the illustrator for both #1 New York Times Bestsellers Percy Jackson's Greek Gods and Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes. Most recently, Rocco’s his first Young Adult novel, Swim That Rock, was a finalist for the New England Book Award.
For many years Rocco has been an art director in the entertainment industry, both in the US and abroad. At Dreamworks, Rocco was the pre-production art director on the top-grossing animated film Shrek. For Walt Disney Imagineering, he designed attractions at Disney's Epcot and served as art director for DisneyQuest, a virtual reality theme park in Downtown Disney. Rocco has worked with computer graphics pioneer Robert Abel, the creator of some of the first CGI commercials and special effects, and contributed to several museum projects including Newseum in Washington D.C. and Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.
Awards, accolades and other things
Wolf! Wolf!
-Borders Original Voices Award
-NAAPA Gold Award (National Parenting Publications Awards)
-Silver Award for the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles
Moonpowder
-part of the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators
Fu Finds the Way
-Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award for Best Book
-part of the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators
Blackout
-New York Times Bestseller
-2012 Caldecott Honor Book
-ALA Notable Book
-2011 Best Book Award National Cartoonist Society
-2012 Editors Choice Award for ChildrensBooksGuide.com
-Wisconsin Golden Archer Award
-New York Times Best Book of the Year
-Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year
- PW Best Book of the Year
-School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
-Kirkus Best Book of the Year
-Cybils Finalist
-A Junior Library Guild Selection
-Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC) Best Book of the Year
-Indie Next List
-Starred Reviews from Kirkus, PW and School Library Journal
-Selection for the 2x2 Texas Reading association list
-Currently being adapted into a live action feature film with FOX
-Currently published in 9 languages
Super Hair-O and the Barber of Doom
-Selection for the 2x2 Texas Reading association list
-Currently published in 4 languages
How to Train A Train
-Selection for the 2x2 Texas Reading association list
-starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, PW, SLJ
The Flint Heart
-Starred Reviews from Kirkus, PW and School Library Journal
- part of Original Art Show at Society of Illustrators
Blizzard
-Starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, BCCB
-Best Book of the Year Wall Street Journal
-Boston Globe Best Book of the Year
-Kirkust Best Book of the Year
-Amazon Best Book of the Year
-A Junior Library Guild Selection
-Finalist for the Irma Black Award
-Bank Street Best Book List
-Black-Eyed Susan Book Award Nominee
-Currently published in 6 languages
Swim That Rock
-Rhode Island Representative Book for the National Book Festival
-Finalist for the New England Book Award
-Finalist for the Rhode Island Teen Book Award
Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods
-A #1 New York Times Bestseller
-Starred Review from Kirkus
-Kirkus Best Book of the Year
-Finalist for Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards for Best Book
-Finalist for Children’s Choice Book Awards 2015
Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes
-A #1 New York Times Bestseller
Solo exhibition of his work at the Orlando Museum of Modern Art (July-October 2012)
John Rocco spent 18 months working as animation director at ImagineAsia in Manila, Philippines. John oversaw production of cg animation, motion capture and story development for several projects.
John Rocco was the founder of The Bookmakers Dozen, a group of 13 talented children’s book illustrators, including: Sophie Blackall, Brian Floca, Peter Brown, Brett Helquist, Dan Yaccarino and others. The Bookmakers Dozen had many group shows and events with the goal of getting art and books in the hands of children. http://bookmakersdozen.blogspot.com
John Rocco
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Rocco on a SCBWI panel, November 2011
Christopher John Rocco (born July 9, 1967),[1][a] simply known as John Rocco is an American illustrator of book covers and children's books.[1] He is best known for illustrating the covers of books in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. He is the sole creator of some children's picture books.
Contents
1 Personal life
2 Career
3 Awards
4 Works
4.1 Children's books as writer
4.2 As illustrator only
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
Personal life
Rocco was raised in Barrington, Rhode Island.[1] He studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design and at the School of Visual Arts in New York City[2] and earned a degree from the latter.[1]
Career
Rocco did not take drawing seriously until he was 19 years old. Rocco has also been an international art director in the entertainment industry. Rocco was the pre-production art director at DreamWorks for the film Shrek.[3] He designed attractions at Disney's Epcot and served as art director for DisneyQuest.[2]
Two companion books to the Percy Jackson series were published in 2014 and 2015, with lavish interior illustrations by Rocco, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods and Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes. Regarding the first Kirkus Reviews observed in a starred review, "Riordan has a sure touch when it comes to fitting much into a small space—as does Rocco’s artwork, which smokes and writhes on the page as if hit by lightning ...".[4] John Rocco spent 18 months as animation director at ImagineAsia in Manila, Philippines. Rocco worked on and oversaw several projects while there involving CGI animation, motion capture, and story development.
Awards
Rocco was a runner-up for the American Library Association Caldecott Medal, which annually recognizes the best in U.S. children's picture book illustration, when Blackout was named a Caldecott Honor Book in 2012.[5] Rocco's book How We Got to the Moon was one of the ten books selected on the longlist for the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.[6]
Borders Original Voices Award for best picture book[2]
Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators
New York Times Best Book of the Year
2015 Irma Black Award Honor for Blizzard;[7]
Works
Children's books as writer
Wolf! Wolf! (Hyperion Books for Children, 2007), picture book – "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" told from the wolf's point of view and set in Asia, LCCN 2007-4636, Rocco's first book as writer[1]
Moonpowder (Hyperion Books for Children, 2008)
Fu Finds the Way (Disney Hyperion, 2009)
Blackout (Disney Hyperion, 2011)[8]
Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom (Disney Hyperion, 2013)
Blizzard (Disney Hyperion, October 2014), LCCN 2014-3220 – companion to Blackout; based on his Rhode Island childhood experience in the New England blizzard of 1978[9][10]
Swim that Rock, Rocco and Jay Primiano (Candlewick Press, 2014[11][12]), 293 pp. unillus., LCCN 2013-952797 - a "middle grade/YA novel" by Rocco and an old friend, the "captain of the shellfishing boat I worked on as a child".[9]
As illustrator only
Interior illustrations
Alice, picture book written by Whoopi Goldberg (Bantam Books, 1992)
Boy, Were We Wrong about the Solar System, Kathleen V. Kudlinski (Dutton Children's Books, 2008)
The Flint Heart: a fairy story, Katherine and John Paterson (Candlewick, 2011) – "freely abridged from Eden Philpotts's 1910 fantasy", LCCN 2010-48225
The Hunter Chronicles by E. J. Patten (Simon & Schuster Books for Children)
Return to Exile (2011), snare 1, LCCN 2010-53480
The Legend Thief (2013), snare 2
How to Train a Train, Jason Carter Eaton (Candlewick, 2013)
Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep!, Todd Tarpley (Little, Brown, 2015)
How to Track a Truck, Jason Carter Eaton (Candlewick, 2016)
Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Rick Riordan (Disney Hyperion, 2014) – illustrated with more than 60 paintings[4][9]
Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, Rick Riordan (Disney Hyperion, 2015)[13]
Cover and dustjacket art
Camp Half-Blood chronicles by Rick Riordan (2005 to present)[14]
The Kane Chronicles trilogy by Riordan (2010–2012)[14]
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy by Riordan (2015–present)
Ring of Fire (novel) by Pierdomenico Baccalario (2009-2012) [15]
Another artist illustrated the first edition dustjacket for at least the first Camp Half-Blood novel by Rick Riordan, namely The Lightning Thief. Before the end of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians subseries (2005 to 2009), all volumes were in print with stylistically matching dustjackets illustrated by Rocco.[citation needed] New cover illustrations from a single Rocco painting that spans all five books were introduced early in 2014.[16][b]
John Rocco is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of many acclaimed books for children, including Blackout, recipient of the Caldecott Honor. Rocco has illustrated the covers for Rick Riordan’s internationally bestselling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and The Trials of Apollo. He also created the illustrations for the #1 New York Times bestsellers Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods and Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes. Before making children’s books, Rocco spent many years as creative director for Walt Disney Imagineering. If he couldn’t make books, he would like to work as an engineer for NASA. He hopes this book will serve as his application. Rocco lives in Rhode Island with his wife, daughter, and several demanding animals. To find out more, visit roccoart.com, or follow him on Twitter at @johnroccoart and on Instagram at @johnrocco.
I love books. The fact that I get to make books for a living still thrills me everyday. I write and illustrate picture books and novels for children as well as illustrate books for older readers. Many of my books have received prestigious awards including my New York Times Bestselling book, BLACKOUT which received the Caldecott Honor. I am also the illustrator for Rick Riordan's blockbuster series' Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles and Heroes of Olympus.
I didn't always make books. Before embarking on full time work as an author/illustrator I worked as an art director in the entertainment business. Movies, television, theme parks and museums were my canvas. It was great work and I enjoyed every minute of it, but...
Did I tell you I love books?
John Rocco
LONGLIST, 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS
John Rocco is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of many acclaimed books for children, including Blackout, recipient of the Caldecott Honor. Rocco has illustrated the covers for Rick Riordan’s internationally bestselling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and The Trials of Apollo. He also created the illustrations for the #1 New York Times bestsellers Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods and Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes. Before making children’s books, Rocco spent many years as creative director for Walt Disney Imagineering. If he couldn’t make books, he would like to work as an engineer for NASA. He hopes this book will serve as his application. Rocco lives in Rhode Island with his wife, daughter, and several demanding animals.
John Rocco
A new celebration of a classic
BookPage interview by Julie Danielson
September 2017
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of Virginia Lee Burton’s classic picture book The Little House, the 1943 Caldecott Medal winner. To say that illustrator John Rocco is excited about his new picture book about Burton (1909-1968), her life and her work is an understatement.
Big Machines: The Story of Virginia Lee Burton, written by Sherri Duskey Rinker (author of Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site) and illustrated by Rocco, is a passion project, one he enthusiastically tells me about via phone.
The new book is focused on the “big machines” of Burton’s work that her two young sons loved the most: the locomotive in Choo Choo; Mary Anne from Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel; Katy, the tractor from Katy and the Big Snow; and the titular vehicle from Maybelle the Cable Car. This, Rocco explains, was Rinker’s smart way of encapsulating some of Burton’s best-known books. However, the Little House of Burton’s award-winning 1942 book—the story of a cottage that becomes surrounded by an encroaching, bustling city—is a part of Big Machines as well. Rocco sees Burton, known by friends and family as Jinnee, as a stand-in for the little house itself.
“How she felt about her life was the story of The Little House,” Rocco says. “When they first bought their home in Folly Cove, it was too close to the road. So, they picked it up and moved it back away from the road. They wanted to be more secluded. I think that was the genesis of the idea of The Little House.” If you look at the cover of The Little House, Rocco explains, the house is surrounded by daisies. In Big Machines, Rocco gives Jinnee a skirt with the same flowers. “She is the Little House!”
The Folly Cove that Rocco speaks of was Jinnee and her family’s rural home in Cape Ann on Massachusetts Bay. Here, in the early 20th century, Jinnee created her books, raised her sons, gardened, tended animals, hosted friends and taught art, design and block printing in a group called the Folly Cove Designers. Rinker lays it all out in Big Machines, describing Jinnee as “quite magical” as she works and plays at her seaside home.
Like many people, Rocco is taken by the creative powerhouse that Jinnee was. “Can you imagine her day-to-day life?” he asks. “She’s making books; she’s raising her kids; they’ve got sheep [and other] animals they’ve got to take care of; they’re doing all the daily in-and-out of life; and then she hosted all these parties. She was a dancer, and she was always making costumes and putting on performances. It was full tilt.”
Both Rocco and Rinker spent time with Jinnee’s children and their families, including her son, Aris, a sculptor who lives in Santa Barbara, California. “He had boxes and boxes of Jinnee’s work,” Rocco recalls. “Her sketchbooks, her drawings, the linoleum woodblocks with all the Folly Cove designs. Tons of stuff. I remember I was rifling through the boxes, as carefully as I could with all my excitement, and came across the book dummy for The Little House in something like a cardboard box. Sherri and I were both kind of freaking out, having a blast.”
Showing Aris the book dummy for Big Machines, with Rocco’s illustrations, was a similar thrill. “Aris was beside himself. . . . When I brought him some of the art, he said, ‘Man, it’s like Jinnee is right here in the room.’”
Rocco says he was given “total freedom” to explore what the illustrations would be. “It took me a while to find the sort of visual through-line,” he says. He was also given the option to reproduce Jinnee’s artwork in the book but was not interested. “This book is not a biography, so much as it is a celebration of her art, and so I was thinking we should celebrate it in a new way.”
Readers see Jinnee in constant motion in the book—much as she was in her life—and as a woman who made the world magical for her children. “I didn’t want to draw her sitting at a desk, making pictures with her two kids looking over her shoulder,” Rocco says. “I wanted her to move in space and show her gracefulness.”
Conscious of doing his best to represent her artwork while also trying to avoid merely copying it, Rocco kept his deep appreciation for her work at the center of his mind. “Where appropriate, I would emulate her style for the different books,” he says. “I laid out the text in the way that Jinnee always did, which was to really have it flow. That was always important to her. You can see from her early book dummies that every line of text was cut out in a separate little strip of paper, and she’d move them around, trying to get the right design.” Capturing her style while still making the artwork his own was “tricky, obviously, because she has a different style than me, but I was pretty pleased with the way it came out.”
Just as the little house—surrounded by all those big machines—comes to life, so does Jinnee, quite magically.
Julie Danielson features authors and illustrators at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, a children’s literature blog.
This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
John Rocco Talks with Roger
by Roger Sutton
Sep 23, 2020 | Filed in Authors & Illustrators
Talks with Roger is a sponsored supplement to our free monthly e-newsletter, Notes from the Horn Book. To receive Notes, sign up here.
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Because I’d only seen a PDF of How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure (Crown), I didn’t know how big it was. Around two pounds, thinks author-illustrator John Rocco as we talk below about his very big book. [This just in: How We Got to the Moon is on the longlist for the 2020 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.]
Roger Sutton: John, this book is huge. What possessed you?
John Rocco: I’ve always been fascinated by the Apollo program. Everything they managed to figure out in that short time period. I’ve read many books about it, just for pleasure. Before becoming an illustrator, I studied engineering at the University of Rhode Island. My wife suggested, “You love this so much, you should do a book about it.” I looked around to see what was out there for kids. There’s a ton of stuff about the actual mission, the moon landing; but you’d be hard pressed to find books about the engineering behind it. I love David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work — that way he has of taking very complex stuff and explaining it so the layman can understand it. I thought, “I’m going to apply that kind of thinking here — without the woolly mammoth.” I knew that if I could understand it, anyone could.
RS: I’m asking this rhetorically, obviously, but did it occur to you — you already wrote that really nice book about a blackout (Blackout, Hyperion, 2011). You could have done a really nice book about the morning everybody stayed home and watched us land on the moon. But instead you took your work in a whole different direction.
JR: I did and I didn’t. I worked in entertainment as an art director for many years. Most of that time was with Walt Disney Imagineering, designing attractions and rides and stuff. Yes, this book is a departure from what I’ve done in the past — it’s also the first nonfiction I’ve written. But I felt like I was using all of my muscles, just applied in a different way. When I first came up with the idea, I thought it was going to be a four-hundred-page book. That was quickly nipped in the bud by my publisher.
RS: It’s still 264 pages.
JR: A couple of years into it — I’m glad it wasn’t four hundred pages! I’ve always loved nonfiction, just like I love documentary films. I see the Apollo mission as a blueprint for how we can come together and solve a problem. The missions themselves — it was almost a military act for the time. These were serious problems we were trying to solve.
RS: With a deadline from the president.
JR: There was a deadline. There was a goal. And there were resources to get it done. We wanted to show our technological superiority to the rest of the world, so it became a race with the Russians. Well, first it was a race to occupy space, but then President Kennedy switched that up when we were losing. He moved the deadline to the moon, so the finish line became stepping on the moon. The whole thing still boggles the mind, when you look at what they were able to do with the technology they had at the time.
RS: Which kept changing. They kept having to invent things.
JR: Yes, they had to shift gears constantly. Today we walk around with more technology in our pockets! And it’s still a difficult thing to do, even today, to get to the moon.
RS: Do you think we’ll try to do that again? I hope we try to go someplace else.
JR: There’s a definite plan in place with NASA and SpaceX and some other companies that are planning to go to the moon in 2024.
RS: Would you go?
JR: I can barely sit in a small car — I am so claustrophobic. If my wife rolls over in bed and pins me down with the sheet by accident, I freak out.
RS: A while back I interviewed Candace Fleming about her new Charles Lindbergh book. As I was reading it — I hadn’t realized that while piloting the Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh couldn’t actually see what was in front of him. Scared the crap out of me.
JR: Flew by instrument only.
RS: He had a mirror he could poke out the window or something.
JR: As I point out in my book, Lindbergh was there, watching the launch of Apollo 11.
RS: Oh, he was?
JR: Yeah. He was two years old when the Wright brothers took off at Kitty Hawk, and he was there when astronauts took off for the moon. It shows how quickly we went from the Wright brothers to landing on the moon. Someone’s lifetime.
RS: That’s right.
JR: What we’ve done since is not really quite the same, as far as human exploration goes. I’ve heard it said that something as grandiose as going to the moon is done for one of three reasons: to praise a deity, done for money, or done for survival. The Apollo moon missions were about survival, about not living under a communist flag. You look at pyramids — they were built to honor a culture’s deities. The Panama Canal, another huge engineering feat — that was about money. There needs to be one of those three things in order to come together and work toward a common goal, which is what I love about the Apollo mission story — how everyone came together to accomplish that goal.
RS: Do you have any idea how many people you included by name throughout the book?
JR: Probably sixty.
RS: And it seems like for every one of those people, you could have even named a hundred more — other seamstresses, other calculators.
JR: Yeah, the common estimate is that four hundred thousand people worked on the Apollo program, across NASA and including twenty thousand companies across the United States. NASA held those companies to such high standards of engineering — everything had to have a 99.999 percent success rate. When you have a rocket with over five million parts, that still means two hundred parts can break — so they built in all this redundancy. But it taught companies that wanted to have a NASA contract that they had to raise the level of the quality of their craftsmanship.
RS: Let me ask you about illustrations. Aside from the fact that you’re an illustrator and it’s your livelihood, creating these paintings was a lot more work than using photographs.
JR: Yes.
RS: I think it’s better. Why do you think it’s better?
JR: For several reasons. The first, and the reason I wanted to do it that way, was because a lot of the kids’ books I’ve seen about the Apollo program use the same photos and diagrams because you can get them all from NASA. When I look at those photos — they tend to be such a hodgepodge that it makes the topic less accessible for me, and I think for kids, too. In my book, there are so many different things — diagrams, paintings of scenes, portraits — that having it all drawn by one hand ties everything together. Also, if you look at some of the original scientific diagrams and blueprints, they are quite mind-boggling. There’s so much information. In painting them, I was able to just extract what I needed to explain an idea. I could really focus in on what was important and leave out the extraneous stuff that adds confusion.
RS: By creating your own pictures, you’re not reliant on whatever narrative has already been created in the NASA resources. You would, to some extent, have had to make your narrative fit what you had available — whereas here, you can say, “This is what I need a picture of, so I’m going to draw it.” But your images are never generalized in a picture-book-illustration kind of way. Everything seems very precise, detailed, not cluttered. There’s one picture early on of the main control panel for the command module, and it’s just awesome, because it has all of these dials and things, but they all look like they have a purpose. They don’t just look like the things we used to draw when we were kids — my thing was submarines — where you just go crazy putting in switches all over the place.
JR: That control panel has something like 580 switches and buttons. It took a while, and it would have been very easy for me to use a photograph, or even a blueprint, instead. But I decided that I wanted to recreate it in my hand. Everything’s very accurate to where it’s supposed to be. And that’s just the command module main control panel for Apollo 11 — there were different ones for different missions!
RS: What was it like, having been a storybook creator, to go into this knowing you needed to have a fidelity to the facts, but also you were going to have to convey information in a very logical way, and in different formats? Straight narrative text, captions, boxes, diagrams, paintings. It seems like you’d have to develop a lot of new skills as a bookmaker.
JR: Yes. I think of that as a compliment.
RS: It is totally a compliment!
JR: Thank you. I enjoyed the whole process. When I got to a concept that I was trying to convey, or a story that I was trying to develop, I really had to decide how I was going to do it. Sometimes it was with diagrams, like to show how the F-1 engine worked. Other times it felt like I needed a painting — the firing of the rockets, so you could see the power of this thing. So, what I wanted to share dictated how I approached the illustration and the information.
RS: I’m still looking at this picture of the command module main control panel. I don’t know if this is true, but I feel like if I pointed to anything in that picture and said, “John, what does this do?” you’d have an answer.
JR: I think if you called me the week I was working on it, I would be able to tell you. Today I’d have to use my own book as a reference. There’s just so much — so many parts and machines and things that went into this mission. What everyone sees is the big Saturn rockets, the lunar module landing on the moon, and the command module capsule that comes back to Earth. But when you think about all the machinery and stuff that was just there to support the mission — like how did they build the rockets? The parts were being built all over the country. The second stage was in Seal Beach, California. The first stage was built in Louisiana. The lunar module was built out on Long Island. How do you bring all of it together, make sure all the connections work, piece everything together? The Vehicle Assembly Building, with its cutaway, was probably the most difficult for me to illustrate. I wished I had Stephen Biesty in my studio, so I could just say, “Hey, could you draw that for me?” The rocket, when fueled, is six and a half million pounds — how do you transport that, vertically, all the way out to the launch pad? And why does the launch pad have to be so far away? Everything I learned unraveled another thing. I certainly didn’t cover every bit of minutia about the program, but I did want to cover pretty much everything that the general person would want to know, about how they built the machines, how mission control came about, what those controllers did.
RS: You say in your afterword that you were two years old for Apollo 11. Did you have a fascination for this in childhood as well?
JR: No. I absolutely didn’t. I did come across a photo of me as a kid in 1971, where I was opening my Christmas present, and it had “moon car” on the box (a version of the lunar rover), and by the expression on my face I was pretty excited about it. But I don’t remember, as a kid, being especially fascinated. My fascination first started with two adult books: Space by James A. Michener and A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin. That one was a real eye-opener for me — he interviewed all the Apollo astronauts (except one, who had died), and still today, people say this was the best book written on the Apollo program. Andy’s a terrific guy who actually vetted a lot of this material for me, which was a big help.
RS: You’re talking to a person who makes his living writing two-hundred-word book reviews. I sit down to complete a task, and then it’s done in an hour. How did you sustain your commitment? That always fascinates me about you authors.
JR: I would say the last year of working on it, I was doing fourteen hours a day, six days a week. It was definitely exhausting. I’m still working on it in a lot of ways, including all this supplemental material for teachers and educators. I’m creating videos that explain things deeper, concepts like zero gravity.
RS: One thing our reviewer really liked about it was the way that you scaffolded technical and scientific information throughout the book. Readers get a lot of basic concepts there at the beginning, and by the time the actual Apollo 11 takes off, the book’s whole pace picks up — which can happen because you’ve already prepared readers for the ride.
JR: Exactly. That was something I knew I needed to do from the very beginning. You can’t just start talking about orbital mechanics and expect the reader to understand. One of the foundations of this book is that anything these engineers did could be boiled down to the basic fundamentals of science and math. Whether it be heat transfer, which we can all understand — but it has to be explained before you can start talking about -423-degree cryogenic fluid in one tank, and then you put -297-degree cryogenic fluid in another tank next to it. That is almost like putting your hand in boiling water. Even though it’s super-cold, the difference between those two tanks is huge, as far as energy and heat.
RS: Oh, everybody knows that, John.
JR: One last thing — and I don’t say this enough — I have to credit all of the Apollo engineers who helped me, not only to tell their stories, but understand a lot of the engineering. Early on in the project, I started reaching out (and actually cold-called some of the people!), and they were so helpful and so generous with their time. They’re in their eighties and nineties, and sometimes I had to schedule around naptimes and things like that, but whenever I had a question, I could pick up the phone and say, “Look, I don’t really understand this internal combustion instability. How did that work?” And I’d be talking to the guy who was the manager of that whole program. It was just a thrill.
RS: And they were happy to pass the knowledge along.
JR: Absolutely. In fact, NASA is doing a “brain dump” with a lot of these older engineers, because so many people don’t know how to do some of these things, even today.
Interview with John Rocco
November 17, 2017 Pine Reads Web 0 Comments
John Rocco is a New York Times Bestselling author and illustrator of many acclaimed books for children, including Wolf! Wolf!, winner of the Borders Original Voices Award for best picture book; Moonpowder; Blizzard, and Blackout, a winner of the Caldecott Honor. Rocco also illustrated Whoopi Goldberg’s Alice and the covers for Rick Riordan’s internationally bestselling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, The Heroes of Olympus, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard and The Trials of Apollo. Most recently, Rocco’s first Young Adult novel, Swim That Rock, was a finalist for the New England Book Award.
For many years Rocco has been an art director in the entertainment industry, both in the US and abroad. At Dreamworks, Rocco was the pre-production art director on the top-grossing animated film Shrek. For Walt Disney Imagineering, he designed attractions at Disney’s Epcot and served as art director for DisneyQuest, a virtual reality theme park in Downtown Disney. Rocco has worked with computer graphics pioneer Robert Abel, the creator of some of the first CGI commercials and special effects,
and contributed to several museum projects including Newseum in Washington D.C. and Paul Allen’s Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.Visit John at roccoart.com
Cheyenne Lopex: How long have you been drawing and when did you know you wanted to make it a career?
John Rocco: I didn’t take drawing seriously until I was about 19 years old. I was a sophomore in college studying engineering and I was sharing a house with a professional illustrator. I think at the time I didn’t realize you could make a career out of drawing pictures, but he showed me otherwise and I was hooked. From there I went about putting together a portfolio so I could get into art school, and was quickly accepted into the program at Rhode Island School of Design.
CL: Is your artwork completed traditionally or digitally? Do you prefer one over the other?
JR: I begin all my artwork traditionally…pencil on paper. Then I will bring the drawing into the computer and color it there, usually adding watercolor textures, stains and whatever else it might take to make it right. I don’t really have a preference with regards to traditional or digital, but I hardly ever start and complete a painting digitally. 99.9% of the time it begins with pencil on paper.
CL: Who inspires you? Which artists have influenced you over the years?
JR: The greatest source of inspiration for me has always been the Brandywine Illustrators from the early 20th Century; N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, Arthur Rackham. There are others too, like Dean Cornwell and Frank Frazetta.
CL: Why illustration?
JR: Why not? I get a lot of enjoyment out of working on a drawing or painting that I am excited about. And I love books. So to work in a field where I can make artwork that ends up in books, and those books end up in kids hands…I’m pretty lucky!
CL: Are you the type of artist who carries a sketchbook everywhere just in case, or do you have a specific place you prefer to work in?
JR: I am not the type to carry a sketchbook, but I do carry a small notebook to jot down ideas that I might get. I’ll see the visuals in my head and draw them down later when I return to my studio
CL: Do you ever look back on an art project, and see changes you would like to make, or do you prefer to look ahead to the next one?
JR: I never look back. I am always too excited about the next one to look back!
CL: Do you have a favorite project you’ve worked on? Or do you have one that you are most proud of?
JR: It’s almost always my most current project that is my favorite. I think that is what gets me excited about each new project, that it immediately becomes my favorite. Until it is finished, and then I start something new.
CL: What was it like winning your first award?
JR: The first award I received was called the “Borders Original Voices Award” and it was for the first picture book I had written as well as illustrated. Borders was once a big chain bookstore similar to Barnes and Noble, and I was absolutely thrilled to receive this award, especially since the award was primarily given for outstanding new authors, and until that point I had only considered myself an illustrator. Now I was a bona fide author! I believe the award came with a cash prize too, so that was especially nice since my daughter had just been born and money was tight.
CL: A book cover draws readers in, but illustrations help to tell the story itself. Do you approach the artwork for book covers differently than you do picture book illustrations?
JR: Absolutely! When I make a book cover illustration I am trying to convey the feeling of the book, the mood, the themes…everything. I am trying to boil all the ideas of the book down to their essence and come up with one exciting image that conveys that. With a picture book, I am given 32-40 pages to tell the story so the approach is very different.
CL: You’ve written some books yourself; what is the difference between illustrating your own stories versus illustrating the stories for other authors?
JR: When I am writing and illustrating my own stories, the text is usually always in flux, always changing. It’s a balancing act between the text and the words, and I am constantly juggling the two in different ways to see how I might be able to make it better. With other people’s manuscripts I cannot make text changes, so things are a bit less flexible, but it also makes it easier because I know there is a constant. The text will not change, so I have to be more clever with my imagery.
CL: One of your books, Blizzard, is based on a childhood experience of yours; what was it like to revisit that experience? Do tennis rackets actually make it easier to walk in the snow?
JR: I loved working on Blizzard. It took me right back to my youth in the 1970’s. A simpler time. A time before cell phones, computers, cable TV and video games. We played outside, with our neighbors; we did things on our own. There were no play dates set up by your mom or dad, you just walked over to your neighbor’s house and that was it. And yes, tennis rackets did help me keep from sinking into the snow. The one downside was that the snow would stick to the rackets and they would get very heavy so I had to stop a lot to clean them off.
Author, Cheyenne Lopex
Rinker, Sherri Duskey BIG MACHINES HMH Books (Children's Informational) $17.99 9, 5 ISBN: 978-0-544-71557-8
Virginia Lee Burton's big machines roar to new life in a new biography of the author. Rinker, author of Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site (2014; illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld), is right at home describing the life and times of big machines. "Ting, Ting, Ting!...CLINGETY-CLANG!" comes Maybelle the cable car. "CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!" says Katy the crawler tractor as she digs her way through a double-page spread of snow. Clearly a labor of love for Rocco, the illustrations demonstrate the same care for book design evident in Burton's work. Endpapers depict Burton's Little House encircled by big machines, an effect akin to the block-printed fabrics of the Folly Cove design group the illustrator worked with in Massachusetts. Rocco's illustrations capture the look, personality, and energy of the machines without being overly imitative, and he offers playful departures, such as the final double-page spread featuring a spirited procession of Choo Choo, Mary Anne the steam shovel, Katy, and Maybelle as "their stories come to life...quite magically... / for Aris and Michael," Burton's sons, represented as her inspirations. The beautiful symbiosis of text and art works on several levels--as a biography, a study of the artist's creative process, and a demonstration of the themes of change and survival evident in Burton's picture books. Alive, bursting with color and action, this volume introduces Virginia Lee Burton to a new generation of big machine enthusiasts. (author's note) (Picture book/biography. 4-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Rinker, Sherri Duskey: BIG MACHINES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2017. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A497199590/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=63abdc50. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.
EATON, Jason Carter. How To Track a Truck. illus. by John Rocco. 32p. Candlewick. Sept. 2016. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780763680657. POP
PreS-Gr 2--Don't want a train for a pet? How about a truck? First, you need to know how to track one. And to do that, you need to decide what kind of truck you want so you will know where to look. Then you need to use your best detective skills to find and lure one. Once you have chosen the perfect truck to fit your lifestyle and it responds to the Universal Truck Signal, you need to name it, play with it, and treat it with kindness and love. There is a truck out there for everyone! From the creators of How To Train a Train, this book on acquiring a vehicle as a pet is sure to please fans and newcomers alike: This fun and lively volume is chock-full of moving vans, monster trucks, garbage trucks, car transporters, ice-cream trucks, snowplows, and dump trucks. Children will love identifying the various vehicles and determining which one they would prefer to have as a pet. Rocco's large cartoon illustrations are very appealing and give tons of personality to the "pets." The vibrant colors are bold on the pages, inviting readers in. VERDICT A lovely storytime read-aloud. Children will be lining up to check this out. Another must-have for fans of titles about vehicles.--Amy Shepherd, St. Anne's Episcopal School, Middleton, DE
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Shepherd, Amy. "Eaton, Jason Carter. How To Track a Truck." School Library Journal, vol. 62, no. 10, Oct. 2016, p. 74. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A466166837/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7dc9e309. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.
BANKS, Kate. Noah Builds an Ark. illus. by John Rocco. 40p. Candlewick. Mar. 2019. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780763674847.
PreS-Gr 2--When young Noah notices a large storm heading his way, he begins to prepare an ark for the creatures of his backyard. While the storm rains down, Noah and his family stay safe inside their house, as the animals are nice and cozy in the ark. After four days, the storm passes, and the creatures come out of their shelter and bring life back into Noah's backyard. This is a refreshing new version of an old tale. Banks has created new twists and visuals in the familiar plot, making it simple to understand and intricate in previously unseen details. The pencil, watercolor, and digital illustrations by Rocco assist in creating the world of Noah's backyard, bringing die importance of life to the forefront of the tale. Together, the text and images create a detailed tale of life and renewal that is fun to explore and contemplate. VERDICT A non-religious retelling of Noah's Ark that would be a lovely addition to most picture book shelves.--Margaret Kennelly, iSchool at Urbana-Champaign, IL
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kennelly, Margaret. "BANKS, Kate. Noah Builds an Ark." School Library Journal, vol. 65, no. 1, Feb. 2019, p. 47. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A571039815/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=87bb5a23. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.
RINKER, Sherri Duskey. Big Machines: The Story of Virginia Lee Burton, illus. by John Rocco. 48p. photos. HMH. Sept. 2017. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780544715578.
PreS-Gr 2--A coal engine, a steam shovel, a snowplow, and a cable car are the big machines that Rinker and Rocco celebrate in the story of Virginia Lee Burton's creative life. Burton's young children, Aris and Michael, clamored for stories about big machines, so "Jinnee" responded by creating Choo Choo, Mary Anne, and the others. For readers not familiar with the stories, Rinker summarizes each over a few pages, imagining Aris and Michael's reactions. Rinker also introduces an element of wonder in the narration, describing Burton as magical and her artists' tools as wands. Rocco's illustrations help convey the magic of creation: to complete the top of Choo Choo's cab, he shows Burton climbing up the ladder that she has just sketched so that she can reach. Rocco also pays tribute to Burton's early passion for ballet by depicting her creation of the big machines as graceful full-body gestures. Elements of Burton's illustrations and attention to design appear in Rocco's art: the puff of smoke above Choo Choo's smokestack contains a visual summary of the engine's adventures. This is a lovely tribute, both to a marvelous creator of books for children as well as the creative process itself. VERDICT Recommended for most picture book biography collections.--Jennifer Costa, Cambridge Public Library, MA
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Costa, Jennifer. "Rinker, Sherri Duskey. Big Machines: The Story of Virginia Lee Burton." School Library Journal, vol. 63, no. 10, Oct. 2017, p. 126. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A507950882/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8f93c57b. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.
CHOI, Susan. Camp Tiger. illus. by John Rocco. 40p. Putnam. May 2019. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780399173295.
PreS-Gr 2--A tiger joins a young boy and his family as they enjoy a camping weekend in the mountains. It creeps out of the woods while they are making camp and asks whether they have an extra tent where he can take shelter from the cold. The boy and tiger spend the night together, and the creature remains throughout the weekend, even joining the family on a fishing excursion. On the last night, the animal takes the boy out in the canoe. They lie on their backs, gazing at the stars, until his parents lift die youngster into their tent. Alert readers will notice several hints that the tiger is an imaginary comfort creature, conjured up by the young narrator who is afraid of going into first grade and becoming more independent like his older brother. The tiger is small and "starts act ing like a cat--a more regular cat." The boy even tells the animal that tigers don't live in the mountains. The mixed media illustrations are stunning. Rocco's cover image of the tiger, yellow eyes staring out at readers, is so huge its head seems to form a road for the hiking family. On one spread, the boy and tiger are curled up together, one large C encircling a smaller one. Back at home, wearing tiger-striped pajamas, the boy draws his imaginary friend "before [he] forget[s]." VERDICT This beautiful paring of text and illustrations is an excellent choice for group sharing and can spark discussion about ways to cope with new situations.--Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA
Caption: Camp Tiger (Choi)
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Saccardi, Marianne. "CHOI, Susan. Camp Tiger." School Library Journal, vol. 65, no. 4, May 2019, p. 82+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A584328818/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=59559874. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.
How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity's Greatest Adventure. By John Rocco. Illus. by the author. Oct. 2020. 264p. Crown, $32.99 (9780525647423). Gr. 5-8. 629.45.
Books about the moon landing abound, but there's nothing as masterful as this gorgeously and heavily illustrated account by Caldecott Honor winner Rocco. Beginning with background knowledge on the Space Race and NASA's mission to send a man to the moon, Rocco draws readers in with present-tense narration and information chunked into digestible parts, allowing better accessibility and natural stopping places to absorb the detailed descriptions. While the next chapters focus on the function and design of each section of the Saturn V rocket, they also spotlight potential problems and solutions. Visuals, infographics, and a few interspersed experiments help explain the science and engineering at work. Support is also needed on the ground, and another chapter relates the meticulous construction of such areas as the launch complex, as well as astronaut training. The final chapter, and the piece de resistance, takes readers from launch day to the moon landing to Apollo II's return to Earth, with dramatic, full-page illustrations and dialogue from the astronauts and Mission Control. Throughout the chapters, Rocco recognizes some of the 400,000-plus individuals it took to put 3 men on the moon. Acknowledging the predominance of white men at the time, he also profiles numerous ground-breaking women, like African American "human computer" Katherine Johnson. A triumphant undertaking that places readers in the historic moment.--Angela Leeper
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Leeper, Angela. "How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity's Greatest Adventure." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 1-2, 1 Sept. 2020, p. 92. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A637433546/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8cdf799c. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.
Rocco, John HOW WE GOT TO THE MOON Crown (Children's None) $29.99 10, 6 ISBN: 978-0-525-64741-6
A dramatic, meticulous record of the U.S. space program’s greatest achievement (so far).
Systematically describing major components of the Saturn V and Apollo capsules, each onboard instrument, and the central NASA support facilities, Rocco orchestrates a grand overview that mingles analyses of daunting challenges and technical problems with appreciative nods to some of the 400,000 scientists and industrial workers who faced and solved them. Tucking in explanations of orbital physics and other background along the way from Sputnik to Apollo 11 (the other Apollo missions are summarized at the end), he highlights both techno-triumphs, from humongous rockets to the icky but ingenious in-flight Fecal Collection System, as well as the crucial but unsung labors of capsule designer Max Faget and dozens of others. Wary of turning the heavily illustrated pages into busy thickets of extraneous detail, the Caldecott honoree mixes his own cleanly drawn conceptualizations and cutaway views with repainted (mostly color) versions of period photographs, documents, portraits, and renowned shots like Earthrise. With a main narrative composed in the present tense, the result gives the insights, events, disasters, and near disasters of over a half-century ago not only visual unity, but an immediacy that will sweep readers along—and serve as a constant reminder that the participants, from well-known names like Katherine Johnson to geologist Farouk El-Baz and seamstress Ellie Foraker, weren’t all White men or remote historical figures.
A soaring tribute. (author’s notes, sources, further reading, acronyms, index, map) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
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"Rocco, John: HOW WE GOT TO THE MOON." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632285640/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f24b05cf. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.
Choi, Susan CAMP TIGER Putnam (Children's Fiction) $17.99 5, 21 ISBN: 978-0-399-17329-5
A little boy finds his inner tiger in this lyrical picture-book debut by Choi, an award-winning author for adults.
Narrated in a thoughtful, meandering voice that mimics a long scenic drive into the mountains, a boy, his older brother, and their parents travel to a camping site at Mountain Pond, which is "like a mirror in the trees." Throughout the trip the boy vocalizes his apprehensions about growing up and becoming a first-grader, saying he "liked kindergarten" and misses "things my mom used to do for me." Suddenly everyone is struck silent when a tiger approaches from the temperate forest, asking for an extra tent to sleep in. The boy and the tiger quickly connect. Soon the tiger becomes the personification of the growing inner courage of the boy, participating in all the activities. The boy accomplishes new milestones: catching his first fish, steering the canoe well, and striking out on his own. Rocco provides illustrations with a cool color scheme and dramatic details. Elongated sentences demand that readers linger on each page drinking in every detail of the tiger's striking portraits. There is a slight disconnect in tone between the whimsy of the text and the realism of the illustrations, but it is a small price to pay. The boys appear Asian or biracial Asian/white.
A multilayered coming-of-age story filled with exquisitely executed art. (Picture book. 5-8)
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"Choi, Susan: CAMP TIGER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A575952161/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f280c898. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.
Banks, Kate NOAH BUILDS AN ARK Candlewick (Children's Fiction) $16.99 3, 12 ISBN: 978-0-7636-7484-7
Noah receives a lesson on surviving storms from his family and uses it to give safe passage to the denizens of the family's backyard.
Salamanders, toads, snakes, hummingbirds, butterflies, field mice, and grasshoppers can all be found in little Noah's backyard garden. Noah spies the dark clouds hovering over the cityscape as his father declares, "It's going to be a beauty." Rather than depict heavy rainstorms as ominous and menacing, Banks and Rocco instead instill the message that the proper preparations can ensure a family's safety. That logic extends to the backyard. As Noah's father boards up the windows of their row house, Noah capably repurposes his broken-down wagon into an ark. As Noah's mother and sister stack groceries and fill water jugs, Noah prepares food for the ark's creatures. When the rain finally arrives, the family is soothed enough to enjoy board games and share stories by candlelight. Inside the ark, the creatures imaginatively begin to take advantage of one another's intimate company as well. When the storm finally settles, the creatures exit, two by two of course, back to the tiny, thriving ecosystem of the family's fenced-in slice of earth. Rocco's meticulous paintings depict a brown-skinned family carefully preparing for the weather; the animals are not directly anthropomorphized, but compositions give a cozy sense of community.
Bringing the beauty of and responsibility for nature to the city, this will win over readers with its parallel storytelling and appreciation for human- and nonhumankind alike. (Picture book. 4-9)
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"Banks, Kate: NOAH BUILDS AN ARK." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A569224523/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1b9510bd. Accessed 15 Dec. 2020.