Inspiration, Imagination and Invention with Simon Rose

This show examines the use of inspiration, imagination and invention while making use of real personalities and events, and the need for accurate historical research.

Our guests this month, Janice and Tom Shefelman. They are an author-illustrator couple who live in Austin, Texas, and work together to make books for children of all ages. They particularly love to write and illustrate books that bring the past alive. Their latest collaboration is a picture book biography, I, Vivaldi, written as if by the composer himself. Research included long stays in Venice, living in the square where Vivaldi’s childhood home still stands, and studying the paintings by artists of his time.

Their books have won many awards, among them the New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age, Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List, Reading Rainbow Book, Children’s Book Council Notable book, and the International Reading Association Children’s Choices. For more information visit www.shefelmanbooks.com .