Illustrious Illustrator Visits Fourth Grade

Jules Feiffer, illustrator, author, winner of an Academy Award and a Pulitzer Prize, and a member of the Comic Book Hall of Fame, spoke to the Fourth Grade today about his life, his writing process and his sources of inspiration.

We learned that Bark, George, a student favorite, began as a bedtime story for his daughter Julie, who was a "tough customer" requiring a different story each night at the age of 18 months. He explained that stories often start with a "What if..." question, and in this case he wondered what would happen if George the dog's mother said, "Bark, George" and George said, "Meow."

We learned that two of the characters in The Man in the Ceiling are based on Jules himself - the main character represents how Jules felt as a boy who loved to draw and Uncle Lester shows how Jules felt when his first play flopped.

We learned that while some of the events in A Room with a Zoo are true, others are exaggerated or twisted around because Jules gets bored telling a story if he already knows how it ends.

His anti-war film, "Munro," was made to work through his own feelings about being drafted into the army at a young age - Jules himself felt a little like he was only "four years old" like the character, Munro.

Jules had a lot of advice for young writers and illustrators, saying that the process he goes through at age 80 is really the same process that they are going through at age 10. It's easy to get frustrated when you are young, he said, but you have to learn to be patient and just keep messing up and trying again.

Jules read from his newest book, which he illustrated and which his daughter wrote, called Which Puppy? It arrives in stores on April 7th and tells a story about the search for the correct puppy to take up residence in the Obama White House. We were thrilled to get a sneak peek!