AN UNEXPECTED WRITER
His first book, Grumpy Bird, is inspired by his daughter, Hermione. It all started when the three-year-old demanded to draw grumpy things from Tankard
It was never in Jeremy Tankard’s plan to become a writer — but life has a funny way of doing the most unexpected things. After many years of being an illustrator, he decided to venture out into writing and add words into his art. To his surprise, though, it became a hit.
“It wasn’t my realization — it was my editor’s realization at Scholastic. She made me an author and looked at everything I did on condition that I would write them myself because she believed that I was not an illustrator, but a writer. Thankfully, I’m a good listener. So, I decided it was too good of an offer to pass up because it was so competitive trying to get the attention of the publishers,” he shared.
His first book, Grumpy Bird, is inspired by his daughter, Hermione. It all started when the three-year-old demanded to draw grumpy things from Tankard. “She’s really sweet, cute and really funny, and when she asked me to draw things. So, she wanted me to draw me a grumpy lion, snake and an alarm clock. And finally, she asked for a grumpy bird,” he added.
At that time, Tankard was in the talks with Scholastic about being a writer, and that was where his first series started.
In his struggles, he shared that his daughter is his best cheering section. “She loves all my books, and when I write something and want to feel really good about it, I’ll show it to her first,” Tankard said.
After his debut picture book, Tankard was more confident in doing writing as a job and learned more as the collection keeps on growing. “It was fun to take on new skills and put them into the illustration but also still trying to stay true to the image I’ve created for Grumpy Bird,” he shared.
Grumpy Bird was published by the Scholastic Press in 2007. “It gave me a whole new career,” he shared. It was then followed by Me Hungry! published by Candlewick Press in spring of 2008. Boo Hoo Bird was published by Scholastic Press in 2009.
Tankard’s recent addition to the Grumpy Bird collection is Hungry Bird and Sleepy Bird. He continues to illustrate books for other authors: Piggy Bunny by Rachel Vail; It’s a Tiger! by David Larochelle; Here Comes Destructosaurus! by Aaron Reynolds; and Melvis and Elvis by iconic Canadian writer Dennis Lee.