Illustrating His Points
Whitman Elementary School Welcomes Noted Author/Illustrator Timothy Young
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – Timothy Young admits he’s had “one opportunity after another to do some really interesting stuff” in his professional life. Those opportunities led him into writing and helped vault him into the world of children’s books. Young is the author and illustrator of eight children’s books, with two more currently in the works, and he brought a fascinating program to Whitman Elementary School on Thursday, April 19th. Whitman librarian Christy Ortiz met Young at the New Jersey Association of School Librarians conference last fall and quickly moved to have him come to the school.
Young performed two, one-hour presentations at Whitman. He started by reading a few of his stories aloud, with the illustrations projected on a screen behind him. After that, he discussed his career, which included work on the “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” and “Doug” television shows, creating and sculpting for the Muppets, and brainstorming and producing different toys. Among Young’s creations were the first run of “Simpsons” dolls, where he had to turn the television characters into 3-D figures to be sold in Burger King restaurants. He also helped produce a line of dolls called “Meanies,” which spun off of Beanie Babies and poked fun of those toys in a playful way. That included writing poems for the Meanies’ tags.
“For whatever reason, people seemed to like my limericks,” Young said. “So that’s when I started thinking about writing. I just kind of stumbled into it.”
Young wrote his first book, I’m Looking for a Monster, about eight years ago. He wrote it in his head on a drive in his car. Since then, his love for science fiction and his admiration of other writers has shined through.
“I have a talent for mimicking the style of other people, but still making it my own,” Young said, when students noticed nods to “Star Wars,” “Mystery Science Theatre 3000,” and even Dr. Seuss characters in his books.
After taking questions about his career, Young then showed the students a little of his drawing prowess. He asked them to give him a few characteristics – big eyes or little; big smile or frown; horns or not; etc. – and then drew a new character from those basics. This one was named “Fuzzbug.” Later, he had students and staff scribble randomly on a whiteboard, then using those scribbles to create a drawing. It had the students smiling, laughing and mouths agape with amazement.
More information about Young, his books and his career can be found on his website, www.creaturesandcharacters.com.
For more photos from Thursday's assembly, click here.
- WTPS -