Nikolai is searching for answers to the most important questions in life and finds resolution through his adventures with a panda and her child. Here, a young boy named Nikolai roams through an impressionistic, magical landscape evocative of old Chinese brush paintings. 'I grew up in Cincinnati and can remember the intense heat of the streets in summer,' says the soft-spoken artist, who now lives in upstate New York.īut Muth transports readers to a very different place and time in The Three Questions (2002), a retelling of a story by Leo Tolstoy, which Muth both wrote and illustrated. Muth evoked his own childhood memories for the urban setting of Come On, Rain!. In 2000, he illustrated Gershon's Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year by Eric Kimmel, which was an ALA Notable Book, winner of the Sydney Taylor Award and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. 'The writing in Come On, Rain! was so beautiful, I immediately said yes.' Come On, Rain!, the story of a young girl celebrating a summer rainstorm, earned Muth a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. 'They weren't exactly sure about publishing what I had brought them, but in the meantime, they asked if I might be interested in illustrating a manuscript they had received by Newbery Award winner Karen Hesse,' Muth recalls. One day he brought his illustrations to Scholastic Press, hoping to turn them into a book for children. After his son was born, Muth developed a comic book inspired by his experiences as a new father. Muth came to children's books through an unusual path: he has been a well-known illustrator of comic books for nearly two decades, and his groundbreaking artwork has been published in both the U.S. Muth's latest book, Stone Soup, a beautiful, heartwarming retelling of the traditional tale, is destined to become a classic. Since 1999, when Come On, Rain!, his first picture book, was published, readers have eagerly awaited each new title by this talented artist. Muth is a bit like pulling open a door and stepping into another world.

Reading a new book by author and illustrator Jon J.

Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth