Danny’s Author Scrapbook
These are photos from my journey as an author, and some of the friends I’ve met along the way.
The Peas Play
I got a phone call one day from ArtsPower, a non-profit theater group in New Jersey. They wanted to adapt The Monster Who Ate My Peas as a musical. Mark and Gary Blackman, and Greg Gunning, did a fantastic job adapting the book, with choreography and music. One of my favorite parts of the adaptation is having the father become the monster. He uses Halloween costumes from the attic to make the transformation. Watching the play for the first time was a surreal experience. In the book, the boy is unnamed, but in the play he is called “Danny.”
Read More.
In the early 2000’s Judy Serritella and the Georgia Department of Education invited me to be part of their “Read More” initiative. President Jimmy Carter, Travis Tritt, and other Georgia celebrities posed for posters that still decorate media centers all over Georgia. I got to go inside the Braves’ inner sanctum and see John Smoltz read The Monster Who Ate My Peas to a group of kids. It was so much fun!
John Smoltz
Hall of Famer, John Smoltz. read The Monster Who Ate My Peas for the Georgia DOE’s Read More initiative. Almost twenty years later, I still can’t believe that I was lucky enough to be a part of this.
Pumpkins and Peas!
People have made some cool monster-related stuff for my school visits, but this monster pumpkin at Knight Elementary in Lilburn, Georgia is certainly one of the best! Check out the Albert Einstein pumpkin behind it.
Literacy Week
Every October Cobb EMC and GasSouth send a group of authors and illustrators to schools in North Atlanta for a full week. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of Literacy Week for many years. Mark Justice and his amazing staff do a great job organizing this event which covers three counties! My good friend, illustrator Michael P. White, (third from right) passed away recently and I miss him greatly.
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KATHY LANDWEHR
Kathy, at Peachtree Publishing, has edited all of my books and made each one stronger. She is a good friend and has a great sense of humor.
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ANCA SANDU
Anca is an amazing illustrator and author. Her illustrations for “Gnu and Shrew” brought so much life and humor to the characters. Anca was born in Romania and now lives in Oregon.
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BILL MAYER
Bill is an outstanding illustrator with a great imagination. He illustrated my book, The Monster Who Did My Math.
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JUDY SERRITELLA
MEDIA SPECIALIST AND LITERACY EXPERT
Judy Serritella expanded Georgia Literacy as part of the Georgia Department of Education. She’s seen here with Senator John Lewis, another Georgia icon. Judy chose me to be a part of the DOE’s “Read More” initiative and she has helped my author career in so many ways. She is a wonderful and kind-hearted person and I’m so grateful to have her as a friend.
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MATT FAULKNER
ILLUSTRATOR
Matt illustrated my first and third books. He’s an amazing illustrator.
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M&M!
You know you’ve hit the big time when you’re sharing a dressing room with M&M. Oops, wrong M&M.