David LaRochelle, an award-winning author and illustrator, didn’t always want to be a writer. “When I was very young, what I wanted to be was a dragon. Then I realized that was not a possible career choice, so I chose something more realistic: I wanted to be a dinosaur. Then, after that, I moved to balloon man. Finally, I decided I wanted to be a cartoonist like Charles Shultz.”
In pursuit of his cartooning dreams and the hope of working for Hallmark cards, LaRochelle majored in art and English at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. With a bachelor’s degree and a portfolio in hand, LaRochelle made his way to Hallmark for an interview. “They said ‘no, we’re sorry but we don’t think you can draw well enough.’” When his future career ambitions were thwarted, he despondently wondered, “What am I going to do next?”
As a child, LaRochelle was the one who would go back to class after school to see if the teachers needed help. As the years passed, he was always drawn to elementary school. So when his Hallmark dream was crushed, LaRochelle returned to school as an elementary education major and eventually made his way back into the classroom as a full-time teacher. “I have such respect for teachers. I think there are very few professions as important as teaching, and I wanted to do something important like that which would impact kids in a positive way.”
It was during his time as a fourth-grade teacher that LaRochelle was discovered by an editor at Carolrhoda Books. On the side, LaRochelle had been doing some writing and illustrating and sending his pieces out to local children’s magazines and to contests. One such piece was a short story entitled A Christmas Guest, which he would read to his students every year. One year, a friend and colleague asked for a copy to read to her first-grade students. Though she did read it to her class, she also called an editor at Carolrhoda and read it over the phone. “It was a way you never go about getting a book published! But the editor listened and said to send it in, and that became my first book.”
“I have such respect for teachers. I think there are very few professions as important as teaching.”
After achieving tenure as a teacher, LaRochelle decided to take a leave of absence to determine whether or not he could make a go of writing books—that was 25 years ago. “When I decided not to go back, it was a very tough decision that I literally cried over. I was very disappointed in myself, but now I realize that I am still teaching and I am still in the classroom through my school visits.” He also participates in mentoring activities for young people such as the annual Young Authors Conference sponsored by Success Beyond the Classroom (SBC).
LaRochelle has three new books being launched in 2013: How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans (illustrated by Mark Fearing), Arlo’s ARTrageous Adventure: 50 Flaps to Flip! (illustrated by David LaRochelle), and MOO! (illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka).
After achieving tenure as a teacher, LaRochelle decided to take a leave of absence to determine whether or not he could make a go of writing books—that was 25 years ago. “When I decided not to go back, it was a very tough decision that I literally cried over. I was very disappointed in myself, but now I realize that I am still teaching and I am still in the classroom through my school visits.” He also participates in mentoring activities for young people such as the annual Young Authors Conference sponsored by Success Beyond the Classroom (SBC).
LaRochelle has three new books being launched in 2013: How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans (illustrated by Mark Fearing), Arlo’s ARTrageous Adventure: 50 Flaps to Flip! (illustrated by David LaRochelle), and MOO! (illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka).
With How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans (Dial Books, 2013), LaRochelle had very little contact with his illustrator during the process of creating the book. However, he couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome. “Mark took the idea and brought all his creative energy to it. The best part, without a doubt, is how the beans look in the book. To look at their faces and their antics in the background, I still go back and find new things every time I look.” With LaRochelle’s other two new titles, he had much more contact and collaboration with the illustrators.
Arlo’s ARTrageous Adventure (Sterling, August 2013) is LaRochelle’s first attempt at writing and illustrating a book. Though it took five years from start to finish, he is pleased with the end result—50 fun flaps throughout the book that change the images on each page. With MOO! (Walker Childrens, October 2013), he had intended to self-illustrate the book. He was very excited about the challenge of writing a one-word book and had sketched out an example including illustrations. However, around the same time, he received a postcard announcing an art show for his friend Mike Wohnoutka. On that postcard was a cow, THE cow that LaRochelle envisioned for MOO! He approached Wohnoutka about the possibility of working together, and it took off from there.
Currently, LaRochelle is working on another picture book for Chronicle as well as several new picture book ideas. He has also been developing a middle-grade novel that will soon be ready to send to an editor. Though he has no plans to write another young adult novel following the success of Absolutely, Positively Not, he believes in never saying never. “Picture books still remains the genre that speaks to me most.”
