Happy Birthday, Lady Liberty!

The Statue of Liberty is 125 years old today! Here's an illustration I did for the book, Lady Liberty: A Biography, of Sculptor Auguste Bartholdi waiting inside the crown during the big unveiling ceremony on October 28, 1886.

LADY LIBERTY. Text Copyright © 2008 Doreen Rappaport. Illustrations © 2008 Matt Tavares. Candlewick Press, Cambridge, MA.

Baseball Night at Barnes and Noble!

The World Series starts tonight! To celebrate, join me and award-winning baseball writer/historian Mark Stang at Barnes and Noble in Saugus, Massachusetts tonight at 7pm. We'll be signing books and talking baseball. Should be a lot of fun!

Over the River events...

My new picture book, Over the River and Through the Wood, is now available! So far so good- it's gotten some nice reviews, and already won an Oppenheim Gold Seal Award. Starting this weekend, I'll be visiting bookstores and libraries (and a museum) around New England signing, reading, and talking about it. If you can make it, please stop by and say hi! Here's where I'll be:

October 1, 3:00 pm Book Ends, Winchester MA 

October 15, 10:00-12:00 Children's Book Cellar, Waterville, ME

October 19, 7:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Saugus, MA

October 22, 11:00 am Water Street Bookstore, Exeter, NH

October 29, 3:00 pm Andover Bookstore, Andover, MA

November 5, 10:00 am, Windham Public Library, Windham, ME,
part of Family Fun Literacy Day

November 13, Connecticut Children's Book Fair, Storrs, CT

November 19, 10:00-12:00 Wenham Museum, Wenham, MA

November 19, 1:00-4:00 pm Barnes & Noble, Newington, NH

December 3, 10:30 am Kennebooks, Kennebunk, ME

December 10, 10:30-12:00 Animal Instinct, Ogunquit, ME 

Over the River and Through the Wood comes out today!

Visit Indiebound.org to find it at a bookstore near you!

Banned Books Week Online Auction

I'm proud to have a piece of artwork up for bid RIGHT NOW in the Banned Books Week Auction. The auction is run by The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), the booksellers' voice in the fight against censorship.

Founded by the American Booksellers Association, ABFFE has been protecting the free expression rights of booksellers and their customers for over 20 years. ABFFE is a founding sponsor of Banned Books Week and the Kids Right to Read Project, a joint initiative with the National Coalition Against Censorship that opposes the removal of books from schools and libraries.

I originally donated this painting, an outtake from Henry Aaron's Dream, for the ABFFE silent auction at Book Expo America. But they set it aside along with 69 other works by some pretty amazing illustrators, so they could do this online auction. 

The cool thing about this auction is that  a) you don't have to be at BEA to bid, and b) all the bids start at the ridiculously low price of 99 cents! Even now, with only 1 day to go, I don't think any item has gone over $200. This is a rare opportunity to get a great deal on some original artwork by some of the best children's book illustrators in the biz. In this first group alone, there is work by Adam Rex, Paul O. Zelinsky, Rosemary Wells, Wendell Minor, Hans Wilhelm...!

Click here to see for yourself. Good luck!

Henry Aaron hitting his 715th home run

Over the River and Through the Wood trailer

Watch me work! Hear me whistle!!

 Over the River and Through the Wood will be available in bookstores on September 27.

Ted Williams and the Jimmy Fund

Today, August 30, is the 93rd birthday of Ted Williams (although he celebrated it on October 30 during his playing days because he didn't want to be distracted during the baseball season). Today also happens to be the first day of the 10th annual NESN/WEEI Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon, which has raised a whopping $26 million dollars to help fight cancer, over the last nine years.

During his career, Ted Williams made countless unreported visits to the Jimmy Fund clinic, not just stopping by to say hi but actually staying and spending time with kids, helping them with their homework, talking about hitting, promising home runs and brightening their worlds. He was the single most influential person in helping to raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, which still thrives today.

What better way to celebrate the birthday of Ted Williams than to give to the Jimmy Fund today.

Ted Williams Jimmy Fund statue outside Fenway Park

Illustration from THERE GOES TED WILLIAMS copyright © 2012 Matt Tavares.
Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Inc., Somerville, MA.