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Learn more about our epic, 50-staet yearlong book tour

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About Us

We are an illustrator/author duo who make books, visit schools, advocate for educational equity, juggle four kids, and run a commercial salmon fishing outfit on the Alaskan tundra.

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Follow our adventures (and daily, 60-second videos) on Instagram or YouTube.

Our Books

Together, we create critically acclaimed, kid-approved, librarian-endorsed, exuberantly illustrated middle grade novels and picture books with Random House and Macmillan.

Browse our Books

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The Busload
of Books

We offer free, in-person author/illustrator visits and book giveaways to one Title I school each month—and free virtual assemblies available to any Title I community (with generous support from our partners First Book and Build-A-Bear Foundation). Sign up to be notified when this programming launches in fall of 2024.

LEARN MORE OR DONATE!

Book Us

We offer in-person and virtual author/illustrator visits (K-6), book-making and collaboration workshops, conference keynotes, and short-term residencies.

Explore the Options

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Fun Stuff

Browse rainy day activities, crafts, and DIY downloadables: make a dragon, bind a book, create a secret handshake.

FOLLOW US

Take a peek inside the studio, the writer’s nook, or the laundry basket via Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook—where we post a 60-second video on whatever we happen to be thinking, feeling, making, or eating. Every dang day.

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Good morning from the Berkshires, where snow is fa

Good morning from the Berkshires, where snow is falling and dogs are shivering, and it’s cozy at this desk as I dive in for the day. The pile of words keeps growing taller and increasingly unruly. But there’s gold mixed in with the muck. (There always is.) I’ll pull it out later and polish it up.

For now, Dumbles would very much like to climb onto my lap. He knows it’s time to get started, and so I shall.

The Daily Minute: 12.5.23 In which Matthew explain

The Daily Minute: 12.5.23
In which Matthew explains the essential ingredients of a successful writing retreat.

The Daily Minute: 12.4.23 In which Matthew is retu

The Daily Minute: 12.4.23
In which Matthew is returning to where things began as he comes upon a birch that is doing the same.

Good morning from the Berkshire Mountains, where I

Good morning from the Berkshire Mountains, where I am up and writing with my coffee and dogs and Hermes the messenger god.

I fall into a strange cycle while on retreat, sleeping and waking in patterns that stem from whatever my brain feels like doing. I woke at 4am with an idea I knew I needed to write down then fell back asleep and woke again 7am with the foot of a dog on my face.

We went outside and saw the early morning, fog piled thick in the next valley over. I went in and made my coffee and noticed as light had turned buttery. We headed out again to greet the sun.

The dogs were helpful in framing the photos. They’re always willing, if constantly confused, as I ask them to sit as I seek the perfect shot.

Now I’m at my desk, processing the 4am idea, trying my hardest to turn off my thinking brain and listen to the greater one that often gets ignored. It’s less useful for opening envelopes driving to the grocery store. But for days like this, where my only occupation is exploring a world of monkeys and witches and magic, the greater brain is just what I need.

I’ll sit here and listen and write down the messages as Hermes delivers them from the deep into the accessible shallows. And otherwise try to stay out of the way.