About the author and illustrator:
Author
John Sluder is a prior US Navy sailor and currently an Electrical Engineer for the US Navy. While in the US Navy, serving on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, John attended college classes. One of his classes was a writing class taught by a Professor Dalton. Professor Dalton assigned a writing project that was a short story that rhymed. John was not enthused nor any good at writing. Professor Dalton told John the best way to write, was to write about something you know. John was not a poet nor a writer. He was a technician. So, after some cajoling and coercion, Professor Dalton convinced John to write a story about an event from childhood they had shared earlier in the class. After Professor Dalton graded the project he told John he should make it a childrens book as the story was wonderful and it brought back his own memories of childhood. It took John over twenty years to finally write it.
This book was inspired by a childhood memory John had of catching frogs in ponds and ditches and how he was told that toads could give you warts. John did not want to do what others had done. Just writing a story was not enough. He took the story, removed the color from the illustrations, and made a coloring book OF the story that he included at the end.
Enjoy the story with your children. Join them in the coloring and see their interpretation come to life and remember how wonderful childhood is!
Illustrator
Hello, everyone. My name is Kyisha-Shaniece M. Smith.
I’ve been drawing since I was about five years old. Up until I reached the tenth grade, I was self-taught. My family would often find me looking online or through magazines for references to human poses, facial expression, hands, feet, etc., and I would spend hours trying to recreate them. Neither my elementary, middle, nor my high school had any art programs, so I was on my own when it came to practicing my art. Then, in my tenth grade year I transferred to Victor Valley High School and it was there that I met who would soon become my mentor and one of my dearest friends– Debra Carnes. Ms. Carnes taught me the fundamentals of art, and she showed me how to better portray my techniques and overall, she helped me become a better artist as a whole. It is a fact that without Ms. Carnes’ help and guidance, I would not have progressed as far as I have.
My dream in life is to create my very own manga series as well as an anime. Since the tenth grade I’ve made dozens of characters, fleshed them out and gave them each their own role in both their story and my heart. For a few characters, I’ve even come up with ideas for spinoff stories, and in turn, I’ve begun the process of making even more drafts for mangas and animes. I hope to travel to Japan to make my dream a reality, as Japanese animation is where most of my art-style and technique is inspired from. I hope to join a specific animation company based there– Toei Animation– and create my legacy.
Here are some of my drawings.
Page from the book.
If you would like to purchase the book, please go to:
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