Discussion: Introductions

The first picture book I received as a child was Beauty and the Beast, illustrated by Hilary Knight. I credit the illustrations in this book for influencing my desire to be an illustrator. What picture book influenced you growing up?

Beauty and the Beast, 1957. Illustrated by Hilary Knight

Please add a comment to this post introducing yourself to the class. Since we will be focusing on Children’s Picture Books this semester I thought it would be interesting to hear how a childhood book influenced you growing up. You could also include your academic interests, why you chose your major, what you enjoy reading, listening to, watching, and doing in your spare time, or anything else you want to share (include your pronouns, if you wish).

Before next class, please add your introduction and read the comments.

Get to know your classmates! Reply to one of your classmates’ comments. Do you have something in common? Did you learn something? Be kind.

23 Comments

  1. Nat Remy

    Remy (They)- Children’s book I read was Mify by Dick Bruna. My major/academic interests are to learn more about different types of illustration techniques. I plan to make a career as an Illustrator. I enjoy reading works of Angela Davis and and James Baldwin, listening to Qunicy Jones, watching reports on global warming, and in my spare time, I eat and sleep.

  2. Eva Zhu

    The only book with pictures I remember influencing me when I was in elementary school would have to be Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants. When I got older I started to get influenced by a manga called Inuyasha and continued reading manga since.

    • Anna C.

      When I was first introduced to anime/manga, Inuyasha and Sailor moon were my top favorite.
      Currently I have a top 4, but not in any particular order and not limited too: Black Clover, Fire Force, God of Highschool, and My Hero Academia.
      Have you read or watched any of those?

      • Eva Zhu

        Black Clover I heard of but never watched or read. Fire Force and God of Highschool is in my watchlist. I’m up to date with the My Hero Academia anime.

    • Anthony Accardo

      Hi, Eva. Several years ago my publisher sent me out to Austin Texas for a book signing event. I met Dav Pilkey on that trip, he was also there signing his Captain Underpants books.

      • Eva Zhu

        It’s cool that there was such a coincidence! Have you heard of Captain Underpants before or was it from this trip that you got introduced to the series?

        • Anthony Accardo

          It was the first time I’d heard about Captain Underpants, and I remember thinking what an odd character he was. But Dav was a nice guy and we both gave a talk about children’s literature to the Austin Library Association that day.

        • Anthony Accardo

          It was the first time I’d heard about Captain Underpants, and I remember thinking what an odd character he was. But Dav was a nice guy and we both gave a talk about children’s literature to the Austin Library Association that day.

    • Li Yan

      Diary of a Wimpy Kid! That’s my friend’s favorite book when shes in elementary school. She used to trace every cover and color them.

  3. Stephen Alneus

    Hey my name is Stephen some of the childhood book that I could remember influence me when I was growing up were some of the old school X-Men comics that my cousin had owned and the various manga that was introduced to me on my various summer vacation trip as a kid. Some of music I enjoy are from artist such as J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and Fabolous. An on my free time I enjoy draw various things and studying many different subjects and figure out how they work in terms of the drawing and watching movies such as Pulp Fiction, Friday and Inception.

  4. Amy Lai Pan

    It’s been awhile since I’ve read this one, but I’ve always enjoyed Where the Wild Things Are, it’s a classic! In my later years I went on to read some fantasy novels and manga every so often. I’m interested in studying illustration, character design, and storyboarding. In my free time I’m either working out or running around in World of Warcraft with my friends.

  5. Li Yan

    The only book I remember was The Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne when I was in elementary school. I started reading and watching all the different books about adventures. My name is Li ( its my last name, easy to remember)

    • Anthony Accardo

      Hi, Li. My good friend Sal Murdoch was the illustrator of The Magic Tree House book series. I’ll tell him his books were mentioned in this class.

  6. Anna C.

    Hello Everyone, I’m Anna.

    As a child I loved reading because it taught me about real life situations. Subconsciously reading books like Berenstain Bears, Clifford, Curious George, Angelina Ballerina, Franklin and Chrysanthemum prepared me for adult life. I believe they helped me handle my own emotions.

    When I got older I embraced fantasy and loved reading books like Magic Tree House, Harry Potter, and Series of Unfortunate Events.

    My major is Communications Design. I did not choose a specific path way, but I want to gain skills in multiple areas.

    On my spare time I listen to music that reflects my moods, paint, watch anime, and prior Covid hang with friends and get a good bite to eat.

    • Anthony Accardo

      Hi, Anna. My friend Sal Murdoch was the illustrator for the Magic Tree House series. I also illustrated many different book series. Did you read any of the Nancy Drew books?

    • faiza hussain

      I absolutely love Fantasy as a genre. I remember growing up with Magic Tree House and Series of Unfortunate Events. Also it great that you are trying to gain skills in multiple areas since it always pays at the end I believe.

  7. Ronald Rodriguez

    Hey my name is Ronald Rodriguez as a child i wasn’t really into books honestly my favorite was captain underpants cause it kinda had a comic book feel to it but I was more inspire by tv shows and movies. I love anything with a good plot and character development shows like Breaking Bad, first 5 seasons of game of thrones, attack on titan to just name a few. Creating worlds is what really inspires me. Huge fan of scifi, history, horror, basically everything except math. On my spare time i like to draw on my tablet, workout and consume media to try to learn what shows or movies do right so i can replicate in my own vision.

  8. Gabriel

    Hello my name is Gabriel and some books that influenced me growing up were where the wild things are, Scary stories to tell in the dark, and even though I never really read them in order i was also influenced by comics like X-Men, x factor, and hellboy. I’m not sure if all of these were reasons I decided to get into illustration but they all definitely inspired me to draw and be creative.

  9. Tracy Truong

    Hello my name is Tracy and sorry to say but I’m not much of a reader and can only remember 5 or 10 percent of what the book i read is about. I do remember what books I have read before but as for what it’s about, I’m a little foggy about that. I have read Clifford, Arthur and Curious George books from the library when I was little. There are a few books from story time with my teachers in primary school such as; Corduroy by Don Freeman, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Books like the Amber Brown Series by Paula Danziger and Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo by Nancy Krulik are in the classrooms for the kids to read. My favorite would be the Geronimo Stilton Series by Elisabetta Dami, I haven’t read much books of it because my school only had a few copies. I liked the Geronimo Stilton Series the most because as a child to get me to read and be interested in stuff only books with colorful art can attract my attention. Now i mostly just read manga(Japanese), manhua(Chinese), manhwa(korean), and watch cartoons and anime.

  10. Jessenia

    Hello everyone, my name is Jessenia but to keep it short Jess or Jessie is fine. Remembring the earliest picture book I was shown would be The Very Hungry Caterpillar followed by The Rainbow Fish, Corduroy, Clifford, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Shrek! These were a few books that I started reading while learning English too. As I was growing up I started reading manga and watch anime more as one of my friends introduced it to me. A few I will mention is Fairy Tail, Soul Eater, Kamisama kiss, Jibaku Shōnen Hanako-kun, and currently My Hero Academia.

  11. faiza hussain

    Hey everyone,

    I am Faiza,

    When I was a kid I remember reading a lot of children book from Cloudy with a chance of Meatball to Matilda, Curious George. Later as a child I got into fantasy novels like the Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce and lot of her other works. I guess her books series inspired so much to want to do writing since I wasn’t use to seeing females in fantasy as the protagonist and as much as I love fantasy novels I just couldn’t get into series like Harry Potter but the way Tamora Pierce wrote just always brought me into those magical worlds. So to this day Fantasy is my favorite genre.

    When I was a child I actually had tried to make my own stories and children books with a superhero called Superpuppy. I had a love for writing and try to place my illustration in place with that. Especially since I love that children books have nice illustration and I feel like more older audience can do that too. So I love to do that for the novels I am working on.

    While I want to write ya novels with illustration I am also working on learning to design video games to combine all the things I love and grew up wanting to do. So I felt that COMD would be best to learn to get forward.

    In my free time I write my novel, draw and play video game mainly jrpgs and read manga. My favorite game series are Fire Emblem, Zelda, Xenoblade and Legend of Heroes. I do also play adventure game like Horizon Zero Dawn. A lot of the music I listen to are 90s musics and indie instrumental music and video game music since I like music to help with coming up story or perfecting scenes in my story.

    • Amy Lai Pan

      Video game soundtracks have always been my go to whenever I’m working, glad I’m not the only one that does this. I also eventually want to get into game design, particularly with character concepts, writing, and a bit on environmental backgrounds. Which aspect of designing a video game do you look forward to the most?

  12. epettway31

    Hello everyone ,
    My name is Elisha Pettway. Growing up the library was like my second home , I used to go after school all the time . My top five favorite kids books are (drumroll ) Madeline, Alexander and the terrible horrible no good very bad day , Cat in the hat ,Strega Nona and miss nelson is missing .

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