At least that is our excuse.
The real reason we have joined at the hip is because creating art for children’s books can be a very solitary experience. Together, we provide each other moral support, general camaraderie and possibly a bit of mayhem.
Here is a little information about each of us.
 | John Rocco is the author and illustrator of four books for children: Wolf! Wolf!, winner of the Borders Original Voices Award for best picture book; Moonpowder; Fu Finds the Way, and Blackout, an ABC best book for children. Rocco also illustrated Whoopi Goldberg's Alice and the covers for Rick Riordan's muti-million copy internationally bestselling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, and The Heroes of Olympus. Most recently, Rocco illustrated the fantasy fairy tale, The Flint Heart, written by Katherine Paterson and her husband, John. |
 | John Bemelmans Marciano is the author and illustrator of several children's books, including Madeline and the Cats of Rome, Harold's Tail and Delilah, as well as the popular word book Anonyponymous. He earned a B.A. in art history from Columbia University. An artist and self-professed word geek, he lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with his wife, daughter and two cats. |
 | David Gordon has a passion for airplanes, trucks, tractors and other cool heavy machinery. Dave has created concept art for many animated films including "Toy Story", "Toy Story 2", "Bug's Life", "Monsters, Inc.", "Robots" and more. Dave was also one of the creators on John Scieszka's bestselling Trucktown series. |
 | Aileen Leijten worked in Los Angeles for 12 years as a freelancer for companies such as Walt Disney Imagineering. She won a Durfee Foundation residency program grant in 1996 to work on an intranet project with Stephen Spielberg's Starbright Foundation. She earned a M.F.A. in experimental animation from the California Institute of the Arts and a B.A. in animation film from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. |
 | Selina Alko has worked on murals around New York City. She has also done illustrations for The Wall Street Journal, Time Out New York Kids, and other publications. Im Your Peanut Butter Big Brother was a Parenting magazine pick of the year in 2009. She's currently working on an alphabet book about Brooklyn. She earned a B.A. from the University of British Columbia and a B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts. |
 | Boris Kulikov's Fartiste and Sandy's Circus were named among the 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing by New York Public Library. His The Castle on Hester Street was awarded the Sydney Taylor Honor in 2008. His books have also been recognized as books of the year by School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Child and Time. He attended the Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema in St. Petersburg. |
 | Sean Qualls won a Coretta Scott Honor for Before John Was a Jazz Giant in 2008. His book Dizzy was an ALA Notable Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. His work has been featured at the Society of Illustrators Original Art exhibit in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009. |
 | Brett Helquist has won many awards, including the 2005 Book Sense Book of the Year Award in children's literature and the 2005 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award in children's literature for Chasing Vermeer. He also received the 2003 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for A Series of Unfortunate Events. He earned a B.F.A. in illustration from Brigham Young University. |
 | Dan Yaccarino is an internationally acclaimed artist, writer, and producer who has written and illustrated over 30 children’s books, most notably, The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau, Every Friday and Go Go America as well as illustrated books by such prestigious authors as Margaret Wise Brown, Jack Prelutsky, Kevin Henkes and Patricia MacLachlan. Dan’s work in has garnered awards including AIGA, Parent’s Choice, and Child Magazine in addition to many starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly. His biography of Cousteau has been nominated for a Texas Bluebonnet, Every Friday was chosen as one of the Top 10 Best Illustrated Books by The New York Times and Trashy Town was an ALA Notable. In 2002, he had the honor of being invited to the White House to read his books and participate in the annual Easter festivities. Dan has also created the Nickelodeon hit, Oswald, which won a Parent’s Choice Award Recommendation and his animated series, Willa’s Wild Life, has won an Emmy. Dan is also the designer behind Nickelodeon’s Emmy winning The Backyardigans. |
 | Sophie Blackall has illustrated about 20 children's books, including Ruby's Wish (Ezra Jack Keats Award) and Meet Wild Boars (Society of Illustrators Founders' Award), Big Red Lollipop (a New York Times Best Illustrated book) and Pecan Pie Baby (Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor book) and the Ivy & Bean series. She also illustrates magazine articles, animated TV ads, CD covers, and the occasional friend's tattoo. Her latest project, Missed Connections, which began as a blog in early 2009, is an ongoing series of paintings based on real, anonymous messages posted online by lovelorn strangers, and has just come out as a book called Missed Connections, Love, Lost & Found. |
 | Sergio Ruzzier won a gold medal from Parents' Choice in 2004 and 2006. He has also received recognition from the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration and the Society of Publication Designers. |
 | Peter Brown has won numerous honors, including Illustrator of the Year at the 2010 Children's Choice Awards. The Curious Garden is a New York Times bestseller, winner of the 2010 E.B. White Picture Book of the Year Award and an American Library Association Notable Book. He earned a B.F.A. in illustration from Art Center College of Design. |
 | Brian Floca is the author and illustrator of Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, Lightship, and The Racecar Alphabet. He is the illustrator of the popular Poppy Stories series, by Avi; Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan; and, most recently, Marty McGuire, by Kate Messner. His books have received three Robert F. Sibert Honor awards, an Orbis Pictus Award, a selection on The New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books list, a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, recognition as ALA Notable Books, and other accolades. You can visit his web site at brianfloca.com. |
