Toy Inventor

Ever since Mike can remember he knew he wanted to be an artist. His dad, who was an engineer at the Hiway Department, would bring home reams of paper that had hiway plans on one side and were blank on the other. He would be so excited to have all that paper to draw on and would fill each sheet with race cars, snowmobiles, baseball players, super heroes - everything he was interested in. In high school his art teacher, Mr. Chase, encouraged Mike to pursue art as a career. This, along with a scholarship, led him to the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. Since graduating with a B.F.A. in Illustration, Mike has illustrated over 20 books for children. He has worked with various clients including Random House, Dutton Children’s Books, Clarion Books, Holiday House, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, Walker & Co., Hyperion Books, Sterling Books, Cricket Magazine Group, General Mills, 3M, and Peaceable Kingdom Press.

Guy Francis spends most of his time drawing, painting, and drawing some more. He has done a variety of illustration work in the children’s market, including editorial and educational illustration, chapter books, and picture books. He freelances from his home in Provo, Utah, where his wife and four children are his own personal art critics and bring a healthy bit of chaos to the studio. Every now and then he gets out of the house and heads to the mountains with his family. You can visit him online at www.guyfrancis.com.Readers will smile as Clark learns the true meaning of Christmas.