Author/Illustrator Visited Claremont School Last Month

As third-grader Sabastian Rios stood in line for author/illustrator Bryan Collier to sign his copy of “Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” the connection dawned on him.

“Wait, did you make this book?” the Claremont School student asked.

“Yes,” said Mr. Collier, who illustrated the Doreen Rappaport’s biography with his distinctive watercolor and collage style.

Afterward, Sabastian said it was “mind-blowing” to meet Mr. Collier. “We read it last year. It was a very good book.”

Mr. Collier, who has worked on nearly 40 books, visited Claremont School on March 11 to speak with children about his career as an author and illustrator.

“We picked this illustrator because he writes really deep stories, he illustrates really deep stories and he works with people who write really meaningful stories,” said STREAM teacher Micki Lockwood, who organized the event.

The author and illustrator’s appearance took place during National Reading Month, whose theme at Claremont was “Reading is your superpower.” There was an activity for every day of the month that students were in school, such as “Wear a Hat with Words Day” and “Bring a Joke Day.” Nick Bruel, the author and illustrator of the “Boing!” and “Bad Kitty” series, visited earlier in March.

For his part, Mr. Collier graduated from the Pratt Institute and was in graduate school for film when he walked into a bookstore and did not see any black or brown kids in the books.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute, I want to make a book,’” said Mr. Collier, who is African American. “That was the lightbulb moment, when I started chasing the idea of making books.”

It took seven years for him to get his first book deal. It was a difficult time, but “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to stay with it,’” he said.

“Uptown,” which he wrote and illustrated, was published in 2004. The book is about the flavors, colors, sounds and cultures of Harlem as seen through the eyes of a young narrator, whom he modeled on his young nephew.

Mr. Collier also spent time talking with boys in the My Brother’s Keeper programs at Claremont and Roosevelt schools. A number of students had a chance to ask him questions, such as what inspires his work, how long illustrations take, and what his latest idea for a project was.

Mr. Collier said it takes him four to six months to illustrate a book. “That’s doing it and making changes because you don’t get it all right the first time,” he said. “Sometimes you have to do it over, you do parts of it over, so it takes time.”

The hardest book to illustrate was “John’s Secret Dreams: The Life of John Lennon,” which was published in 2016. “I did the book because at the time he was rich and famous, but he was sad and broken, so I had to figure out what that was about,” he said.

Mr. Collier said some of his favorite books are “The Snowy Day” and “Whistle for Willie” by Ezra Jack Keats and “Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crockett Johnson.

“All Because You Matter,” a book he illustrated about a pregnant mother writing to her son, will be published in October. He is currently illustrating a Robert Frost poem called “The Road Not Taken.”

“There’s another one I’m doing,” he said. “I can’t talk about that yet.”

Fifth-grader Christian Pollard said meeting Mr. Collier was a special experience that he would share with his family. “I’ll tell them that I got to meet a famous illustrator and I got a book,” he said.