Resource Books

By Stephen King

Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work.

By Ann Whitford Paul

Fully updated and thoroughly revised, Writing Picture Books Revised and Expanded Edition is the go-to resource for writers crafting stories for children ages two to eight. You’ll learn the unique set of skills it takes to bring your story to life by using tightly focused text and leaving room for the illustrator to be creative.

By Uri Shulevitz:

Writing with Pictures is the one book that every children’s book illustrator must have and will be of interest to writers and those who study the picture book too. The author is a Caldecott medalist, and gives the reader a master’s class in the theory and the practicalities of picture book illustration in particular and of illustration more generally.

By Molly Bang

First published in 1991, Picture This has changed the way artists, illustrators, reviewers, critics, and readers look at and understand art.

By Roy Peter Clark

Roy Peter Clark, America’s most influential writing teacher, whittled down almost thirty years of experience in journalism, writing, and teaching into a series of fifty short essays on different aspects of writing. Writing Tools has become a classic guidebook for novices and experts alike and remains one of the best-loved books on writing available.

By William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

This is The Elements of Style, the classic style manual, now in a fourth edition. A new Foreword by Roger Angell reminds readers that the advice of Strunk & White is as valuable today as when it was first offered. This book’s unique tone, wit and charm have conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. 

By Mignon Fogarty

Online sensation Grammar Girl makes grammar fun and easy in this New York Times bestseller

By Nancy Lamb

You dream of writing stories that children respond to–the kind they come back to again and again. Nancy Lamb can help you achieve that dream. She mixes insightful advice for mastering storytelling with dozens of examples that illustrate a variety of plot-building techniques.

By Martin Salisbury

The successful book illustrator starts by understanding his author’s flight of fancy, then rendering the ideas and actions imaginatively in pictorial terms. This unusual and inspiring book was written for art students and ambitious beginners.

By Mary Oliver

With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver tells of the basic ways a poem is built—meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. She talks of iambs and trochees, couplets and sonnets, and how and why this should matter to anyone writing or reading poetry. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, Oliver imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a remarkably short space.

by Anastasia Suen

An innovative resource provides children with the necessary tools and techniques to unleash and enhance their creativity in writing by concentrating on the selection of every word, image, and phrase to construct evocative characters, settings, and plots driven by description. 

by Kathleen T. Horning

This revised edition of From Cover to Cover offers a fresh, up-to-date look at some of the best examples of children’s literature and also includes practical advice on how to write clearly articulated, reasoned opinions so that others can learn about books they have not yet read.

by Barbara Seuling

Do you dream of becoming the next J. K. Rowling? Are you excited about writing for children but have no idea how to begin or where to send your material? Now, respected children’s writer Barbara Seuling gives you the essential steps to getting published in the competitive, exciting world of children’s literature.

by Olga Litowinsky

Discusses what editors expect from children’s book authors and offers advice on writing and submitting a manuscript, marketing and publicizing one’s own work, and dealing with agents, contracts, and writers’ rights.

By Dilys Evans

For over 30 years, Dilys Evans has been deeply involved in the fine art of children’s book illustration. In 1980 she founded The Original Art, an annual exhibition in New York featuring the best children’s book illustration of the year. Now, in this fascinating exploration of children’s book illustration, she focuses on the work of 12 contemporary illustrators. 

By Jill Bossert

The Society of Illustrators, the prestigious American Arts Organization, is exploring a children’s book project. See how the top American illustrators solve their individual assignments in easy-to-follow steps.

by Pat Cummings 

These first-person accounts have a remarkably strong common thread, yet are as varied and unique as the artists themselves

by Desdemona McCannon

The latest in our bestselling Encyclopedia of Art series now focuses on a popular topic for both writers and illustrators: how to make, craft, and sell children’s books. This practical book is a step-by-step guide to becoming a successful graphic storyteller, showing how to create exciting plots and engaging characters that will delight young readers.

by Treld Pelkey Bicknell & Felicity Trotman 

Explores the art of storytelling and the basics of writing for children, including classic fiction, contemporary themes, picture books, book production, fads, nonfiction, and careers as a children’s writer or illustrator.

by Susan E. Meyer

Represented in 417 illustrations with 186 color plates are the drawings and paintings of illustrators whose images are admired for their artistic merit, as well as for the fads and fashions they inspired and the record of history that is their legacy.

by Kevin Hedgpeth and Stephen Missal 

Designed to show how drawing, and particularly life drawing, provides the foundation for understanding and creating animation.

by Kevin Hedgpeth and Stephen Missal 

Seasoned character creators Kevin Hedgpeth and Stephen Missal, drawing on the concepts examined in their previous book, Exploring Drawing for Animation, present a definitive guide to designing and developing characters for visual media. Exploring Character Design covers the entire character-creation process, from concept to final product-including research, conceptualization, synthesis, and refinement.

by Andrew Loomis

His hugely influential series of art instruction books have never been bettered, and Figure Drawing is the first in Titan’s programme of facsimile editions, returning these classic titles to print for the first time in decades.

by Andrew Loomis

Drawing the Head and Hands is the second in Titan’s programme of facsimile editions, returning these classic titles to print for the first time in decades.

by Jack Hamm 

A how-to handbook that makes drawing easy. Offers simplified techniques and scores of brand-new hints and helps. Step by step procedures. Hundreds of illustrations.

by Stan Lee and John Buscema 

One of the first and still one of the best, Stan Lee’s How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way has been the primary resource for any and all who want to master the art of illustrating comic books and graphic novels.

by Barbara Bradley

In Drawing People, award-winning illustrator and instructor Barbara Bradley provides all the information you need to render clothed human figures with energy, detail and control.

by Mark Simon

All artists are tired of persuading their nearest and dearest to look sad…look glad…look mad…madder…no, even madder…okay, hold it. For those artists (and their long-suffering friends), here is the best book ever. Facial Expressions includes more than 2,500 photographs of 50 faces—men and women of a variety of ages, shapes, sizes, and ethnicities—each demonstrating a wide range of emotions and shown from multiple angles.

by Mark Simon 

Facial Expressions Babies to Teens solves the artists’ problems of capturing fleeting facial expressions of young people with a dazzling array of more than 2,500 photographs of fifty babies, kids, and teens demonstrating every human emotion through facial expression. Artists, animators, cartoonists – everyone who needs to capture any look from babyhood to age 19 must have a copy of this fascinating reference.

by James Gurney 

From the award-winning artist, learn to see and shape the world in a way you never before imagined.

by James Gurney 

From New York Times best-selling author of the Dinotopia series, James Gurney, comes a carefully crafted and researched study on color and light in paintings.