LLAMA UNLEASHES THE ALPACALYPSE by Jonathan Stutzman and Heather Fox
Hello, Jonathan Stutzman! Hello, Heather Fox! Welcome back to Watch. Connect. Read. I love following your literary adventures online. Is it true you stopped by today to share some AMAZING and AWESOME and A++++ news about everyone’s favorite llama?
Jonathan and Heather: Yes it is! Thank you for having us back on your blog! We are delighted to be stopping by Watch. Connect. Read. and we are so happy to be able to reveal the cover for LLAMA UNLEASHES THE ALPACALYPSE!
John Schu: W00t! w00t! w00t!
Jonathan, please finish the following sentence starters:
Ta-da, zoop, and DAT! I love silly interjections. I use them in every day life (maybe too much) and they often find their way into my stories. The English language is full of all sorts of fantastic words, but I find sometimes it’s the made-up or mispronounced words dat* are the most fun to use! Words are magic, and like any good potion-making class, writing is full of all sorts of possibilities depending how you mix and play with words.
(*that)
Did you know Llama is a little inspired by me? Heather likes to say that out of the two of us, I’d be definitely be Llama and she would be Alpaca. I’m the one who eats too many donuts, I’m the one who often loses track of life because I’m so focused on the stories I’m writing, I’m the messiest, I’m the silliest dancer, and of course, I’m the one who has ripped my pants…twice. Sigh. The truth comes out! Thankfully, I haven’t destroyed the world… in that way Llama and I are different. As far as I know of.
Heather's illustrations are big and vibrant and full of wonderful expressions. I feel so lucky that I get to make books with her! I LOVE seeing what facial expressions she uses in each situation Llama gets himself into, there is so much humor in his big eyes and goofy smiles. Llama’s looks of obliviousness and confidence, while the world tumbles down around him, I can’t help but crack up every time I see them! She is so good at them. Also, I think her use of negative space helps draw the reader to those bold characterizations, it reminds me of the books of P.D. Eastman I grew up loving as a kid.
Heather and Jonthan, please finish the following sentence starter:
Mr. Schu, you should have asked us which meal is our favorite meal of the day is!
Heather: BREAKFAST! I do enjoy a stack of pancakes now and then, though I’m definitely more of an eggs-bacon-and-toast kind of gal. I could eat breakfast all day, every day. It’s the perfect meal to pair with coffee and warm cinnamon buns.
Jonathan: My favorite meal of the day is definitely breakfast. I love pancakes and good coffee. Like Heather said before, it was over pancakes in the wee hours of the morning that we came up with the original idea for Llama Destroys the World!
ps: Thanks so much for having us, Mr. Schu and for all the love and passion you put into promoting books, book makers, and literacy!
Thank you for being here. I love reading aloud Llama Destroys the World. I am excited to share Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse next year.
Jonathan Stutzman is an award-winning filmmaker and a picture book author. He is the author of Llama Destroys the World, Don't Feed the Coos, Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse, and Tiny T-Rex and the Impossible Hug. He received his masters at Temple University for film and digital media. He lives in Lititz, Pennsylvania, with his wife, the illustrator Heather Fox.
Heather Fox is an illustrator and graphic designer, creating art in pen and ink, digital, and gouache. She is the illustrator of Llama Destroys the World, Don't Feed the Coos, and Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse. Her art is filled with large quantities of quirk and dashes of whimsy, and she is very passionate about illustrating children's books and traveling the world. She lives in Lititz, Pennsylvania, with her husband, the writer Jonathan Stutzman.
Jonathan and Heather: Yes it is! Thank you for having us back on your blog! We are delighted to be stopping by Watch. Connect. Read. and we are so happy to be able to reveal the cover for LLAMA UNLEASHES THE ALPACALYPSE!
John Schu: W00t! w00t! w00t!
Jonathan and Heather: This is the sequel to our first picture book, Llama Destroys the World, and Llama is back to his old ways of eating and destruction (to no one’s surprise). This book begins post-breakfast, Llama has eaten a delicious feast but his kitchen is a complete mess. Llama loves breakfasts but he does not love cleaning up. He invites his friend Alpaca (who is much more tidy) to come over and then, invites Alpaca into a newly constructed cloning machine. A few ZOOPS later and there is an army of Alpacas cleaning away and making an even bigger mess… which eventually leads to a disastrous Alpaca-lypse!
John Schu: Hooray!
Heather, please finish the following sentence starters:
Breakfast is what inspired the very creation of Llama! Eating pancakes at 3am at our local diner. I remember sitting there with Jonathan- we had some paper and pencils and our thinking caps as we were brainstorming our next book. Well, now we’ve reached the sequel to LLAMA DESTROYS THE WORLD so we just had to include breakfast (specifically pancakes) to pay tribute to that moment. Also, I’m pretty sure Jonathan makes pancakes for himself at least four times a week…so it’s a pretty big deal at our house.
John Schu: Hooray!
Breakfast is what inspired the very creation of Llama! Eating pancakes at 3am at our local diner. I remember sitting there with Jonathan- we had some paper and pencils and our thinking caps as we were brainstorming our next book. Well, now we’ve reached the sequel to LLAMA DESTROYS THE WORLD so we just had to include breakfast (specifically pancakes) to pay tribute to that moment. Also, I’m pretty sure Jonathan makes pancakes for himself at least four times a week…so it’s a pretty big deal at our house.
Illustrating Llama’s adventures is one of the funnest things ever. I feel like I put a lot of myself into the art with all the weird, silly, bright vibes it gives off. Growing up, I loved watching cartoons (and I still do!), and I feel like character expression from those animated shows rubbed off on me. One of my favorite shows as a kid was Spongebob, and if you’ve watched that show at all you’ll notice how much expression is able to be captured just with eyes and facial expression! Most of the background characters in Alpacalypse don’t have any dialog text, but their faces can generally give away what they’re feeling at that moment.
I hope Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse brings all the fun and crazy mayhem that the readers are expecting! I almost feel like this book is even more chaotic than the first. At least with Llama Destroys the World there was only ONE black hole. There was ONE problem that needed to be resolved. This time around, Llama has way more than one problem to deal with: a whole mob of Alpacas! I don’t think a problem this big will be able to slip under Llamas nose…
I hope Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse brings all the fun and crazy mayhem that the readers are expecting! I almost feel like this book is even more chaotic than the first. At least with Llama Destroys the World there was only ONE black hole. There was ONE problem that needed to be resolved. This time around, Llama has way more than one problem to deal with: a whole mob of Alpacas! I don’t think a problem this big will be able to slip under Llamas nose…
Jonathan, please finish the following sentence starters:
Ta-da, zoop, and DAT! I love silly interjections. I use them in every day life (maybe too much) and they often find their way into my stories. The English language is full of all sorts of fantastic words, but I find sometimes it’s the made-up or mispronounced words dat* are the most fun to use! Words are magic, and like any good potion-making class, writing is full of all sorts of possibilities depending how you mix and play with words.
(*that)
Did you know Llama is a little inspired by me? Heather likes to say that out of the two of us, I’d be definitely be Llama and she would be Alpaca. I’m the one who eats too many donuts, I’m the one who often loses track of life because I’m so focused on the stories I’m writing, I’m the messiest, I’m the silliest dancer, and of course, I’m the one who has ripped my pants…twice. Sigh. The truth comes out! Thankfully, I haven’t destroyed the world… in that way Llama and I are different. As far as I know of.
Heather's illustrations are big and vibrant and full of wonderful expressions. I feel so lucky that I get to make books with her! I LOVE seeing what facial expressions she uses in each situation Llama gets himself into, there is so much humor in his big eyes and goofy smiles. Llama’s looks of obliviousness and confidence, while the world tumbles down around him, I can’t help but crack up every time I see them! She is so good at them. Also, I think her use of negative space helps draw the reader to those bold characterizations, it reminds me of the books of P.D. Eastman I grew up loving as a kid.
Heather and Jonthan, please finish the following sentence starter:
Mr. Schu, you should have asked us which meal is our favorite meal of the day is!
Heather: BREAKFAST! I do enjoy a stack of pancakes now and then, though I’m definitely more of an eggs-bacon-and-toast kind of gal. I could eat breakfast all day, every day. It’s the perfect meal to pair with coffee and warm cinnamon buns.
Jonathan: My favorite meal of the day is definitely breakfast. I love pancakes and good coffee. Like Heather said before, it was over pancakes in the wee hours of the morning that we came up with the original idea for Llama Destroys the World!
ps: Thanks so much for having us, Mr. Schu and for all the love and passion you put into promoting books, book makers, and literacy!
Thank you for being here. I love reading aloud Llama Destroys the World. I am excited to share Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse next year.
Look for Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse on May 5, 2020.
Jonathan Stutzman is an award-winning filmmaker and a picture book author. He is the author of Llama Destroys the World, Don't Feed the Coos, Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse, and Tiny T-Rex and the Impossible Hug. He received his masters at Temple University for film and digital media. He lives in Lititz, Pennsylvania, with his wife, the illustrator Heather Fox.
Heather Fox is an illustrator and graphic designer, creating art in pen and ink, digital, and gouache. She is the illustrator of Llama Destroys the World, Don't Feed the Coos, and Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse. Her art is filled with large quantities of quirk and dashes of whimsy, and she is very passionate about illustrating children's books and traveling the world. She lives in Lititz, Pennsylvania, with her husband, the writer Jonathan Stutzman.
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