Cover Curiosity: Me

Now, please don’t be alarmed when you see this goofy-looking guy on your September issue of School Library Journal:

How did we get here?

I wrote a series of posts about the e-reader lending program we started at my 5th and 6th grade school last year. It was a small start, but things went pretty well, so I wanted to share. The folks at SLJ (whom I work with writing reviews and the occasional feature) asked if they could publish the series. I reworked and added to the individual posts to make a unified, complete article. Then SLJ decided to make it the September cover story. Then they decided to put my mug on the front.

They sent me to a place that looked like this:

And a photographer took a bunch of pictures:

The powers that be settled on the cover shot to go along with a “Travis’s Excellent Adventure” theme. Do you remember the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure? It’s sort of like that, minus Keanu Reeves and a telephone booth. Bonus: no jamz in sight!

The interior was a lot of fun because I was asked to contribute some illustrations to go along with the article. Art director Mark Tuchman whipped up the concept for an e-reader comic strip and I supplied the drawings (using the Paper iPad app).

I’m waiting for my print issue to arrive, but the article is online now. Click here to read.

And speaking of School Library Journal, I have more news on that front coming soon…

Filed under: Cover Curiosity, Covers