Timothy Young's Blog

From January through the beginning of May I have visited students from 43 schools, the most ever in any one school year. Among that group were 3 school systems where I visited multiple schools; 10 schools in the Hamilton, NJ school district, 4 schools in the Syracuse area and 14 schools in the Red Clay district of Delaware. I enjoyed every visit immensely. I can’t included details on every school as this would become a novel and not a blog post. Apologies to the schools I have not mentioned in detail.

What I Do

I suppose I should explain what I do in my presentations. I usually start with three of my books which vary by the age of the audience. I project the pages onto a large screen and can “turn” them with a remote in my left hand while holding the book in my right. These readings usually get the students laughing and set the mood. I then ask the students if they have any questions which can take the program in many different directions. I have hundreds of slides in my presentation that I can easily jump to at any point if an answer would benefit from a visual. At some point I offer to draw something for the students and after that I show them a scribble drawing demonstration that they can participate in. If enough students want to hear another book reading I can add that in and I also bring along a variety of toys I have designed and sculpted earlier in my career. I have hours of material I can draw from and usually have only 45 minutes to an hour to present. Each presentation is unique, steered by the students’ questions.

Reading Do Not Open The Box . I love seeing photos where all the students are giving me full attention.

The first visit of 2025 was to Winthrop Elementary in Bellmore, NY. on January 16th. I did three assemblies for all of the students in the school. While there I had the chance to have dinner with some old friends from my Pratt and Brooklyn days, Tony and Lori Scarlatos. After that I visited Memorial Elementary in Pittman, NJ and finished the month presenting to the 2nd grade students from 3 schools in Talbot County at the historic Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD. I live in Talbot, so it’s nice to do local schools without having to travel.

Onstage at the Avalon Theatre with the biggest screen I’ve ever used. I felt like a Broadway star.
I do have other books, I just like these photos. I cannot take my own photos of students but all of these were posted by the schools or teachers on social media

On February 5th I did 8 virtual visits with schools all over the country for World Read Aloud Day. I enjoy virtual visits as it allows me to interact with kids I would otherwise never meet in person.

The Pace Quickens

Things picked up in February. On the 8th I did a Saturday program in Cambridge, MD and then I hit the road for another trip to Long Island to visit George A. Jackson Elementary in Jericho. Tony and Lori had invited me to stay in their guest studio so I had a nice visit on Superbowl Sunday with them. I did 3 presentations at the school on Monday and also had lunch with some of the students in the library.

If there is a stage I prefer to be in front of it rather than on it. I brings me closer to the students and makes the presentation more personal.Some of the students who came to the library to meet me and pick up their signed books.

That evening I drove south and stopped at Jeffrey Clark School in Mickleton, NJ for presentations in the library. I’ve known the librarian, Mrs. Wordelmann, for many years from the NJASL conventions and was happy to finally get to visit her students.

After that began the true odyssey. On February 25th I visited Glendora Elementary in South Jersey to do 3 assemblies. I had a wonderful time with the students there. When another school in their district found out I was coming they booked me to visit James W Lilley Elementary for an evening Literacy Night program.

It’s always nice to find that a school has put in a lot of work to welcome you.

That night I checked into my AirBNB in Trenton for the rest of the week. In the morning I drove up to Valley Road School in Clark, NJ. I gave myself plenty of time to get there, which was good as there was an accident on the Garden state Parkway just before my exit. (of course there was). I still arrived on time and spent the day visiting students and having a nice lunch with faculty and the principal. This was a great start to the weeks that would follow.

Afterwards I got together in Princeton with 3 friends from my teenage days. We worked as ghouls in the Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure. Sam was visiting NJ from California, Frank drove up from South Jersey and Tom came in from Pennsylvania as well. It was a very fun reunion.

I love seeing long shots like this. Sometimes it’s hundreds of students in the gym…and sometimes the performance space is the lunch room…and sometimes we are jam-packed in a library. No matter the space, the students and I have a great time.

The next day began my Hamilton, NJ school visits. I had met Principal Mallon at the NJASL conference in Atlantic City in 2023 and she reached out last summer about visiting 10 schools in her district. I presented at Wilson Elementary on Thursday and then two schools, Sunnybrae and Kuser on Friday. I went home Friday and picked up the book I had ordered for the next week’s visits.

I’m glad I decided to do AirBNBs instead of hotels for these week-long visits. I had room to spread out the books I had to sign and could cook meals instead of needing to eat restaurant food all of the time. My goal with all of the travel was to not put on any weight. I was able to get up early most mornings and work out at various Planet Fitness locations.

I find it amusing how many photos of me reading make me look angry. Many of my books are about characters with strong emotions so I can’t help but read them that way. It’s impossible to give a dramatic reading and smile at the same time.See.

My second week in Hamilton was very busy. I presented at seven schools between Monday and Friday, with two assemblies in each school. That Friday I got back to Maryland with only a few hours to spare before Melanie and I headed to the airport for a week’s vacation (much needed) in Miami and the Florida Keys.

I Travel North

We flew back Saturday morning and I had just enough time to pack up my car and drive 6 hours to Syracuse, NY. I left early as it was supposed to rain hard that night so I figured I could get most of the books signed once I got there. Unfortunately just after I arrived at my AirBNB there was a tornado warning and the power went out for hours. I opened the apartment curtains and signed most of the books I needed for Monday before it was too dark to see. Next time I will bring candles.

It was a bit of a shock going from sunny Florida to Upstate New York where there was still snow on the ground and the lakes were frozen. I visited 4 schools over 4 days, organized by Mrs. Dershang from Brewerton Elementary. I visited her school in 2019 so it was nice to return after 6 years. It was not my only return visit this year.

Last Fall, when I started booking all of these visits, I realized I would be moving a lot of books.

I got home late on Thursday and once again spent my weekend organizing books for the next week. Back in the fall when I realized what my schedule was looking like we made the decision to buy an SUV. I needed something that could move a lot of cases of books. For six weeks I was loading up to 20 boxes of books along with my presentation materials and clothes for the week into the Nissan Pathfinder we had bought.

Red Clay

The drive to northern Delaware was only around 2 hours, too far to drive each morning, especially since I had to arrive at the schools around 8:30 am. I found a nice townhouse on AirBNB for the first week which was convenient to most of the schools that week, especially the first, Linden Hill, which was only 2 minutes away. I visited 5 schools, 3 assemblies each day. It’s interesting to see the differences in schools in the Red Clay district, it goes from urban to suburban to rural.

The second Red Clay school was Warner Elementary in the city of Wilmington. A great old school building which had been expanded with a huge auditorium sometime recently. The students were great and I had some time at lunch to visit the Brandywine Zoo, just down the hill from the school.

Richardson Park, Marbrook and Brandywine Springs rounded out the week. Each school visit is unique. I offer to do whatever the school asks of me when I visit. Sometimes I have lunch with a select group of students, sometimes I help deliver the books the students have ordered and sometimes I have two assemblies in the morning, leave for a few hours and come back for a third in the afternoon. Sometimes I stick around and visit a few classrooms to let some students ask questions they may have thought of after my presentations.

Over the course of my travels I had many lunches with very inquisitive students.

The next week I visited 6 schools over 4 days. Monday was an in-service day so the visits started on Tuesday, April 1st with two assemblies each at two schools. This showed why every school visit can be very different. With most schools I send a book order form ahead of time so families can decide if they would like to get signed copies of my books. I never require that the school do this and there are no minimums. The morning school families ordered about 20 books which I brought with me, signed and with a drawing in each. The afternoon school was a Title 1 school and chose not to send the order forms out. Instead they used funds to purchase 257 copies of I Hate Picture Books!, one for each student. I had to make a special trip to Schiffer Publishing the prior week to pick up the 11 cases of books.

On Wednesday I visited Cooke Elementary. I had visited this school back in 2017 and it’s always nice to be invited back to meet the new students. Of the 43 schools I presented to this year 5 were return visits. Cooke was also special as it was the birthplace of one of my books. On my drive to the original school visit I had the inspiration for the book that would become untitled. The students were excited to hear that their school played a part in it’s birth.

On Thursday I had another day of visiting 2 schools, Lewis and Johnson and finished up on Friday with Brandywine Springs. On Saturday, April 5th I participated in the Festival of Words in Greenwood, Delaware. I presented two programs: Creating Creatures and Characters and Can You Do That In A Picture Book?. It was a fun day and I met some great students and educators.

Into the Home Stretch

The following week began with the last three Red Clay schools. On Monday I visited Richey and Mote Elementary Schools. On Tuesday I visited North Star Elementary. Their librarian, Alyssa Sweitzer, had been the person who arranged the 14 Red Clay schools for me. I had met her when I first visited Cooke and I also did a virtual visit with her students at North Star in 2021. It was great seeing her and I had a fantastic time visiting her students. After my main assembly presentations I revisited the 4th grade classes for two extra Q&A sessions. These were more relaxed and I got to sit down to chat with everyone. Oh, and I’ll be back up that way on June 12th for Storytime at the Woodside Creamery.

It’s nice to talk to students in a more relaxed setting.
Fourth graders ask great questions and it’s fun joking around with them.

That night I had a long drive to western Pennsylvania for a visit to Hillview Elementary School on Wednesday. I often joke that the further I go from home the bigger deal I am. Hillview proved my joke to be true. Mrs. Hartzel, who had arranged the visit, did a fanastic job. She got students from Grove City College to work with the students in advance, reading my books and doing crafts weeks ahead of my visit. The halls were covered in art based on my books. They also invited a local reporter to cover my visit who paid close attention to my presentations and then asked me some follow-up questions. Here’s the article she wrote.

Here are some of the incredible art projects based on Do Not Open The Box!, untitled, I’m Going To Outer Space!, I Hate Picture Books!, and even Shadows On My Wall that lined at least three long halls.

A couple of things happened at Hillview that really touched me. April 12th is my birthday and I am often asked by students how old I am. I have never had an issue with this and tell them. Well, this week I was asked and I said, “I’m 61, oh wait, I’ll be 62 on Saturday”. Some hundred or so students suddenly burst into a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday! What a wonderful birthday present.

As I said, these students were prepared. Somewhere on the internet I had mentioned that I performed in street theater as The Lorax back when I was a teenager. One student asked me if I could do my Lorax voice. I bring along my copy of The Lorax (signed by Dr Seuss) so I picked it up and read a few lines. I can’t believe I was able to remember the voice I used after 40 some odd years!

After a lovely visit to Grove City I jumped back in my car for a return visit to Wrightsville Elementary. I’ve known Mrs. Lavery for a long time now, having visited once before in 2017. I did a morning presentation in the library, had a few hours to poke around the antique stores across the Susquehanna River in Columbia, PA and then came back for an afternoon session. I then stayed around to do an evening program. They are a Title 1 school and it helps them to fund an author visit if they include that for the families. It’s great to see the students who have gone home all excited and persuaded their parents to come out at night. I explain, very briefly, to the parents who I am and what I do. Then I tell them I’m going to teat them like 4th graders and begin the program. In the evening the kids get to pick the books I read and I held back a couple of things that would normally come up during the day. It’s fun because you get a mix of kids from all of the grades and they all came back as they had a great time during the day.

Always drawing. In the Wrightsville library during the day and in the gym for the evening family presentation.

Having been on the road for about 6 weeks straight it was nice to get home and have some time to rest, catch up on things around the house and do some client work. I started writing this piece over a week ago. On April 23 I began my last few scheduled school visits for this season and two of them were different from my Author Presentations.

Something Different

Last summer I created a Toy Design program for a camp at a school in Baltimore. It went over very well with the kids. I turned it into an assembly and/or workshop program that is offered to Maryland school through Arts For Learning Maryland. On Wednesday I spent the day at Tilghman Elementary doing seven 45-minute workshops with students from pre-K through 5th grade. I brought along toys I’ve designed and sculpted, a Keynote presentation and toy design worksheets. For the younger students we designed Teddy Bears and the older grades created their own Action Figure designs and Pool Toy designs.

Student Action Figure Designs

The next day I visited Waugh Chapel Elementary to do the Assembly version of the Toy Design program. I presented to the 3rd grade students and I am also doing 4 in-class workshops after the assembly. I sent the students home with the task to design Teddy Bears and in the workshops we are designing Action Figures. I have 2 more workshops with them next week. Both schools have enjoyed the programs and I hope to offer this more broadly next year.

Student Teddy Bear Designs

On Friday, April 25th I visited Woods Road Elementary in Hillsborough, New Jersey. Wow, what a way to finish up this incredible year. I was greeted in the morning by the principal who was wearing a t-shirt with my name on it! I’ve never had a school do that before. Even the school mascot was wearing one.

Woods Road goes all out for Young Author’s Day!

Woods Road makes a big deal out of their Young Author’s Day. Aside from the shirts that the students were wearing, the school set up the gym with games and crafts all themed around my books. The presentations were in the library and the students were prepared with great questions. It was quite a memorable day.

The Make-A-Mouse table, the What’s Inside The Box? game, Make an Alien or Monster craft
and The Puffin Bean Bag Toss GameWhat’s Next?

It was absolutely amazing to be able to present to so many school this year. I never expected to be a performer of any kind but the joy I feel standing in front of 200 kids who are laughing at my jokes and getting excited when I draw for them, I am honored and grateful to be asked by so many schools to visit their students. I hope this was not a fluke, I hope I can replicate whatever combination of marketing, luck and magic that happened this year. If you are an educator, if you have a child in school or if you know anyone looking for an author to visit their school, please get in touch. My schedule for next year is wide open and I have dates open throughout the school year. I’ll travel anywhere that a school wants me to visit.

What worked well this year was visiting multiple schools in the same district. I can give schools a great rate when that happens, often eliminating travel costs. I have a contact form here on my blog, you can also get in touch through my website, CreaturesAndCharacters.com. There you can see more info about my books and programs. I’d love to visit your school in the 2025/26 school year!

I’m just coming off of a very busy week of school author visits. Actually, it has been the busiest month of author events since I started doing in-person programs again, after the Covid shut downs. On Monday, March 18th I was at schools in Pennsylvania, then Connecticut on Tuesday, and New Jersey on Wednesday. I was then home for less than 24 hrs as I had a visit in Maryland near DC. In all I travelled about 1000 miles this week.

The month started with a visit to Poolesville Elementary in Maryland. A K-5 school, I did 3 presentations in their multi-purpose room, with each program geared towards the different age groups. Earlier this year I had scheduled short, 20 minute virtual readings with schools all over for World Read-Aloud Day on February 7th. One of them was Poolesville, with their 4th grade students. We had such a great time the school librarian arranged for me to come to the school at the beginning of March.

It’s always nice when a school welcomes you with a sign out front!

I remembered to ask for a review to add to my website, this is what was sent:

“I can’t say enough about the presentations done at our school by author/illustrator Timothy Young! They were so stellar! He answered every question from “how is a book made,” to “what inspired your books” with honesty, but also with plenty of humor sprinkled in! He showed a technique to encourage students to be creative by starting with a scribble! He spoke about some other creative jobs he’s held and opened up a world of jobs rooted in the arts and gave our students a glimpse into what kinds of jobs are out there for them! I received notes from parents telling me how their kids came home from school ecstatic about the assembly, wanting to purchase all of his books, and learn more about illustrating and sculpting! Mr. Young even gave the families the option to receive signed copies of his books! The experience was top notch, and I’d highly recommend him to anyone looking for a wonderful assembly for their school! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUCH AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE!”

Clair L. Ketchum, Library Media Specialist , Poolesville, MD

The next week I was getting ready for my next group of schools. I had to order and sign about 200 books for the PA, CT and NJ schools. I also did a couple of local drawing workshops at Easton Elementary School. This was a follow-up to my presentation at Easton’s historic Avalon Theatre in January. You can see excerpts from that presentation here.

It’s amazing how much stuff you can fit in a Volvo.

I packed up the car with 6 cases of books and all of the stuff I bring for my presentations. My first stop was Pen Argyl, PA. I did 2 presentations in the morning at Plainfield Elementary and two in the afternoon at Wind Gap Middle School. I presented to students from K through 8th grade. With the younger students I read books and do a drawing demonstration, as the students get older I talk amore about the writing and illustrating process. I also talk about creative careers and include information about my work in animation and the toy industry. I didn’t get pictures from that day’s visits, some schools don’t allow photography and I completely understand their concerns. I did snap a pic of my set-up before the older student presentations began.

The stage is set at Wind Gap Middle School

That evening I drove from Pennsylvania to central Connecticut. This is a school I was scheduled to visit in the Spring of 2020 when the world turned upside-down. Jennifer Herrick, the school librarian, contacted me early last fall to schedule this visit, Bolton Center Elementary’s first author event since schools have reopened. I was thrilled she remembered and set this visit up. I also love it when a librarian really gets the students excited for my visit. She even had them color a bunch of my coloring and activity pages from my website.

Look, I’m famous! I have my own bulletin board!It’s great to see so much student creativity!

Sometimes the school will post about your visit on social media. This was a video snippet of me drawing, you can see the video here.

Ms. Herrick also posted on her own Facebook page:

Last month a librarian friend of mine asked if I might be able to do a visit to a New Jersey school where a friend of hers worked. I told her I couldn’t do Read Across America week, which is the first week of March but if they could arrange it for the day after my CT visit I could add it to my schedule. Paterson School #5 didn’t really have the money for an author visit but it was not out of my way so we were able to work it out. The students and staff were greatly appreciative and we all had a wonderful time. The school bought a bunch of my books to raffle to some of the students. I can’t afford to do a lot of discounted presentations but it’s nice to be able to present to kids who otherwise would never get to have an author visit their school.

Three of the book winners, Ms Propersi, the reading specialist, Dr. Jorge Ventura, principal and myself.

I asked Ms. Propersi for a review of my presentations:

“As a teacher, I had the honor of arranging for a wonderful author to come to our school, and it was simply amazing. Tim Young’s contagious energy and love of storytelling enthralled everyone in the room the instant he entered our classroom. He had an easy time connecting with kids of all ages, dismantling obstacles, and fostering a real sense of participation. Mr. Young inspired students to embrace the power of imagination and explore their creativity through stimulating activities and interactive discussions.

Young’s inspiring ability was one of the most amazing things about his stay. He gave our students confidence and determination by sharing personal stories and insights into his writing career. After the event, a lot of students felt motivated to continue with their creative projects, be it writing, painting, or any other kind of expression. Tim Young’s remarks struck a deep chord with our children, serving as a reminder that they are important and can change the world.

Tim Young also made a genuine effort to connect with every student. He took the time to listen to students’ questions and concerns, offering encouragement and support. His passion for storytelling, coupled with his ability to inspire and connect with students, made for an unforgettable experience. We wholeheartedly recommend Tim Young to any school or organization looking to enrich the lives of their students through the power of literature and creativity.”

Carla Propersi, Literacy Specialist, Paterson, NJ

I drove home to Maryland to rest up and get ready for my Friday visit. Mary of Nazareth school is just northwest of Washington DC. They are just up the road from Poolesville and wanted to know if I could visit their school as well. We tried to work out a schedule so that it would be the next day after Poolesville but they realized they had testing so we moved it to March 22nd. I was happy I had given them a book order deadline before my 3 day trip north. They ended up ordering over 80 books for their students and I was able to sign them before I had left on the 17th.

On Thursday I drove over the Bay Bridge and headed for Washington DC. The school was a little over 2 hours away and I could have gotten up early on Friday but it turned out my brother Jody, who lives in Florida, was going to be in DC for a few days on business so I stopped and had dinner with him before heading to my hotel in Rockville, MD.

Had a nice dinner with my brother and gave him a copy of Mac and the Millstone of Time.

When I do school assemblies, most often I am presenting to Kindergarten through 5th grade. If I do those grades a usual day would be 45 minutes with K-1st and then an hour each with 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th. I have occasionally presented to older groups of middle school students and I’ve even done high school presentations centered around creative career opportunities. Three of the 5 schools I visited this week asked me to do up to 8th grade. I am often warned “They’re going to be a tough crowd.” I find I enjoy presenting to the older grades, I can have a lot of fun talking about books, animation and toys. You can also joke around with them in ways that young kids won’t appreciate. It also helps that I have my new middle-grade to talk about, even if it is a younger chapter book.

Mary of Nazareth school put these photos on their Instagram page. I really love it when I see a room full of students paying attention to me. I mean, for me that’s how assemblies go but it’s nice to be able to show that the kids really listen.

And here are the students excited to ask questions. Much of my program is steered by the questions kids ask. I always answer every question as best I can. Sometimes it’s a question I’ve been asked a million times but to them it’s a brand new question. I like the photo they took of my books. I always display them in order of publication. Kids often ask which was my first book.

Before Covid happened I was doing multi-day school visit trips like this fairly often. It’s been a bit of a struggle to get as many bookings as I would like. I try to get a minimum of 3 each month but I have room in my schedule for up to 10 or more. Since Spring 2023 I have had a number of months with only one or none. I was told by three of this month’s schools that I was their first assembly since the lock downs so at least I know it’s not just me, so many schools are just getting back to having assemblies.

I recently rebuilt my whole website, CreaturesAndCharacters.com, so that schools looking for me can find my information more easily. The old website was looking dated and was too small to read on the phone. If you are an educator or you know a school looking for a fun and informative author assembly, please think of me. I’ll travel anywhere and my rates are reasonable. I hope to visit your school soon!

I haven’t done an end-of-the-year wrap-up in a while. Hell, I’ve only written one blog post in three years. During the Covid lock-down you would think I would have had more time to devote to this, but I didn’t. Anyway, here’s a look back at 2023, not the best year but not a bad year.

Back in January I had an opportunity to travel to New Jersey to do a school author visit at Keyport Central School, the school I went to growing up. It wasn’t my first time back but it is still a bit odd doing a presentation in the room where I ate so many lunches. It was fun and I got to walk around my hometown for a bit.

The Keyport Central School lunch room. I have been on that stage for choir concerts and 5th grade productions of The Wizard of Oz and A Midsummers Night Dream.

Growing up, I lived on the other side of Rt 35 from my school. I learned that I could walk a short ways down the highway to the railroad bridge and follow the tracks to the school. I also used to play and hang out under another, older wooden trestle bridge that went over the Luppatatong Creek which ran behind our house. In 1992, years after I moved away from Keyport, the railroad line was turned into the Henry Hudson Bike Trail. I had always wanted to walk on it and I took the opportunity. The trail now extends to the Atlantic Highlands. I’d love to walk the whole path someday.

Back when I used to walk across it there were no handrails and you could see the water below between the railroad ties. Fun times, it’s amazing I survived childhood.

In February I visited the first school that booked me through Arts For Learning Maryland. I had been accepted into their roster at the end of 2022. I’ve enjoyed working with them throughout this year and am looking forward to even more interaction this year. Maryland schools can book an assembly called “How a Book is Made” which is exclusive to them. I also do artist-in-residence workshops with them.

March was the highlight of my school visit year. Earlier in the year author Kim Norman contacted me. For personal reasons she was unable to do a scheduled multi-day visit and was looking for an author with room in their schedule for late February into March. That’s how I ended up traveling to Elko, Nevada for a week. I’d never been to Nevada and had never heard of Elko but I had a wonderful week there. I was supposed to visit 11 schools over 5 days. Unfortunately snow cancelled 3 of the visits but I was able to do virtual make-ups the week afterwards. I believe that Kim will be visiting them this coming March, Thanks Kim!

Elko, Nevada. Each school was completely different but all of the students were great.

Nothing important happened in April unless you count my 60th birthday. Melanie took me to Cape May, (back in Jersey again!) for a couple of days. Since we could not coordinate it for my actual birthday, my three kids came home for a celebration in early May. The weather was nice enough to take the boat out for the first trip of the season. We soon found out it would be its last.

A boat ride is fun until the boat almost sinks.

We had bought the boat from a friend in the Spring of 2020 for a pretty reasonable price. We figured it would be a good replacement for vacations we would not take during the lock-down. It was a 24′ Monterey, a much bigger boat than I would have picked out as the first boat I ever owned. We then had to trade in my small SUV for a Ford F150 so we could haul it. It was great having a boat during the Covid years, we really enjoyed exploring the local rivers that feed into the Chesapeake Bay. It was a powerful boat but we mostly enjoyed puttering around and hanging out watching Herons, Ospreys and Bald Eagles flying around.

Anyway, back to the incident. We were heading down the Tred Avon River towards Oxford, MD with the plan of docking and having lunch at a restaurant we like. We heard an odd sound and we noticed that the stern of the boat was low in the water. We cut the engine and checked things out. The bilge pump pumped out a lot of water and the engine would not re-start. We called a tow-boat and drifted on the river while we waited. If we had drifted close to shore I would have dropped the anchor but it was a pleasant day and there were not many other boats out. The tow boat guy said that if we had not cut the engine when we did we would have sunk.

We took the boat to a highly recommended repair shop where we were told how much the repair would be. Given the age of the boat we decided to try and sell it to someone who could fix it themselves. We were lucky and that buyer found us. We also were able to sell the new trailer we had bought and the old trailer the Monterey had come on. We didn’t make out too badly after two years of fun on that boat.

June was the month of book festivals and owls. I was invited to attend the Cecil County Children’s Book Festival and, of course, our own Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival at the Talbot County Free Library. We also were lucky to have a family of owls move into the woods next to our house. They would perch in the trees in our yard and occasionally sit on our roof. I learned that Bard Owls not only hoot, they hiss at you if you get too close.

A happy book-loving family at the Cecil County Children’s Book Festival. One of two young Bard owls, whoo, along with their mother, lived in our yard.

We had discussed waiting a bit before buying another boat but then Melanie spotted a listing for a 16′ bow-rider that was more suited for what we enjoy. So now we have another boat and we spent much of the Summer of ’23 out on the water. The smaller boat allows us to get into smaller rivers that we like exploring. The amazing thing about this boat is it fits in our garage where it’s now stored safely for the winter.

Our new boat, a much more appropriate sized boat for the kind of boating we like to do.

At the end of the summer I began working with my editor on final changes to my next book, Mac and the Millstone of Time. Covid had delayed it, but only by six months. They asked me to add a few new illustrations to it, which I happily did.

The cover for Mac and the Millstone of Time and one of the added illustrations.
The book comes out on March 28th, 2024.

We also went on a trip to the Smokey Mountains, a place I’d always wanted to see. It did not disappoint.

The view from our rental house near Gatlinburg, TN.

I didn’t do as many school visits as I would have liked this fall but I had a great one in southern Virginia in October. The school system had me present in a large high-school auditorium to the students from 3 elementary schools. The house was packed.

I did two assemblies with a full-house each time. It’s the biggest screen I ever used in a presentation.

They also ordered 847 copies of The Angry Little Puffin, one for each of the students. To coordinate signing them, since I draw a picture in each book I sign, I have been drawing a lot of puffins on labels. It took a while for the school to get the purchase order together but I’m going up to Schiffer Publishing in a few days to put the labels in and have them shipped to the school.

4 labels per sheet for 847 books is a lot of puffins to draw.

In early December I was back in New Jersey for the NJ School Library Association (NJASL) conference. I enjoyed meeting librarians and hanging out with other authors. I even got the chance to do a presentation called “How Far Can a Jersey Kid Go?” It was a fun couple of days.

Just after setting up my table on the first day of the conference.A slide from the beginning of my presentation.

So, as I write this, we are in an AirBNB in (where else?) New Jersey. Melanie, Ian, James and I have been visiting NYC for a few days between Christmas and New Years. Enjoying the Rockefeller Center Tree, the Saks 5th Ave display, great food in Little Italy and Chinatown and some old and new places in and around the city. We even went to Coney Island (a place I never got to when I lived in Brooklyn for a decade). We enjoyed the aquarium and had hotdogs on the boardwalk.

The Rockefeller Center TreeThe very impressive light display at Saks 5th Avenue.Waiting for our hot dogs (with everything) at Paul’s Daughter on the Coney Island boardwalk on Dec. 30th.

So have a Happy and Healthy New Year 2024. I’m so looking forward to the year ahead.

On my first day working at the Muppets in 1987 someone handed me a Kermit just like the one in the picture below. For all I know, this is the same one. It’s not a Kermit puppet, it’s a version made to be posed for photos. But to me, on that day, it was a dream come true. I was actually freelancing for the company Jim Henson founded, the one that made the wonderful Sesame Street characters, and the Muppet Show and the Muppet Movie! I was in heaven.

So I’ll jump around a bit. I recently was invited to attend the grand opening of the Muppet exhibit at the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore. This exhibit has been traveling the country for many years. I’ve been to the permanent one at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY but had not seen this one yet.

Seeing everything brought memories streaming back of the year I worked there. I saw names of people I met and puppets I knew well. Nothing I had worked directly on was in the exhibit but that’s understandable. I enjoyed working there but my contributions were small.

I started by working in the photo studio where they were setting up for the next issue of Muppet Magazine. That’s where they handed me a Kermit. I helped stage some sets for photos of Danny Devito and Wil Wheaton (I even stood in for him for lighting purposes) and I got to build my first Muppet, this cute book character.

I then was moved up to the workshop. They were beginning to work on the NBC show called “The Jim Henson Hour”. This was designed to include the Storyteller episodes created for British television and would include old and new Muppet characters.

One episode of the show included Dog City, a gangster movie with dog characters. I got to build one dog, a whippet. He’s third from the right above. He was not a main character and ended up being dressed as the newsboy in a number of scenes.

Here is a video of the opening number from Dog City:

They asked all of the designers to work on sketches for potential new Muppets. I submitted a few but none were chosen. I did get to do some preliminary designs for Waldo, the first computer generated Muppet. The final design was done by , who I enjoyed working with.

I built one other original Muppet, a Whatnot. These are Muppets that can be dressed up for different roles. I never got any photos. I was also asked to help out on other projects and met some people who would help further my career. I met Tim Clarke who introduced me to the folks at Seven Towns in London, UK where I worked on the Mini Boglins and other toys designs. I also met Jim Mahon who I worked with on other toy projects.

So this is definitely not in chronological order as most of this was in 1988 but for Christmas 1987 the workshop created the holiday windows at Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue. It was all hands on deck as we spent all night installing the set pieces. One of them was a scene of Kermit and Miss Piggy in a Hansom cab. Kermit was putting a huge, real diamond ring on Piggy’s hand. We were there so late that they brought in coffee and donuts in the morning. We actually had breakfast at Tiffany’s.

I was also invited to Jim Henson’s Masked Ball. I had worked there since the fall of 1987 but I had only met him twice, in passing. At the masked ball there was a receiving line and I shook his hand there.

So if this was a dream job, why did I not work for more than a year at the Muppets? A couple of reasons. The Jim Henson Hour was in production during the writers strike of 1988. The show had wonderful elements but had issues related to the fact that their regular writers were not available. The show had low ratings and was cancelled after only 5 episodes. So, being freelance, I moved on to other jobs when production wound down.

I have to admit to another reason. Having worked on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and then Peter Gabriel’s’ Big Time music video, I was probably a little full of myself. For some reason, instead of putting me on the floor of the workshop with the freelancers I was given a station with the permanent artists, many of whom had worked on the original Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, Muppets Take Manhattan and other fantastic projects. Between my ego and the understandable resentment for my placement in the workshop I kind of blew it. I didn’t make as many friends as I could have if I had been a bit more humble. I learned an important lesson that I should have learned from Sesame Street years earlier.

Then, two years later, Jim Henson died suddenly. I contacted some friends I had made and found out about the memorial service that was going to be at St. John the Devine Cathedral on the Upper East Side. I attended in a white dinner jacket and red hightop Converse sneakers I had bought for the occasion (if you attended you could not wear black). It was both sad and joyous, an amazing celebration of the life of this incredible man who has touched all of our lives and I am honored to have had my brush with his creativity. There is a video of the event, it was not televised but it was recorded. I recommend you watch it to see all of Henson’s friends and family who participated.

Over the years I did other projects related to the Muppets; some toys I sculpted, plush designs and even a glass Cookie Monster Christmas ornament but I never did work directly for the company again. A few years ago I was looking to see if I could find a photo of my Newsboy Whippet Muppet. I was adding some images to my school visit presentation when I discovered I had one more connection to Jim Henson that took 30 years to find out. When I worked on Dog City, it was in the New York City workshop. The show was filmed in a studio in Toronto. I came across behind the scenes footage someone had taken on their home video camera. They had only uploaded it to YouTube in 2016. In watching it I realized that my Muppet was being performed by Jim Henson himself! I was floored. I could not believe that I never knew that he had put my Muppet on his hands and brought it to life. Below is an edit showing him performing with my puppet on his right hand in the opening number.

You can see the whole video and many more from the time here. Enjoy!

[image error]

Sometime in the summer of 1989 I was contacted by W. David Howser, the Art Director from Popular Science magazine. He wanted me to make a 3D illustration for the magazine. I was very excited to have the chance to work with them. They were writing an article about computer viruses, one of the first major pieces about them. (To give you some perspective, the article mentions Internet (not the internet, just Internet) long before anyone but scientists were using it and Mark Zuckerberg was about 5 years old at this time.) I was told they wanted a sick computer character model to illustrate the article. You can see the full issue on Google Books.

[image error]The first of two sketches I drew for the project.

I did some sketches and brought them to their offices on Park Avenue in Manhattan. At the meeting I met John B. Carnett, their staff photographer who would be shooting the model I would be building. We discussed how big it should be and how it would be photographed.

[image error]I did the second sketch in color.

The illustration would be an interior spread. They really liked my sketches and gave me the go-ahead to build the model. I went down to Canal Street to buy some stuff to build the computer. I went to Canal Plastics (still there), Industrial Plastics (long gone) and Pearl Paint (sadly, also gone). I bought all kinds of acrylic containers, acrylic tubes, balsa wood and other stuff. The top of the computer is a container. I found a plastic photo frame that fit over it for the part surrounding the screen. I sculpted the face in Super Sculpy and used an acrylic tube for the thermometer. I made the bed from foamcore, balsa wood and various fabrics.

[image error]One of the unused shots John took. I had removed the footboard for the cover photo and the bedside table was moved to the other side of the bed for both final shots.

After a week or so they called and said they would like to hold the article for the next issue and use the illustration for the cover so the model would have to be able to be shot in both horizontal and vertical format. Once the model was finished I brought it into their offices to have John shoot it. John told me stories of diving in tanks at NASA with astronauts and shooting all kinds of cool stuff on locations around the world.

[image error]Here is the shot we used for the interior page where the article starts.

I was very proud when the magazine came out. I had the computer guy on display in my apartment in Brooklyn for a couple of years afterwards. Unfortunately, instead of succumbing to a virus he was knocked off his shelf by one of our cats and smashed into many pieces. I put all his broken parts into a box and put him away to be repaired some day.

The box was packed up with all of my stuff a few years later when we moved to England. The box was then shipped back to the States when we moved back 5 years later. It sat in a basement in New Jersey, then in an attic in Maryland until I got a storage unit a decade ago. Then it spent a number of years there.

Earlier this year, when Covid 19 struck, I found myself traveling less and having some free time on my hands. I’ve written about building a new Penny Doll prototype, restoring the animation models of the lips from Peter Gabriel’s BIG TIME music video and cataloging my designs and sculpts of Mini-Boglins toys for this blog. I decided my next project would be to fix the computer virus guy.

[image error]The pieces I had stored away in a box. I had kept everything but the “mattress” from the original.

Looking closely at the box I realized it had come from the Park Slope Food Coop, a place I have not visited in 30 years. I pulled out all the pieces to figure out what needed repairs and what needed replacing. When I had bought the original plastic pieces on Canal Street I had bought extras of some of them. The face, frame and top of the computer were intact. The keyboard which I had made with a small container and some acrylic cubes was also fine. The middle section was smashed but I had a second one. The square base of the computer was also smashed but I did not have another.

[image error]Luckily the main container with the face was fine even though I had a back-up. The square base was another story.



[image error]It’s hard to see but there is a slight angle to the sides of the original plastic base. I have an adjustable saw and was able to replicate the angles in wood and put wood filler on it and sanded it smooth.

I measured what was left and made a new wood base, covered it in wood filler and sanded it smooth. I knew I would have to repaint everything and tried to find a grey as close to the original as I could (I can be a bit anal-retentive at times but I decided to settle for close and not exact).

[image error]I used a grey Rust-oleum Chalked spray paint. I used to own an airbrush but I did not want to buy a new one just so I could match the exact color. Sometimes you just have to compromise.

After painting I started putting the pieces back together. I glued the frame over the face and glued the center circle and the base together. I also glued the arms and hot water bottle back in place.

[image error]I started glueing the parts back together.

I had two big challenges trying to rebuild the model as close as I could. The first was the thermometer which had shattered into 4 parts. The original was a clear acrylic tube with a clear ball glued to the end. I had pushed clay into two thirds of the length of it to give the computer a high temperature. I needed about a 5 inch piece but I do not have a local plastics store and travel was not available to me. After trying a few online sources I discovered that Canal Plastics was still around and I could buy the right diameter tube. The only problem was that their minimum length for shipping was 6 feet. I bought it, so now I have an extra 5 and a half feet if anyone needs it.

[image error]The broken pieces of the original thermometer. The new length of acrylic tube is at the bottom.



[image error]I was able to use the same acrylic ball from the original.



[image error]The computer guy is reassembled except for his glass of orange juice.

The second issue was the fabric. The original bed was a foamcore box with fabric wrapped around it. I had made a pillowcase of the same fabric to put over the sculpted pillow. I no longer had the mattress with the fabric on it. I searched for a long time for a perfect match to the more than 30 year old pillowcase. I decided to settle for capturing the sprit of the original and find something that worked. I also had to replace the blanket as it had gotten stained in the box over time. The blanket is a piece of fleece with a length of ribbon heat-sealed to the edge.

[image error]The new parts of the fabric covered mattress, pillow with pillowcase and blanket. The new mattress is blue insulation foam. The pillow was only slightly damaged, you can see it in an earlier photo above.

So here is the final restored model. One of the last things I had to figure out was the orange juice in the glass in his hand. For the actual photo shoot I used an eye dropper and put actual orange juice into the glass. It’s actually the top of a small spray bottle. I wanted a more permanent solution so I played around with stuff I had on hand or could easily get. I tried clear epoxy resin with oil paint mixed in but it dis-colored in the heat of curing. I had two other possible solutions. I bought clear school glue and mixed that with acrylic paint and I also bought some orange scented wax which I could melt and pour in. The glue test worked so I used that method.

[image error]I’d love to give him a larger area of his own but my office is jam-packed with all kinds of other stuff.

So here he will stay in my office, I moved my printer to the other side of the room so he will be visible when I do virtual school visits or Facebook live events. Now the only thing I need to do is keep my current cats from knocking him off of his shelf.

[image error]The Computer Virus model joins the recently restored Penny doll prototype on display.

[image error]The Faking of the Making of. I pretended to sculpt this Mini-Boglin long after the products were manufactured.
The photo was for a magazine article about Seven Towns.

I moved to England from Brooklyn, NY in the late summer of 1992. My then-fiancée Melanie was offered a job in London and I always wanted to visit the UK so we decided that she should take the job. She was born there so could work without issue. I would have to apply for a work permit once we were married, our wedding was set for that fall anyway.

I was working freelance in New York before we moved and I figured I could do the same in England. I had met Tim Clarke when I was working at The Muppets and he gave me a couple of leads for work. One of them was a company called Seven Towns, a toy inventing company that also represented independent inventors. They had helped Tim get Sectaurs and Boglins to market, both of which had successful runs. Their biggest toy they helped market was the Rubik’s Cube and they worked with Erno Rubik to develop all of his subsequent amazing puzzle toys.

Once I could work I introduced myself to them and got an interview with David Kramer. He offered me freelance work in their workshop in Knotting Hill. I ended up working off and on, mostly on, throughout my 4+ years living overseas. I worked on dozens of great projects and I learned much, much more than I ever knew before about the toy industry. One of the first projects I was assigned was to create some new Mini Boglins.

[image error]Some of the design drawings I did while creating the new characters.most of these translated, the only one that needed adjusting; the toilet lid had to go.

I won’t go into the full history of either Boglins or Mini Boglins here. You can find a lot of info with a simple Google search. Ideal Toys (UK and France) were producing them under license from Seven Towns and they wanted to extend the product line. They needed additions to existing “Tribes” like the Greedies, the Clumsies and the Rude Dudes. They also wanted 2 new tribes, the Medievals and the Prehistorics. I began by drawing a bunch of concepts. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make some really cool poses within the limitations of these being produced in 2-part injection molds. I knew that the PVC they were made from would allow a lot of detail but I also knew you had to be careful of undercuts that would not allow the piece to easily come out of the mold.

[image error]Here is an example of a fun but challenging design. The bottle, the fingers and all the face detail had to line up so they would easily be pulled from the steel mold.

Once the drawings were approved I began sculpting the characters in polymer clay (Super Sculpy). When those were approved I made silicone molds and poured resin castings. In many cases when doing toy prototypes we would then make waxes from those molds but for these the resins were to be the finals.

[image error]



[image error]



[image error]I photographed many of the Super Sculpy originals before they went into the molds.
Sadly, I don’t have photos of every project I’ve ever worked on but I did get these.

When you are sculpting for toys you have to be aware that things materials shrink with each step in the process. In looking at the existing Mini Boglins I had to sculpt the clays about 10% larger than those. The resins I made from the sculpts would shrink about 3% and the final toys would be about 7% smaller than the resins.

[image error]You can see the size difference between the resin casting and the final product.



[image error]Here are some resin castings that had flaws. When you pour the resin into the silicone molds you sometimes get air bubbles or the mold might be misaligned.

One of the reasons I wanted to write this post about the Mini Boglins is that there seems to be a big surge in interest from adults who remember these from when they kids. The are a lot of posts about them online using #miniboglins on Instagram. Another reason is that of all the toys I’ve worked on this is one I don’t talk about when I do school visits. For one thing, they are too small to show. I can hold up the Simpsons dolls sculpted or the Meanies toys I designed and students in the audience can see them. Secondly, kids in the U. S. have never heard of Mini Boglins. So here is a complete listing and photos of all 34 Mini Boglins I designed and sculpted.

Additions and replacements for various Mini Boglins Tribes:

[image error]Army Guys Tribe: Messenger Flare and Jokers Tribe: Prang. Many of the additions were the messengers, you can see the envelope icon that I added to the sculpt. The antenna on the walkie-talkie and the “BANG” flag coming out of the gun are little details I liked to do.



[image error]Tough Guys Tribe: Messenger Kik and Clumsies Tribe: Messenger Talk. Talk is one of my favorites. Of course we were still using corded phones in the early ninties. I’m sure we would do an iPhone joke is we were making these now.



[image error]Greedies Tribe: Gulp and Clumsies Tribe: Tell. I knew I could give Gulp a deep mouth, it was getting the pizza toppings to work that was critical to making this work. For Tell it was either go with an apple with a worm or an apple core. I choose the later.



[image error]Rude Dudes Tribe: Spoilet and Jokers Tribe: Porg. You can’t go wrong with bathroom humor. I was very pleased with how the toilet paper roll worked out. Porg has a very specific Super Soaker. Ideal was the distributor of Super Soakers in Europe so that worked very well. A bit of toy cross-promotion.



[image error]Rude Dudes Tribe: Messenger Stick and Tough Guys Tribe: Chief Krusha. Krusha replaced Chief Karf. Mini Boglins chiefs always have 3 horns.



[image error]Jokers Tribe: Messenger Pard. A messenger in a bottle, of course. Modeled on English milk bottles.



[image error]Jokers Tribe: Pelt and Greedies Tribe: Messenger Gunk. Some of my sculpts were designed to be parted in the mold front to back like Gunk and some were parted side to side like Pelt. You can see the split line along his nose and forehead.



[image error]Jokers Tribe: Plig. This is the only Mini Boglin designed to be split top and bottom. In order to get his spider to look good it worked to design him that way so I had to make sure his face was upturned a bit. I gave him a unique tail since I could.

The Medievals Tribe:

[image error]Medievals Tribe: Chief Mogg, Mace and Mord. It was so much fun coming up with 2 whole tribes. I got to play with imagery of knights in armor and their various weapons.



[image error]Medievals Tribe: Scout Mors, Spy Minx and Messenger Murg. Minx‘s scythe is separate from his executioner’s mask but the weight of it tends to make it rest on his head. I think Murg is the only Boglin with facial hair



[image error]Medievals Tribe: Maxe and Madd. I really had to stretch Maxe’s arms to get that pose to work. Luckily Boglins are flexible.
I enjoyed doing the tiny head on Madd‘s puppet friend.

The Prehistorics Tribe:

[image error]Prehistorics Tribe: Chief Dred, Dunk and Dino. Once again, so much fun coming up with this tribe. Since they were prehistoric I gave some of them different scales and skin textures. A small detail, Dunk has a Stegosaurus’ scales and tail. Oh, I just discovered a guy who has a Chief Dred tattoo .



[image error]Prehistorics Tribe: Spy Dork, Scout Dink and Dent. Yes, I know that pterydactyls did not have bat wings but it’s sitting on a prehistoric Boglin so there goes science out the window anyway. I enjoyed sculpting the squished lizard on Dent‘s club.



[image error]Prehistorics Tribe: Messenger Drat and Dimm. To me he was playing Tic, Tac, Toe but in England its called Naughts and Crosses. Dimm was another delicate sculpt to be sure his spear lined up.

The naming of Boglins: Tom Kramer, the founder of Seven Towns, loved naming Boglins. I believe he named every single one and he would sit in meetings saying Parg…Prong…Prid, and so on until he got just the right name.

Mini Boglins in Slime: After creating all of these I got to return to Mini Boglins once more when they decided to market them in a toilet bowl full of slime. I designed 4 new slimy guys and sculpted them. They proved to be so popular they even ended up with a Mini Boglins in Slime board game.

[image error]Mini Boglins in Slime: Splodge , Splutter, and Splash



[image error]Mini Boglins in Slime: Splurge. I wanted to show both sides of his very drippy snot. Enjoy.



[image error]While we were working on this I drew a marker sketch of a suggestion for the label on the toilet. When we got samples back I realized they had used that very rough sketch as the final artwork.

If you look closely at the photo at the top of this page you can see the date 7-6-93. I don’t know if I wrote that UK style as the 7th of July or US style June 6th. Either way I was working on this job in the summer of 1993. For those of you who are reading this and wishing you still had a Boglin you should know that Tim Clarke has brought them back as hand-made customs. I believe he is also working on new Mini Boglins. Check out his website, ToTims.com for details.

[image error]

Shortly after finishing up working on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Prudence Fenton, the animation producer told that there was a job starting for a music video. I could not believe I was being hired, for my second job in animation, to work on a music video for Peter Gabriel‘s song Big Time from his latest album, So. I was (and still am) a big fan of his work.

We started off having a creative meeting with the director, Stephen Johnson, who had been the director of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and , the owner of the animation and special effects company where we would be working. We were asked to do some idea sketches and bring them back for review. A couple of mine were chosen and I was assigned to build models of those and also to work on models of some of the other ideas that had been brought in.

Unlike, Sledgehammer, which Stephen Johnson had also directed, Peter Gabriel would not have the time to be animated or spend hours in the studio as he was now on tour. We were told he would come in a few times to film his parts.

[image error]

One of the first things I sculpted was the Mirror-Man, which was based on a photograph of an African sculpture Stephen Johnson had brought in. It was built on a concave mirror that could be removed if needed, the frame was painted polymer clay with a latex tail that could be animated to swing back and forth.

I built a lot of clay versions of Peter Gabriel, a couple of large heads and a bunch of smaller full-body versions. After spending hours and hours sculpting the larger clay heads they were only onscreen for seconds before being completely distorted by the animators.

[image error]The larger, more detailed sculpt which gets crushed by two large bodies then covered in all kinds of stuff.



[image error]The smaller of the two heads I sculpted, this one also needed separate arms to pull his mouth open..



[image error]

Peter Wallach had worked out a projector system to put Peter Gabriel’s face onto the smaller clay models. It looked cool in the video, it looks less cool in the screen shot below.

[image error]

At one point Peter Wallach asked me to sculpt a bunch of mouths that would say Big Time when animated. I was given footage that had been filmed earlier and went through it frame by frame to make the props. I wanted them to be a large version of Peter Gabriel’s mouth. They originally had half tongue-depressors glued to the back of them and Peter Gabriel was supposed to hold them in his teeth so it would look like he had a really big mouth.

Time was running short and he was not able to come back for filming. Late one night Peter Wallach grabbed me and asked me to help shoot the mouths. I put on the white shirt and red and black jacket Peter Gabriel wore for the video and I held the mouths in various positions while Peter Wallach shot them frame by frame. After a couple of versions I suggested I do a Peace sign and hold the mouths that way. That’s the version they ended up using in the video.

It was always funny to me, I was excited that I got to work on this and that my animation models were in the video. My friends, on the other hand, thought it was great that my hand was now famous.

I got to know Peter Wallach pretty well over the 17 very-long days that we worked on the project. He hired me to work on a number of animation projects over the next couple of years. When they were breaking down the sets for the video he said I could keep the Mirror-Man prop and we split the lips 50-50, I got the odd-numbered ones and he got the even numbers.

[image error]Mirror-Man displayed in my home office.

Mirror Man was on display in my workspaces wherever I lived. The mouths, on the other hand, were put into a storage box with other stuff. I moved many times over the years and they got roughed up a bit. I pulled them out recently and decided to finally build a proper display for them. I planned on building a tall, narrow frame and I ordered a piece of plexiglass cut to 7″ wide by 36″ tall.

[image error]

The mouths were very dirty and some of the paint had scraped off. I cleaned them up as best I could and decided to repaint the parts that needed it. I took reference photos of each of them as I would have to paint over the highlights on the teeth and lips.

[image error]

I carefully mixed latex paint until I matched the original colors. I only repainted the teeth and the lips, the gums, tongue and inner mouth paint was fine after cleaning.

[image error]The cleaned and touched-up lips.

Once the plexiglass arrived I built and painted the frame, I stretched black velvet across the back and bolted the lips so they stand about a 1/2″ in front of the back. I picked a spot on my office wall and hung them up. They look better in person, the photo below does not look great as it’s hard not to get a reflection from any angle. OK, now I need another project to revisit…hmmm?

[image error]



[image error]Here you can see both the rebuilt Penny doll and the Big Time lips in their frame.

[image error]

I’ve written before about some of the work I did on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. The segments of the first season I worked on the most were the Penny cartoons, I was the head model-maker. This is one of the first episodes I worked on and I sculpted all of the models for the animators to work with.

“The Rat”

Shortly after working on the first series of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse I met Karen Lyons who had created the plush toy versions of Chairy and Pterri the Pterodactyl for Matchbox Toys. They had made a talking Pee-Wee Herman doll and Karen told me they were thinking of making a talking Penny doll. She offered to introduce me and I was given the job of designing the doll and and sculpting the head. I even gave them script suggestions.

[image error]The control drawing for the 15″ tall Talking Penny Doll. Penny was very flat as she was animated on a sheet of glass with the camera pointed down from above. I thought that flatness should be designed into the doll.

So I sculpted the head in polymer clay. The claymation Penny had real pennies for her eyes. I found some novelty coins at different sizes to use on some of the smaller versions but sometimes we just used brown clay. To have the doll’s eyes look the same I sculpted one penny, made a mold and cast two of them in resin to make her eyes. I sculpted her ponytails separately I didn’t want them to be perfectly symmetrical, as she was never that way in the animations.

[image error]This is a set of the resin castings I kept from when I did the original job.

I made a mold of the clay sculpt and then made a wax casting for finishing. Once the wax version was done I made another mold to make resin versions of the final so Matchbox could have a prototype of the doll. They sent me a few bodies which were created by plush artist Susan White. and I attached the painted head. At the time I was living in Brooklyn and Matchbox was located in Moonachie, NJ so I took a bus out to hand deliver the prototype to them

[image error]Here is the original prototype photographed for the 1989 Matchbox catalog. They list her as 18″ tall but that’s the box size.

Sadly, Matchbox decided not to produce the Penny doll. The marketing department said that since she did not interact with the other Playhouse characters not enough kids would want her. Normally when you do a toy job you don’t get the prototype back. A few years after the project the art director found the prototype stuffed in a closet. She asked me if I wanted her back. I had kept a few resin castings and the extra bodies but since I had the original I never did anything with them.

A decade or so later I found myself between jobs and in need of some cash. I decided to auction the prototype and it sold to a very happy collector of Pee-Wee stuff. While it was nice to have the money I needed I always regretted letting her go. I knew I could put together a new one but the pieces stayed in various boxes for another 2 decades. When I started visiting schools I began bringing along some of the toys I’ve designed and sculpted. I never bring prototypes since they are fragile. When we all shut down due to the current Covid 19 Crisis I set up my office as a virtual presentation studio. During my book readings people would ask about the toys behind me and I would show them on camera. One of the items on the shelves was an unpainted Penny head.

[image error]I cleaned up the resin castings I had and began painting them.

I found the bodies I had. I knew I would have to make her a new dress and I had forgotten that one of the bodies had a plain white version of it. I worked out the pattern and bought some fabric ( I chose a darker blue than the original toy prototype) but then realized we no longer had an electric sewing machine. Since it’s not an actual article of clothing that needs to be sturdy I used stitch-witchery and hand-sewed the dress.

[image error] Both of these were built using the armature and voice box from a talking Pee-Wee doll. They do not sound good when you pull the string.

I finished painting the head, built a stand to support her (she’s very top-heavy) and epoxied her together. I had to be careful as I could not glue her head on until her dress on since it is so big. So now I have her back and she stands on the set of drawers so everyone can see her during my virtual presentations.

[image error]

I’ll write soon about another restoration project that took some time to get around to. The only thing left to do for Penny is to paint or stain her base. Maybe I’ll get around to it in a decade or so.

Ok, this is ridiculous. This is only my 3rd blog post this year. Since April things have been different for everybody. Although I lost most of my regular work I’ve ended up being busier than I’ve been in a long time.

[image error]A parent tagged me in a picture of their daughter watching me read “They’re Coming!”

Since I was not visiting the schools I was scheduled to visit I decided to do live readings online. For a while I did 3 days a week. The readings were fun to do and I ended up reaching a pretty wide-ranging audience. I had viewers from many countries and I even ended up being interviewed on South African cable news.

[image error] My wife’s cousin lives in South Africa and he helped spread the word. I ended up being interviewed on eNCA TV news.

Since I thought I would have a lot of extra time and I would be stuck at home I would get to some home and landscaping projects. I rebuilt our downstairs bathroom, finished the front porch that a contractor abandoned, rented a backhoe to remove some trees and move 10 tones of topsoil and replace a ceiling fan.

Another thing that kept me busy for a while, I had the opportunity to present some toy concepts to a couple of manufacturers. I can’t go into any details about them yet but I have 2 toys out for consideration so I’m waiting with bated breath to hear if they go to contract.

I began to realize that school visits were not going to happen any time this Spring and probably not in the Autumn either. I wanted to be able to offer my presentations virtually so I began figuring out how to do it. I use Keynote, the Mac version of PowerPoint, when I do my in-person visits. The problem is mine is non-linear and it’s hard to navigate when you are sharing your screen. The program lets you export the file as html but it ended up being buggy. Since it was designed more like a website I realized I could just rebuild it as an actual html site and share it through a browser window. It took more than a month to finish it. I will be advertising to schools over the summer, hoping to do a bunch of virtual visits this fall.

[image error] This is an animated gif I made for my website, to advertise my “vitual” author visits.

I wanted my Facebook reading videos to look more professional. I did some research and discovered OBS Studio, a live-streaming software. I was able to add graphics and change scenes and cameras. Little did I realize how this would come in handy in June.

Spring book festivals were also being cancelled. The Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival was scheduled for June 13th. The Talbot County Free Library said they would wait until April 15th to decide whether to cancel or not. When we had our meeting to decide it looked like we would have to but someone on the committee said it was a shame that we could not do it online.

My response was “Why not?” Since I had learned to use OBS I suggested that we could do it on the library’s Facebook page. I worked out that I could have the authors Zoom in with me and I could be the engineer and get them online. It took a lot of work but it came off pretty well. We had 1400 viewers over the weekend of the 13th. For copyright reasons we could only leave the recording up for a few days.

[image error] The poster for the Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival.

Oh, the only major glitch happened a few weeks before the festival. My 2014 iMac’s screen began to go black intermittently. I didn’t have time to get it repaired so I had to buy a brand new one. With Apple stores closed it took some doing but I found one on Best Buy’s website that I could get delivered in just 4 days.

Now that Summer is officially here I can sit back and relax a bit except that I hate sitting back and relaxing. Now, with my brand new computer I’m looking forward to working on a few new books, some nw toy concepts and some client work. I’m also going to post more here and on Instagram which I have also been neglecting. I’m reading live on my Facebook page once a week, Wednesday mornings at 9:30 Eastern. If you comment on my videos from this month before June 30th and you can win one of 10 signed books I’m giving away.

If this is the first place you are finding me, I apologize for ignoring my blog so far this year. In January I was finishing 2 books and was doing a lot of prep work for upcoming school author visits in February. Then everything changed.

I did get to visit a few schools in late February and early March. Then schools started pulling assemblies from their schedule, then schools began closing. Over a dozen school visits in March and April were postponed, at this point they will probably not happen until next year.

[image error]One of the early March visits to a school in New Jersey.

To connect with students who were stuck at home I added a bunch of coloring and activity pages to my website. You can find them at this link or you can click on the photo.

[image error]

I also started filming drawing videos and putting them on my YouTube channel. You can see one here or see them directly on YouTube.

I also began reading my books on Facebook Live. My publisher, Schiffer, has graciously allowed me to leave the videos up for the duration of the Coronavirus crisis. I cannot pot those videos here but please follow me on Facebook to see when my readings are scheduled or to watch the previous videos.

[image error]

I will try to post more things here as well. I need to get back to my book stories as well as other cool stuff. It’s a new world for all of us, we are in this together and we will emerge on the other side. Please stay safe and stay healthy.