Jana Dillon

When I was a preschooler, my father was a student at the Museum School of Fine Arts.  Sometimes he would bring home a book from Boston for my sister and me.  We would study the illustrations for hours and ask my mother to read the book over and over.  Inspired, my sister and I made up stories and drew pictures to go with them.  I knew that I wanted to make books then and there and for all time. Soon I had two more sisters and we all loved to read, draw, write, and sing.

In second grade, my teacher, Mrs. Ann Sullivan Talanian, reinforced my decision.  She told us that if she came back from lunch and she found us sitting silently at our desks, she would read us a chapter from The Boxcar Children.  It was an old book locked in an old glass cabinet behind her desk, which added to our appreciation.  I remember peeking at the ecstatic faces of my classmates as she read.  They were so interested and so happy.  This is when I decided that if I could make people feel this way, a career as an author and illustrator would be as worthwhile as a career as a doctor or teacher.

When I grew up, first I became a teacher, then I became an author and an illustrator, and then I began to visit schools again, but this time, instead of teaching in one school, I visit schools all over the country.

When I both write and illustrate a book, I can have the illustrations do a great deal of the work of telling the story.  It's absolutely true that a picture is worth a thousand words.  It also takes a thousand times longer to illustrate a story than to write it.  When one person gets the chance to create both the story and the illustrations, the book takes on the personality, individuality, and vision of the creator, and the reader can truly see inside the bookmaker's mind.