Dan Santat

Born: October 2, 1975

Meet the author Dan Santat: https://us.macmillan.com/author/dansantat/

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Author biography: “American children’s illustrator and author Dan Santat worked on both his own books and books by other authors. He won the Caldecott Medal for most distinguished picture book in 2015 for his mixed-media illustrations for The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (2014), which he also wrote.

Santat was born about 1975 in Brooklyn, New York, but raised in California. He graduated from the University of California at San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He then attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, from which he earned a degree in illustration.

The first book that Santat both wrote and illustrated was The Guild of Geniuses (2004). In the book Frederick tries to cheer up his friend, Mr. Pip (a monkey), so he takes him to a group of geniuses, who try different activities and inventions to distract him. Ten years later Santat produced the award-winning The Adventures of Beekle, a story about an imaginary friend who tires of waiting for a child to imagine him and leaves home to find a companion. Another work that Santat completed on his own was the graphic novel Sidekicks (2011), which tells the story of a superhero and his superpets. He also contributed the graphic story “300 Words” to the anthology Comics Squad: Recess! (2014).

Santat was just as well known for illustrating books for other authors. He was noted for his work on Dav Pilkey’s popular Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot series, on Nancy Star’s Calendar Club mystery series, and on actress Rhea Perlman’s Otto Undercover series. Santat’s other numerous book illustrations included those for Mac Barnett’s Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) (2010) and Oh No! Not Again! (Or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History) (2012), Corey Rosen Schwartz’s The Three Ninja Pigs (2012) and Ninja Red Riding Hood (2014), and Samantha Berger’s Crankenstein (2013) and A Crankenstein Valentine (2014)……from https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Dan-Santat/625299

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Books by Dan Santat:

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (The Caldecott Medal winner)

After the Fall

Are We There Yet?

The Cookie Fiasco (Elephant and Piggie Like Reading)

Harold and Hog Pretend for Real (Elephant and Piggie Like Reading)

Sidekicks

The Guild of Geniuses

Books Illustrated by Dan Santat:

The Ricky Ricotta series by Dav Pilkey

Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) by Mac Barnett