>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
>> If Jerry Pinkney hasn't illustrated it,
it probably isn't worth illustrating.
[ Applause ]
Among his more than 100 books, there are such classics
as "The Little Match Girl," "The Ugly Duckling," "Uncle Remus,"
"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," "Tales from Africa," "Myths from Greece,"
"Little Red Riding Hood," "Aesop's Fables."
So sumptious are Jerry's illustrations, so perfectly in tune
with the subject matter, that it sometimes seems
as if the source material was written only
to be illustrated by him.   You haven't read "Aesop's Fables"
until you've seen Jerry's interpretation of them.
In fact, just the other day --   I don't know if you heard
about these tigers being discovered really high
up in the Himalaya 9,000, 13,000 feet up or something.
When I heard that story, I thought to myslef,
"That would make a great Jerry Pinkney book."
He's a native of Philadelphia.
He took an interest in drawing at a very early age.
All right, Philly.
He has illustrated, as I said, more than 100 books, started in 1964,
and along the way, he's been honored multiple times of Caldecott
and Coretta Scott King awards and honors.
He's taught illustration, conducted workshops at universities
across the country, created art
for the US Postal Service's Black Heritage stamps,
and had more than 20 one-man retrospective shows
at major US venues.
He also created the art work for the 2005 National Festival poster.
So please give a warm welcome to the incredible Jerry Pinkney.
[ Applause ]   >> Thank you.
I was here last year, remember?   It was raining like crazy?
Yeah. So I asked the person upstairs to -- but he went overboard.
Little too hot.
Little too hot, but thank you, guys, for staying.
My new book is "The Three Little Kittens," which is out,
and you guys can get a chance, actually,
the opportunity to get it today.   But this comes out next month.
And it's always interesting for me because I've done
so many books, to talk about the book.
I will do that, but I think there are other, probably,
stories that are connected to what and how and the choice of a book
that I want to share with you this afternoon.
So I want to talk about two stories, and then I want to talk
about the inspiriation for this book, but before I get
to that point, you're going to have to help me
because there's some point I'm going to ask you to sing
"The Three Little Kittens," okay?
So you don't have to -- I want you to think about it.
now, I would join you, but I have a terrible voice,
so I'm going to lean on you.
Okay. But the first story really has a lot to do with how did I happen
to get to this point where there's 100 books under my belt,
and where did that come from?
And I know there's a lot of kids and children in this audience,
and also parents that might be interested in it because I grew
up in a family that -- there were no artists.
There were no artists in the family or in the neighborhood.
I grew in the Germantown section of Philadelphia,
and I loved to draw as a kid.   I drew all the time.
And my parents were great.
They always supplied me even with the simplest of materials.
My father -- my father was a jack of all trades,
and he did wallpaper hanging, and he did painting.
He would bring home scraps of wallpaper.
And I would turn the pattern of the wallpaper, you know, against a floor
or a desk, and I would draw on the other side.
So I was constantly drawing and always had a sketchbook with me.
So at the age of 12, I took my first job.
And I was selling newspapers at a very busy intersection on the corner
of Germantown and Shelton Avenue.
And I would take a drawing pad with me,
and inbetween selling newspapers, I would draw people waiting
for the bus or the trolley.
There was a department store, Raoul's,
when they would change the window displays,
I would treat the changing window displays like changing still life.
And so I had this sketchbook, and you know, I'm not sure what kind
of job I did with selling newspapers, but my boss was okay.
Matt was great.
So one day, one of my customers is John Liney.
He's a professional artist of a strip called "Henry."
And he invites me up to his studio.   He sees me.
He takes note, and he asked if I would share my sketches.
I do. He looked through my sketchbook,
and he invited me up to his studio.
Now, remember I said no artists in the family.
It's my first introduction to an artist.
I go to visit John, beautiful day, third floor, big space, sketches,
projects on the walls, in the center of that space, a drawing table
with a taberet with a whole array of brushes and pencils and inks
and watercolors and all kinds of size pads, which you can imagine
for a young boy, 12, experiences this wonderous space,
this magical space, but really, what impressed me most
and what struck me most about that day was here,
here was a grown man doing the very same thing that I loved doing.
What was that?   What do I love doing?
What did I tell you I loved doing.
Drawing. And this is the way he made his living.
This is the way he [inaudible] for his family.
Now, did I know that, when leaving that day,
that some day that Jerry Pinkney would grow up and be an artist?
I'm not sure about that, but I know tha the possiblity, the possibilty,
the seed was planted that day.   And that was a pretty special day,
and we remained friends for many, many years.
The other story, which also deals with Germantown section,
was I grew up in this sort of small, deadend street of rowhouses,
and there was six of us kids and mom and dad.
It was a five-room house with a bathroom without a sink.
So -- and we didn't have pets.   There were no pets.
A few of our neighbors had pets,
and I always wondered why we didn't have pets.
Now I know.   There was no space.
We couldn't cram anything else that was living in there.
So I didn't really understand about pets,
I sort of shied away from animals.
We went to the zoo and that kind of thing, but -- until an adult.
And as an adult, your kids what pets.
And I think we still kept it at bay until we had a neighbor
who had a litter of kittens, and we went over to see them.
And it was in a cardboard box, and they were all inside.
And there was one striking kitten, and it looked as if someone took,
like, bleach or something.
It was spotted in an interesting way of browns and blacks
and light grays and whatnot.   And we called her "Clorox."
So Clorox -- and Clorox was a great cat to start with because she --
well, she just didn't want to be bothered, I mean, at all.
So I mean, you could sneak in a pet here and there,
but -- so she was very easy.
And then we got hooked, and we found Brillo.
Brillo we found he, for some reason, found him outside of our home.
We were in Boston at the time, and we started, you know,
we started giving him little bowls of milk,
and finally he didn't go away, and we took Brillo in.
Brillo was the opposite.
I don't think he was the brightest cat, but he was funny,
and he was always in trouble.
And he always made me feel like a hero
because I was always saving him from something.
He could climb a tree; he couldn't get down.
He'd chase the birds, and the birds would beat him up.
It was constant, and we felt so badly, but it was really wonderful.
And then there was Shadow.
Shadow was over an overhang when we moved
into Croton, and he only had one eye.
We got him down, patched him up, and we had several cats.
And the last one, the last cat's name was "Pumpkin,"
and it was our granddaughter's cat.
And she moved into an apartment that didn't allow pets.
So we took in Pumpkin.
Now, I have to ask you guys a question.
What color do you think pumpkin was?   >> Orange.
>> Yes. Orange.   Any other?
Yes? What color?   >> Black.
>> How did you know?   >> [Inaudible].
>> His name was Black.
She wasn't planted in the audience by the way.
Pumpkin was black for some reason or another.
So there's always been this wonderful history of cats.
And we don't have a cat now because I travel a lot,
and we lost the last one, but just in this whole experience
of "The Three Little Kittens," you get a sense that when my life calms
down a bit, I'm going to be on the search for a kitten.
I mean, there fabulous animals,
and I think was always this attachment to finding a stray.
That was something very important there.
Now, inspiration for the "Three Little Kittens."
Well, my wife, Gloria Jean, who's an author, oftentimes suggests projects
for me, and she suggested "The Three Little Kittens."
Now, I had trouble with the three little kittens eating the pie
with the mittens, okay?
I struggled with that piece a little bit, and then I knew
that it was a nonsense rhyme, so things didn't really always have
to add up, but I was still trying to make sense of it.
Now, I have a great granddaugher, Zion, and Zion,
I've been observing her for awhile now, and she's my teacher.
And why and how things don't always have
to match up to have a good time.
And she has this wonderful imagination,
and I also love the idea, the way she plays with things.
I remember once, we were going out for a walk, and it was kind of brisk
that day, and she's pushing her stroller,
and you could tell her hands were cold.
So I thought there were gloves in her pocket.
It turns out there's only one.
So she puts the one on, and she's warm.
And the other -- it's like the other hand is covered as well.
so there's always this kind of wonderful kind of energy
and excitement about things just being.
She loves two different shoes, you know, go on the right foot,
but a different shoe, one right and a left.
And you could see her playing with things.
And so you see that in "The Three Little Kittens."
You see a kind of exploring and trying to engage and connect
with the same kind of imaginations that kids have.
How do you teach kids?   You feed them where they are.
And so I've tried to do that.   Now, okay, all right, okay.
You've thought about "The Three Little Kittens."
Well, here's what happened.   Now, we're going to sing it first.
Okay, I'll start the tempo count of   [ Singing ]
The three little kittens that lost their mittens and then began to cry,
"Oh mother dear, oh mother dear, see here, see here,
our mittens we have lost."   "What, lost your mittens?
You naughty kittens?   Then you shall have no pie.
Then you shall have no pie."   And then it goes
[ Singing ]
"Meow, meow, meow, then you shall have no pie."
The three little kittens, they washed their mittens --
No, they bit their mittens.
What did --   >> They found their mittens.
[ Singing ]
>> They found their mittens and then they began
to cry, "Meow, meow, meow."
The three kittens put on their mittens and began to eat the pie.
Meow, meow, meow.
The three little kittens, you naughty kittens,
you soiled your mittens, and you shall have some pie."
Okay, all right, you guys aren't doing great.
I'm -- now I changed -- I changed it a little bit.
That's why I'm kind of struggling.
Also, I didn't want to do what I just did and embarrass myself.
But it's over now, and I'm fine.
I'm fine. So anyway, here's what I did.
So it's a sparse little text, right, in this book.
And I'm always sorry for you guys all the way over the end there.
Hi. We begin to understand a little bit more
about the kittens and their families.
We know that they would like to go out to play.
And I love -- oh, gosh, you guys did you buy these copies
because you can share them with -- well, that's okay.
anyway, these kittens are really curious about the world,
and you know cats are, okay?
So they're curious, and we actually see the mother
in the process knitting, so we know where --
now we know where the mittens came from.
The mother knits.   None of cats did.
So they want to go out and play.
And there you see, I'm setting you up to the fact that going
out to play, they're going to need mittens.
All right?
So here's where I try to take these classic folktales, in this case,
a nonsense rhyme, and expand on it because what I do is,
when the kittens lose their mittens, it's three spreads
where the kittens are out in nature, playing,
and you actually see them lose their mittens.
And again, it's -- I watched --
if my great granddaughter is doing something,
and something distracts here, whatever she was doing,
that's gone, and she moves on.   so the kittens actually --
and so the children can actually follow the kittens while they --
when they lose their mittens.
So it's a number of spreads, and they return home,
of course, without the mittens.
Now, here's the other part that I hope to engage you with,
and that is that the kittens now return to find their mittens.
So this is the circle.
And so they return to the same place where, of course,
they've lost their mittens.
And so now the children can now follow in the process
of finding the mittens, okay.   All right?
And they all find them.
So someone suggests it's a counting book,
but my granddaughter was counting past three a long time ago,
so I'm not sure.   But it is this process of discovery.
Okay, they find the mittens.
They return, and of course, they -- how's the sound on this?
Okay? And they begin to eat the pie.
And it goes through a lot of differernt spreads,
and it finally -- oh, of course, they wash their mittens.
Now, you can't see this, but I have to tell you,
these kittens aren't just voluntarily doing that chore.
One is playing, the -- you know how kids --
you ever ask kids to do something?
And they -- well, this is the -- my son, Brian, the illustrator,
says that these kittens are stand-ins
for my great granddaughter.
And we see them hang the mittens up to dry,
and mother is walking home with a basket of apples.
Now, the first pie was blueberry,
and this spread, which I expand on again.
The kittens say, "Can we go out to play again?"
All right?
And the endpapers, they do with now not only mittens, but caps.
And we find -- though it's hard to see --
one of the kittens has lost their cap.
So we go full circle.
So here's the other thing about the singing part.
I -- by the way, you guys were pretty good, and especially you.
You were really into it.
anyway, so when I would talk to people about the why of doing
"The Three Little Kittens," they would always --
adults would always sing it.   So I said, "Oh, that's interesting.
In order to bring it back to mind, they would sing it."
so I went to my editor, Lori Hornick [assumed spelling] and we rewrote,
adapted some of the text, so I said, "Why don't we make it singable
so that you could sing it like you could sing the rhyme?"
So we came to that point, and I said, "Okay, then,
wouldn't it be great if people knew about it.
So here's the bonus.   Here's the bonus.
If you take off the jacket, we had music scored
for "The Three Little Kittens."
>> Yay.   >> Yeah.
[ Applause ]
And there's really, really terrific, wonderful story.
I was signing, and of course, you don't come upon this.
there's a little note on the copywrite page,
but most people go past the copywrite.
So I mentioned to a woman.
She was excited about buying it and whatnot, and I said,
"I want to just show you something."
And I took of this -- the cover, and I showed it.
And she said, "Oh, and I play the piano."
And she got so excited about this whole thing.
And it's kind of, in a way, it's --
for me, I think the physical book is really incredibly important.
so it's a way of building in to the physical,
traditional book something else.
Something that the child can experience or you can experience.
It's not interactive because it takes effort in a different kind
of way, but it's still engaging a child, especially the children today
that have so many bells and whistles around them.
So that's my effort to sort of do that.
Now, they just -- I hold up a card, like in the boxing ring,
that there's only a certain amount of time left.
And I think I'd like to devote that time
to perhaps a question or two, if we could.
So there are microphones and -- so get your questions ready.
All right, who's got the first question?
[ Silence ]   Who's got the first question?
Okay, yes?   >> I want to become an author.
Did you have any advice for me?
>> Okay, in becoming an author, write and write and rewrite,
and write the things that you know, or things that you dream about.
the main thing is you want to put something down on paper
so that you can look at it and then know how
to take that and make it better.   But you can't think about writing.
You can't think about illustrating.   You got to actually do it.
it's in the act of doing.   >> Okay.
>> Yes, good question.   Who's next?
We got to go left from right -- right to left.
>> Um, what's your favorite book that you've written?
>> Pardon me?
>> What's your favorite book that you've written?
>> Would I read a book?   >> That you've written?
>> Oh, that've I've written?   A famous one?
>> Favorite.   >> A favorite one that I've written.
I -- you know, I think -- you know, what's really special
about having a new book published is the excitement
that surrounds that book.
So the question, I'm going to answer that today,
it really is "The Three Little Kittens"
because that's the one that's really most
on my mind and my heart right now.
Okay. I feel like this thing is a tail.
>> When I was four, I had a little movie that's called "Repunzel"
and it's a Barbie movie, and it's about a girl
who escapes her evil stepmother --   >> Right.
>> -- By drawing.   >> Um-hum.
And the question?
>> Can you give me advice to be a drawer?
>> Can I do what?   Help me out [inaudible].
>> Give me advice -- give me the advice to be a drawer.
>> Oh, can I give you advice to being a drawer.
I think that microphone is feeding back.
I -- you know, I mentioned that I had carried a sketchbook
when I was your age, and I think, still, that's the best way to do it
because if you carry a little sketch book around with you,
you can jot down ideas when they come to you.
Or if you see something you want to kind of record, it'll help you,
but if you don't have the tools around you,
you're never going to do it.
so make sure you have the tools around.
Make sure mom and dad gets you a sketchbook.
>> What inspired you to write "The Talking Egss?"
>> Actually I illustrated "The Talking Eggs."
>> Oh, yeah, that's right.
>> I collaborated with the author, Bob San Souci.
Now, and there's something special about "The Talking Eggs."
Does it kind of parallel "Cinderella?"
Yeah, it's sort of a take off from "Cinderella."
By the way, I love "The Talking Eggs."
It's a special book.   You know the pony in that book?
>> Um-hum.
>> My Uncle Osby [assumed spelling] had a pony
with a cart, and I used to ride it.   Yes?
>> How much drawing do you practice every day?
>> I draw as much as I can because I have the projects.
But it's how much time do I take in practicing drawing.
This is a very good question because most often, if I'm not travelling,
I still go to a drawing workshop on Monday evenings.
Why? Because I can still improve my drawing,
so I draw as much as possible.   Yes?
>> Were you ever teased as a child because you were into drawing,
and what would you say to children who are into maybe writing
or drawing or acting or singing, who aren't necessarily into sports,
who get teased as little kids for that?
>> Yeah, I think that you have to kind of combat that with
as much exposure as you can to people with like minds.
You take them to the theater or to the museum so that they build
up a sort of protection from the fact that what they want to do,
that is important to them, may not be important to others.
And that's always going to be there.
If you're true to your goal, and it's different,
that's going to be part of it.
So find yourself surrounded by the things that support you.
Yes?
>> Do you have a special and unique way to personalize your drawings?
>> Do I have special --
>> And unique ways to personalize your drawings?
>> Oh, special ways to personalize my drawing.
There is a way of describing it and saying its style.
There's a style that you find with the I --
more important than the way I draw things, but the way I see things.
That determines what I draw.
It's a kind of finding a unique way of seeing something
and then finding these skills to record that.
So now, I do things in my work that are, I think, unique.
I tend to hide things in it.
But basically, it's about learning to see differently.
Yes?
>> When you draw -- when you were a drawer as a kid,
did you teach yourself how to get better at it,
or did you just draw a lot?
>> I did, and I think a lot had to do with really wanting,
an overwhelming sense that this was important to me,
and I don't remember that there was effort involved.
I -- because I loved every minute of it.
And I was fortunate enough, also, to be encouraged,
but I loved every minute of it.
And I didn't have any great expectations.
I didn't know I was going to become an artist.
It was something that made me feel better
about myself, and it centered me.   >> Thank you.
>> Hi there.   >> Hi.
>> I wanted to ask, who were some
of your favorite illustrators growing up, or even now?
>> Oh, I came from Pennsylvania.
N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle, that whole school of recording.
My work isn't necessarily representational,
but it had that feel and that quality.
So you can imagine, you know, what N.C. Wyeth --
and as a kid, every kid wants something bigger
than life, and he painted that way.
>> Hi. I'd like to know as a children's book illustrator,
how long does it take you to actually do a book, I mean,
with sketchs, and you know, corrections, and painting.
>> Yeah, I -- how long does it take me to finish a book?
I ask for, like, six months.
Some books will strecth into nine, very few that I come in on time,
but -- and there are some where I let it grow on me to the point where
"The Old African" took me two years.
I was very fortunate to have a publisher who understood.
So that's what you want.
You want to invest in something that you love so much,
it doesn't matter how much time it takes,
and that's where you want to be.   And I'm blessed.
I'm in that place now, which publishers understand.
Yeah.   >> Thank you.
>> Over time.   I know what that means.
Couldn't be a zero with a minus or something like that?
I want to say one thing to you guys.
thank you for hanging around for this.
this is an amazing, amazing festival.
It's the 10th anniversary, so let's all say happy anniversary.
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.