about the book
Another counting book? This one is different!
Open the cover. The first two pages are totally black…except one small hole…which is shining bright! Can you guess what it is? The moon? A flash light? Guess again!
Turn the page and discover it’s a choo-choo train! And look closely. Now that one small hole is all black—and it’s the opening to the tunnel!
Turn the page again to discover another mystery all in black. But this time there are two lights staring back at you. The words say they are hovering in flight! A flying car? A balloon-powered bike?
You’ll have to turn the page and check it out. Be sure to count all the holes and discover what they become, when you flip the page. Each one leads to a very cool surprise!
Have you figured out the book is all about vehicles? The fun is discovering what each one is!
You’ll never guess what’s on the last two pages. Let’s just say, it is all about this book!
about the author
Nicholas Blechman never even knew that his father was a famous illustrator, cartoonist, and filmmaker. R.O. Blechman, better known as Bob, worked long hours; he never brought his work home or talked about what he did. But little Nicholas took after his dad. His very first book, created when he was four, was all about ships. His father wasn’t so much impressed by the writing and illustrating as by the fact that his son turned his work into a book!
Then in 1981, Nicholas came across one of his father’s covers on a New Yorker Magazine in a grocery store. After seeing more of his father’s work in other periodicals, Nicholas knew his father was famous, but just wasn’t sure why his squiggly drawings were such hot stuff. When his friends asked him what his father did for a living, Nicholas replied that his dad was a cartoonist. His friends were disappointed to learn there were no superheroes involved…and so was Nicholas!
After Nicholas graduated from Oberlin (the same college his father went to), his style of drawing evolved very differently from his dad’s. Nicholas’s work is more graphic and he uses digital mediums, while Bob still prefers to do each piece by hand. For a while Nicholas used the moniker Knickerbocker just so he wouldn’t have to compete with his father’s notoriety. But as Nicholas gained success in his own right, their competition lessened and both came to respect the other.
While still an illustrator and cartoonist, Nicholas also taught at the School of Visual Arts and the Maryland Institute’s College of Art. Since 1997, he has been art director for The New York Times Book Review. The funny thing is that he is now in the curious position of assigning and evaluating his dad’s work!
Sources:
Author website
Author profile: Print Mag
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