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Quick Bio:
New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, Tony DiTerlizzi, has been creating books for over a decade. From his fanciful picture books like The Spider & The Fly (a Caldecott Honor book), to chapter books like Kenny and The Dragon and the WondLa trilogy, Tony always imbues his stories with a rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle-grade series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold millions of copies, been adapted into a feature film, and has been translated in over thirty countries. In 2014, he teamed up with Lucasfilm to retell the original Star Wars trilogy in a picture book. This year, a highly-anticipated collection of his early work, REALMS: The Roleplaying Game Art of Tony DiTerlizzi was released. October will see the debut of The Story of Diva & Flea, a collaboration with fellow kid’s lit bestseller, Mo Willems. Tony’s work as been featured in Time magazine, USA Today, CNN, PBS, the BBC and The Today Show.
Detailed Bio:
Dragons, space monsters, goblins and insects: the characters that inhabit storyteller Tony DiTerlizzi’s world haven’t changed since he was a kid growing up in South Florida.
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1969, DiTerlizzi is the oldest of three siblings raised in an artistically rich household. He started drawing at a very young age including a crayon mural of Winnie-the-Pooh on his freshly painted bedroom walls.
One of his first hand-made books was on his favorite subject; dinosaurs, and was done for a Boy Scout merit badge. Fascinated by nature’s endless designs, Tony made another book, this time on insects, carefully drawn from his own collection.
In 1981, after seeing Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal and playing Dungeons & Dragons, the 12 year-old Tony spent the summer writing and illustrating an entire field guide on fantastic creatures. He would return to this premise many years later as the genesis for The Spiderwick Chronicles.
By the time he graduated high school, DiTerlizzi had dreams of becoming a children’s book creator. He attended several art schools including, Florida School of the Arts and the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, receiving his degree in graphic design in 1992.
After graduating, the 23 year-old DiTerlizzi began working freelance for TSR, publisher of Dungeons & Dragons – the game that had inspired him so much as a child. He illustrated many fantastical images of warriors, wizards and monsters over the next 6 years, and also contributed to the collectible card game Magic: the Gathering.
A move to New York City in 1996 brought Tony to the center of the publishing world. At last, his dream of writing and illustrating outstanding imaginative books for children could be realized. And he did it at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
In 2000, his first picture book, Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-this-World Moon Pie Adventure debuted. Inspired by Windsor McKay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland and Norman Rockwell, the story of a young space adventurer in search of his favorite snack garnered positive reviews. Kirkus compared Tony’s work to that of David Wiesner and William Joyce. More importantly, children loved the book.
The next year, he followed up with Ted, the story of a workaholic single parent trying to find time for his son and his mischievous imaginary friend. Once again, the book was well received, and it won several state awards including the University of Chicago’s Zena Sutherland Book Award.
His third picture book, The Spider and The Fly, was based on Mary Howitt’s famous 1829 poem. Here, DiTerlizzi exhibited his love of insects and arachnids as he rendered Chaz Addams-esque paintings of the intrepid spider and the guileless fly. The result was a critically acclaimed, New York Times bestseller. It won a Caldecott Honor, an award for high artistic achievement in children’s publishing, in 2003. Tony’s career as a creator of children’s books was on its way.
During a magazine interview on his work for Dungeons & Dragons, DiTerlizzi met up-and-coming writer Holly Black. A fellow fantasy and folklore lover, the two became fast friends and Tony showed her sketches he was working on for a field guide to fantastic creatures. Black began helping him, and the two created the chapter book series The Spiderwick Chronicles.
Spiderwick followed the adventures of three New England children who unearth an old John James Audubon-styled field guide to fairies, trolls and goblins. No sooner do they find the tome, they then discover that all of its subjects are real and want the guide. The Spiderwick Chronicles were loved by children and adults alike, and was published in over 30 countries, selling over 12 million copies to date.
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies released a live action adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles in 2008 starring Freddie Highmore, Mary Louise-Parker and Nick Nolte. The film was well received by critics and the public, remaining in the top 3 at the box office for a number of weeks.
In 2006, Tony took a break from Spiderwick, returning to the picture book format with his nonsense alphabet book, G is For One Gzonk! Next, he and Holly continued the Spiderwick saga in the new series, Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles. The latest Spiderwick story arc followed a new set of kids dealing with giants, mermaids and nixies in the hot, humid tropics of South Florida.
DiTerlizzi’s passion for crafting more chapter books for young imaginations continued with 2008’s Kenny and The Dragon. Inspired by The Reluctant Dragon, it tells the story of a young, bookish rabbit who becomes friends with a happy-go-lucky drake. As the two become best friends, the king orders the town dragon-slayer to execute the beast – and it is up to the rabbit, Kenny, to stop him. The book became a New York Times bestseller the week of its release and was nominated for several state book awards.
He followed Kenny by teaming up with his wife, Angela, on a silly series of young picture books, Adventure of Meno. Meno, the space elf, and his best friend (a jellyfish named Yamagoo) do not speak in correct grammar and go on ridiculous adventures where they are visited by a variety of guests such as David Hasselhoff and Eddie Vedder.
2010 marked a decade of creating books for children for Tony. He celebrated by returning to aliens and spaceships with a trio of futuristic fairy tales known as the WondLa trilogy. The first story, The Search for WondLa follows a 12-year old girl, Eva Nine, who is raised underground by a robot. Eva discovers that she is the only human alive on an alien planet and begins searching for others like her. The illustrated novel debuted as a New York Times bestseller and was featured on the Today show.
Tony realized a childhood dream by teaming up with Lucasfilm to create a picture book retelling the Star Wars film trilogy. Featuring the original concept art by Academy award-winning artist, Ralph McQuarrie, Tony spun the tale of good versus evil in “a galaxy far, far away” for a new generation of readers.
This year, Dark Horse and Kitchen Sink Books collected Tony’s early work from the beginning of his career in REALMS: The Roleplaying Game Art of Tony DiTerlizzi. The artist marked the occasion by returning to his gaming roots and creating new images of old favorite monsters like goblins, beholders and owl bears.
This fall, The Story of Diva & Flea will be released. This short middle-grade novel follows an unlikely duo of an alley cat and a pampered dog in the grand city of Paris marks a team up with Tony and celebrated kid’s lit icon, Mo Willems.
Tony works with his wife, Angela, and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with their daughter.
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