Adam Rapp is the acclaimed author of
Punkzilla, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book;
Under the Wolf, Under the Dog, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist and winner of the Schneider Family Book Award; and
33 Snowfish, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. He is also an accomplished playwright, a writer for Season Three of the HBO series
In Treatment, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama in 2007. Adam Rapp lives in New York City.
Adam Rapp says that when he was working on his chilling, compulsively readable young adult novel 33 Snowfish, he was haunted by several questions. Among them: When we have nowhere to go, who do we turn to? Why are we sometimes drawn to those who are deeply troubled? How far do we have to run before we find new possibilities?
At once harrowing and hypnotic, 33 Snowfish—which was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association—follows three troubled young people on the run in a stolen car with a kidnapped baby in tow. With the language of the street and lyrical prose, Adam Rapp hurtles the reader into the world of lost children, a world that is not for the faint of heart. His narration captures the voices of two damaged souls (a third speaks only through drawings) to tell a story of alienation, deprivation, and ultimately, the saving power of compassion. “For those readers who are ready to be challenged by a serious work of shockingly realistic fiction,” notes School Library Journal, “it invites both an emotional and intellectual response, and begs to be discussed.”
Adam Rapp’s first novel, Missing The Piano, was named a Best Book for Young Adults as well as a Best Book for Reluctant Readers by the American Library Association. His subsequent titles include The Buffalo Tree, The Copper Elephant, and Little Chicago, which was chosen as a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. The author’s raw, stream-of-consciousness writing style has earned him critical acclaim. “Rapp’s prose is powerful, graphic, and haunting,” says School Library Journal. “[He] writes in an earthy but adept language,” says Kirkus Reviews. “Takes a mesmerizing hold on the reader,” adds The Horn Book magazine.
Adam Rapp’s other novels include the 2010 Michael L. Printz Honor Book Punzilla, as well as The Children and the Wolves.
In addition to being a novelist, Adam Rapp is also an accomplished and award-winning playwright. His plays—including Nocturne, Animals And Plants, Blackbird, and Stone Cold Dead Serious—have been produced by the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the New York Theatre Workshop, and the Bush Theatre in London, among other venues.
Born and raised in Chicago, the novelist and playwright now lives in New York City.
“I always think of illustration as a form of acting,” says Timothy Basil Ering. “Each time I approach a project I need to become the character I’m depicting. And then I have to choose the appropriate medium that will allow me to speak in that voice.”
Anyone who knows Tim Ering would agree that he himself is a character, as inimitable as any he might portray. Before landing at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California, the author-illustrator-to-be indulged his longtime love of the sea as a boatswainsmate aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, sailing to points as far afield as Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Sri Lanka, and Africa. And since finishing art school—where he discovered influences as far removed as Michelangelo and Dr. Seuss—the artist has approached his work with a spirit of adventure and originality that reflect his singular approach to life.
Tim Ering’s first picture book with Candlewick had its beginnings in a silly string of words he thought up to amuse himself as he meandered to favorite fishing spots on Cape Cod. Years later, at an urban garden created by schoolchildren in Pasadena, he began sketching a scarecrow. “I knew at that moment,” he says, “that Frog Belly Rat Bone had found a home.” And so sprung up the tale of a boy who finds strange, specklike treasures, and the unforgettable creature who watches over them while they grow. With its surreal artwork full of subtle tones, bursts of color, fantastical figures, and a quirky, hand-lettered text, Tim Ering’s picture book debut exudes all the whimsy of an inspired imagination.
That imagination was put to a very different challenge with 33 Snowfish, a novel by Adam Rapp for which Tim Ering created not only the haunting cover image, but also interior drawings that represent notebook sketches of a troubled teenage character. “Whenever you receive a manuscript, you have to get into character,” he says. “In this case, I also had to imagine how this character would draw, and how his drawing might change or shrink on the page according to his changing state of mind.” Tim Ering steers his range in yet another direction to explore a more classical style—with a contemporary flair—in The Tale of Despereaux,Kate DiCamillo’s first Newbery Award–winning novel. Says the illustrator, “My mother may have been a mouse in her past life, as I watched her save and help so many mice in our house while I was growing up. The illustrations I’ve done of Despereaux Tilling are, in a way, my tribute to her.”
Tim Ering’s artwork has appeared in books, magazines, theater sets, private murals, and fine art galleries. The invariably paint-splattered artist lives and works in Somerville, Massachusetts.
