Tankard, Jeremy 1973–

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Tankard, Jeremy 1973–

Personal

Born 1973, in Cape Town, South Africa; immigrated to United States, c. 1978; immigrated to Canada, 1981; married; children: one daughter. Education: Alberta College of Art and Design, graduate.

Addresses

Home and office—Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Agent—Pippin Properties, Inc., 155 E. 38th St., Ste. 2H, New York, NY 10016. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Author and illustrator. Formerly worked as a graphic designer and typesetter. Presenter at schools and workshops.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Grumpy Bird, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2007.

Me Hungry!, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2008.

Boo Hoo Bird, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2009.

Sidelights

Jeremy Tankard told SATA: "I've wanted to write and illustrate my own books since I was a small child. The funny thing is I never much liked reading them! So there's a good dose of irony as I find myself an author now.

"I always drew pictures and told stories with my images. After high school I studied drawing and printmaking instead of illustration. I felt that studying fine art

would give me a better grounding to develop my own voice as an artist. From there I found work as a graphic designer and typesetter before making the leap to full-time illustration.

"After a few years of creating pictures for the likes of Time magazine, the New York Times, Guitar Player, Fortune, the Boston Globe, and many other publications, I turned my attention to children's books.

"Creating my own books is a dream come true. I love telling stories. Despite this I actually find the process of writing extremely difficult so I rely heavily on my pictures to do a lot of the storytelling for me. For this reason I don't usually consider myself a ‘writer’ but rather a storyteller. When I'm making a book I aim to entertain first. I hope that by making books that are fun to read others will find in my books some of the joy that I feel toward reading.