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.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Horn Book, May-June, 2007, Christine M. Heppermann, review of Grumpy Bird, p. 274.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2007, review of Grumpy Bird.

Publishers Weekly, March 26, 2007, review of Grumpy Bird, p. 92.

Resource Links, October, 2007, Michelle Gowans, review of Grumpy Bird, p. 9.

School Library Journal, February, 2007, Rachael Vilmar, review of Grumpy Bird, p. 98.

ONLINE

Jeremy Tankard Home Page,http://www.jeremytankard.com (July 1, 2008).