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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET JONATHAN LONDON
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| Jonathan London |
When I was seven or eight I wrote and drew pictures for cartoons with 4
or 6 panels. My drawings were stick figures and not very good, but the
cartoons were funny, and the little boy in them was very much like Froggy.
When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career? (or a career in illustrating? or just art in general?)
I studied history in college and got a masters in 1970. I didn't publish my first children's book for another ninteen years.
How soon after that was your first book published?
I didn't have my first children's book accepted until 1989. I was 42 years old!
Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?
My first book accepted was THE OWL WHO BECAME THE MOON, though it was fourth book to be published because I had to wait a long time for an illustrator. It was accepted without an agent by the first publisher I
sent it to: Dutton (E.P. Dutton, publishers of WINNIE THE POOH). My first two books accually in print are THIRTEEN MOONS ON TURTLE'S BACK and THE LION WHO HAD ASTHMA. They came out in the same week in March 1992. They were both accepted by the first publishers they were sent to (by my agent,
who I got after selling THE OWL WHO BECAME THE MOON). To put this in perspective, my next book FROGGY GETS DRESSED, was rejected twelve times. My first three published books are still in print.
What kinds of things inspire you to write?
My sons when they were little inspired me to write the Froggy books.
Experiences with wildlife has inspires me to write books about animals in
nature, including THE EYES OF GRAY WOLF and LITTLE SWAN.
Have any of your books earned special recognition?
FROGGY GETS DRESSED is included on the list 100 PICTURE BOOKS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW, starting with THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT. I'm very proud of that! Also, over the years I have been in 19 California Collections: HONEY PAW AND LIGHTFOOT in the 1997E, 1998E, 1999E, 2000E, 2001E, 2002E, 2004E Collections; PANTHER in the 2004E, 2005E, 2006E, 2007E, 2008E, Collections and in the LA Best: 2000; WHO BOP? in the 2005E; A TRAIN GOES CLICKETY-CLACK in the 2009E; FLAMINGO SUNSET in the 2010E; LITTLE SWAN in 2011E; WHERE'S HOME in the 1998M, 1999M, 2000M;
Which of your books did you most enjoy writing?
FROGGY GETS DRESSED was my most fun book to write. It was the first of of what's now 20 Froggy books. My sons, when they were 2 and 5, asked me to tell them a story, and FROGGY GETS DRESSED just leaped out of my mouth.
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