>>Lee Ann Potter: Good morning, welcome to the purple stage. I'm Lee Ann Potter, I direct educational outreach at the Library of Congress and it is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2018 National Book Festival and to the purple stage. It is also my pleasure to welcome and introduce our next speaker. David Shannon is good friend to the Library of Congress and the National Book Festival. He has presented at the National Book Festival three other times. He is an author and an illustrator of more than 30 books for young readers. Prior to creating children's' books he worked in -- he worked in editorial illustration in New York City where his illustrations have appeared in magazines and newspapers that include: Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times as well as on books and posters. He began illustrating children's books in 1988 with How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have? and Other Tales by Julius Lester. His writing credits include How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball which was named a New York Times best illustrated book in 1984, excuse me 1994. And this semi- autobiographical story No, David which received a Caldecott Honor. He lives in Los Angeles with his family and today David is with us to officially launch his newest book, Grow Up David published by Blue Sky Publishing. After David's reading if time allows he will take your questions and he'll be signing books from noon to one o'clock in signing line number nine. Welcome David Shannon. ^M00:01:55 [ Applause ] ^M00:02:07 >> David Shannon: Hi you guys look really comfy don't go to sleep OK. It hurts my self esteem. Alright so let's see did it work? Ah, yeah there we go. It's David's birthday yeah can you believe this? No, David turned 20 years old this year. Yeah it's been 20 years. He still doesn't look a day over five does he? So yeah so I thought I would just kind of celebrate David's birthday by just thanking everybody out there who -- who's made David last this long and has had so much fun. I'm just going to kind of share with you guys some of the ways that people have had fun with No, David because that's -- that's been so rewarding for me. So there he is. I don't know if you know the story about how I got the idea for No, David, do you know that? Well, I got the idea from a book I made when I was a little kid. It was eight pages long, I drew a bunch of pictures of me doing stuff I wasn't supposed to do and the only words in the whole book were no and David. Because that's all I knew how to spell. And my mom saved it. And many years later she pulled it out of her magic closet and showed it to me and I said this might make a good children's' book. So I wrote a few more words, not a lot more, just a few. And I drew new pictures and that's where the No, David that you know kind of -- this No, David that's where he come from. But this is what the original looked like. [laughter] There it is, yeah. So when I first started drawing the new version of David I drew it kind of realistically and it lost all its personality and just fell flat and sat there. And I went well what was it about this original that I was responding to? So I went back and I looked it and I tried to draw like a five year old and that's where the drawing style came from. Here's another piece. And so whenever I got stuck on anything I just went back to the original so the type style, the writing and the pointy teeth. I don't know if you can tell that's David on a chair and that's a box of Coco Krispies with -- remember Snagglepus? Exit stage left, that -- that's what it is. There's another one of me getting into cookie dough and do you guys realize this, when I was a little kid cookie dough ice cream hadn't been invented yet. Yeah I know terrible, they were hard times -- they were hard times. And so and you couldn't get it in rolls like that at the store. The only way you could get cookie dough was to steal it when your mom was making chocolate chip cookies because she would let you lick the beaters. You could do -- she'd go here's the beater. And then after that you had to have more. So then when her back was turned you'd -- it was delicious. So anyway, you could see there's a lot of similarities between like the that no, David this no, David. So even the pointy teeth and stuff came from the original. So let's see where am I? So over the years all kinds of people have been having fun with David especially like in schools. So like teachers decorate their doors with David, and they decorate their walls with David. I love these. And they decorate their kids with David [laughter]. Sometimes I go into these schools and there's whole walls of Davids, like there's about 100 of them and its -- it's pretty terrifying really. It's like an army of Davids. You know you think -- you think zombies are frightening. Sometimes they decorate their principal. Isn't that great? I mean you know really. Here's another one. Personally I think he's just made for a Christmas ornament, don't you? They make cakes, there's a lot of baking involved with celebrating David's birthday. And cake pops. ^M00:07:28 ^M00:07:32 And this kid's name is David by the way. Yeah, is that beautiful? Oh, well now it's also -- it's also very gratifying to be able to influence the youth of America. My favorite part of this picture is the hand coming in get, get, get your finger out of your nose. Now just in case though people you know don't accuse me of your kid reading my -- my books and engaging in bad behavior because it's not just the David book. It's not just David that does that, you see that happens to be the picture he's looking at right there. No influence there at all because actually all my books make kids do this. Yeah that's a bad -- that's Alice the fairy. But by far the most -- the most wonderful thing is all the letters and the -- I have a whole collection of No, David books that kids have made. And sometimes it's you know maybe I should've called it no, your kids name here. But they're just wonderful, they're all -- there's yes, David books and no, David books and David goes to the zoo. Fantastic stuff and I thought I'd read a couple of the letters. Here's a few of the drawings first of all. I wish I could draw like this, seriously. There's David's rock band, heavy metal I'm sure. Look at that one. So here's a few of these letters, they're just - they're really hilarious. ^M00:09:33 ^M00:09:39 Ok this is -- this is the good kind right here. Dear crazy Mr. Davey thank you for coming I absolutely love your books and I hope you make more. I hope I get to see you more, I love all your books and I am obsessed with them. ^M00:09:58 You are -- you are the best book writer ever. If I get to meet you again I will scream with joy. So this letter I -- I saved and whenever my family gives me too much guff I pull out this and say, let me just read this letter to you again. But then I get these too. Dear David Shannon, I've read No, David recently and I liked it but maybe you should right more words. You also should add a little bit more detail to the picture. Like when David was reaching for the cookies you should add little drops of sweat since he was determined and frustrated. You also should write the words of what the sounds are from like when David was banging pots and pans. You should add like a crash or bang. I'd like that. Then the book would be more exciting and fiction readers would read it. They would get so, so, so into the book. They wouldn't know where they were, that David Shannon is how I want you to change this book. A lot of critics out there. ^M00:11:20 ^M00:11:24 I just read your book No, David could you please just make it so David has a towel instead of the nakedness. Do you guys know that picture of David running down the street naked? Yeah. He says could you imagine what kid's parents would say? The parents would say, never check out or read this book again. That's why I think you should take the nakedness out. Dear David Shannon, don't eat gum, you are nasty. Listen to the teacher. You are bad, I don't' like you. David you are very bad, I don't very, very like you. I don't like you so much love Nate ps. I like your books. Yeah, so -- so I wasn't going to do anymore David books. I had put that behind me because each -- each book I tried to -- I don't want to do the same book over and over again. I tried to sort of explore a different level of authority or a different set of rules because David's all about kind of breaking the rules right. And so like after No, David the next book was David Goes to School because that's the next level of authority is your teacher right. She's the next person that says no to you after your mom. So but my editor was celebrating her 25th anniversary of her imprint and David was celebrated -- is celebrating his 20th birthday so my editor kept saying I'd sure like to have a new David book. I say no. I'd sure like to have one. And then I realized I'd been kicking around an idea about my big brother -- about the relationships between siblings. And I say well what am I doing? This is perfect for a No, David book because your relationship with your older sibling is you know that's a whole -- that's a whole new set of rules. It's a whole new set of -- of things that you get in trouble about. You know brothers get in trouble. So that's where this book came from and let's see. So the interesting thing about siblings is they live under the same roof, in the same house, but they have two different sets of rules don't they? So like the older brother gets to do things that the younger brother can't because he's bigger and he's older. But the little brother can get away with things that the older brother can't. So and eventually that creates some tension which is always good for a story -- a little conflict. So David wants to play football but he's too little. Stop following me, anybody here have a little brother or a little sister? Do they follow you around? They do don't they, yeah. Yeah, stop following me. But of course David bothers his brother too, because his brother has things like homework. You know his job is to do homework; David's job at this point is just to be silly. So that doesn't go together. And my brother -- my brother was very concerned about being mature. He would always say to me you are so immature. So we --we -- my little sister and I called him Mr. maturity. And he's -- he's still kind of like that. Yeah, but David finds ways at getting back at his brother. Oh, but then his brother retaliates. This is how it happens, can you guys see the loogy coming down on the left there? Yeah, this is a true story ah-huh and so if I yell for -- it says, go ahead call mom. So if I yelled for help guess where that loogy went, in my mouth. Yeah, otherwise he would just drop it down and suck it back down. And then drop it down, and suck it back up. Yeah horrible things. But I've polled kids on this and this is still going on today, this activity. So eventually they both get in trouble because they were roughhousing. But in the end -- so after, after they get in trouble mom says go outside, go outside and play. And David finally gets to play football. And this is how it happens is that his brother and their friends they're starting a football game and they only -- they have an uneven number of players. They have seven guys or nine guys and so they finally go David, you want to play? And David says yes and of course he gets flattened. But in the end both David and his brother do grow up just a little bit. And that's how Grow Up David ends. Thank you. ^M00:17:11 [ Applause ] ^M00:17:16 So we have -- we have time for questions I hope, we do, good. Alright anybody got a question? What's your question? ^M00:17:25 ^M00:17:31 Ok good question. He asked how long it took me to make Grow Up David. Well I'll tell you it takes a long time to make a book because I always start out -- whenever I'm doing a book I read the story a whole bunch of times so I know it really well. And then I get out a big piece of paper and I start making little tiny sketches called thumbnail sketches in pencil. And they're really scribbly and I make hundreds of them because I'm just trying to figure out what picture is going to go on which page? And it's kind of like a puzzle because if I change something on page 20 sometimes I have to go back to page 12 and change something there too. So when I get that all figured out, then I do full size pencil drawings and make lots of mistakes and I erase a lot and sometimes I get mad and I crumple it up and throw it over my shoulder and go that's terrible. And then I run back and I get it and smooth it out and go really ah it wasn't so bad. And then when I get the drawings all done I do full color paintings. And then I send those to the book company called the publisher and they take pictures of the paintings and they put the words next to them and sew them all together and put the hard cover on. And so all of that takes about a year -- takes me about a year to do a book. So yeah, a long time huh? The David books take a little bit less time because I don't have to stay in the lines when I color them which is always nice. Yeah. >> Who are your enemies? >> Who are my enemies [laughter]? I hope not you. My enemies, I've never, ever been asked that before. You know I -- I -- I try not to have enemies, I suppose Voldemort would be -- would be one of my enemies. Well sometimes my brother was definitely my enemy, yeah, and then other times he was my very best friend. So it's always nice to turn enemies into best friends. Yeah. >> What is it like to be an author? >> What is it like to be an author? It's absolute hell. Because you have to come up with ideas and you know actually I am always so grateful whenever an idea strikes me. ^M00:20:05 You know because you always are worried they'll stop. So what I do is I keep a -- I keep a special notebook and I write down all my ideas so I don't forget them. I even write down the ideas I think are dumb because sometimes they turn out to be the best ones. Or they'll make me think of a really good idea. So you know -- and then sometimes I'll have an idea and I'll say oh, this is an incredibly great idea. I am a genius and I'll write down and then I'll look at it the next day and I'll say oh, oh, oh this is a terrible idea I am not a genius. So you never know, so I always keep a notebook. >> How come you never see the older brother's face? >> Oh, that's a good question. Well that started out with No, David where you don't see the any of the grown-ups face. You don't see the mom's face. And there were two reasons for that. One is so that it stays at David's like a kid's eye level, a kid's eye view of everything. The other thing was I wanted kids to be able to picture their own mom. Right, I didn't want to have you know a different mom I wanted them to sort of like whenever they read all those things that their mom says to them. I wanted them to be able to picture their mom. So in this case I want kids to be able to picture their big brother or big sister. >> What is your favorite David book? >> What is my favorite David book? Well I think it's probably got to be No, David. Because that's the one that really reminds me of being a kid. So and I try to do as many things to remind me of being a kid as I can. What's your favorite one? Do you have a favorite one? Oop we don't have a mic I can't hear. ^M00:22:02 ^M00:22:06 >> Grow Up David. >> Oh it is ok. Well that's great. Well I -- a lot of times I like the one that I've just finished. So that's a good idea. >> I have two questions the first on is, is there going to be No, David Here? >> Is there going to be No, David here. You mean is he coming? Good gravy I hope not. >> And the other question is, never mind. >> Oh, I know what your second question was. It's what was I going to ask? [laughter]. Ok we got a couple more. What? >> How old is David? >> How old is David? How old are you? >> Three. >> Well David's probably just a little bit older than you. I always think that he's about five. But you never know I mean he's kind of as old as whatever kid is reading about him. Well let's just say he's ageless. Five ok five. >> Do you have, do you still have a westie? >> Oh, good question, yeah do you guys know about Fergus? Yeah, Fergus is my little white dog and I put him in all my books somewhere. Sometimes he's really hidden, and sometimes he's easy to find. Sometimes he's really hard to find, but he's in all my books. And he really was my dog but I have some sad news, Fergus passed away but he was 19 years old. Yeah I know. I'll do the math for you that's 133 in dog years. So he had a very good life and now I have a new westie and his name is Roy. And he's completely different from Fergus. The best example is Fergus thought that he was a human; Roy thinks I'm a dog. Yeah and I'm doing a new book about Roy right now, it's called Roy Digs Dirt. And he does, but he -- I drew him a little differently so he doesn't -- I didn't want him to look like Fergus so he doesn't really look like a westie in the new book. But he has the personality and I'm going to keep putting Fergus in all my books so keep looking for him OK. But listen don't tell Roy because Roy thinks it's him OK. Alright you guys it's time to vacate the stage for the next incredible author. Thank you so much for coming. Thanks to everybody who's had fun with No, David and the National Book Festival. Thank you.