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Matthew Cordell has drawn winter days in TOBY AND THE SNOWFLAKES and fun footwear in RIGHTY AND LEFTY, but 2015 seems to have a very particular theme. Read Matthew's National Picture Book Month post below to learn what it is, and get a sneak peek at his upcoming projects!

A long while back (because it takes a long while for a picture book to get made), when I was conceiving my next idea for a picture book, I knew in my heart that the story had to be told with elephants. This now finished book, WISH, tells the poignant story of a young couple that knows for certain that they want a child together… someday. But rather than jumping right into parenthood, they decide to go on and live their lives only as a couple, growing together and strengthening their love for each other for several years before bringing a child into the picture. When this couple is at long last ready, to their complete disappointment, the baby they so desperately hope for is nowhere near in their grasp. And so they wish, and wish, and wish that they might someday still meet their baby-to-be.

Why elephants? Because elephants are larger-than-life and strong and stoic and familial and intelligent and dramatically magnificent creatures. Making a human character an animal in a picture book always has a way of making things less race/class specific, which I think is a good thing whenever possible. And in my mind’s eye, my animal of choice for WISH could be nothing else but an elephant.

As work on WISH was well underway --- during that period of time in picture book production where one has written the story and is working on character sketches and even early layouts --- I received a manuscript in the mail from my pal, author and illustrator Philip Stead. We had been talking casually for a while about finding a way to work on something together. Phil had mentioned to me he was going to, at some point, be sending me a finished manuscript that my drawings might nicely accompany.  When it arrived, this manuscript of his, SPECIAL DELIVERY, simply blew me away. It was a flurry of madcap activity. There is a little girl, a Great Aunt, a crusty old postal worker, an ill-fated flight, an alligator boat ride, a monkey bandit hijacked train, and… a ride on an ice cream truck. I was incredibly inspired. Images immediately materialized in my head. I had to do it. This one was not getting away from me. Oh… but one other thing. The main character’s sidekick from beginning to end is an elephant.

I love elephants. I really do. Interestingly enough, I went through a mild obsession with elephants in high school, squeezing them into nearly every single art class assignment that I could. But I’m not “The Elephant Guy.” I wondered if I did two elephant-heavy picture books in one year (by sheer coincidence, there is even a scene were elephants are flying in biplanes in each book) it would raise eyebrows in some dark corner snarky picture book circles. Eh… so be it.

Phil had written a perfect picture book that featured an elephant and he asked me to illustrate it. I had written a personally potent picture book story that needed elephant characters. And they would be released in the same year. I would do it and I would not change a thing. The elephant stars had aligned and if I had to become The Elephant Guy then I would become The Elephant Guy. I am incredibly proud of both of these books. (Which means a lot coming out of my hyper-self-deprecating mouth.)

I am also incredibly proud of the third of three books I’ll have out in 2015 --- FIRST GRADE DROPOUTby the very lovely and talented Audrey Vernick. Which, interestingly enough, it does not once, on any page anywhere, include a drawing of an elephant.

WISH is available in February 2015 from Disney-Hyperion books.

SPECIAL DELIVERY is available in March 2015 from Roaring Brook Press.

FIRST GRADE DROPOUT is available in July 2015 from Clarion books.