Welcome to the official home of Art Dog, Mama Don’t Allow and all the rest of the creations of Thacher Hurd, the winner of The Boston Globe Horn Book Award, The New York Times Best Children's Books Award, and a twice featured Reading Rainbow author.
Thacher Hurd is the award-winning author/illustrator of a wide range of children’s books; board books Zoom City and Cat’s Pajamas, picture books Art Dog, Mama Don’t Allow, Mystery on the Docks and Bad Frogs and the recent middle grade novel, Bongo Fishing.
Thacher’s new middle grade novel is a zany intergalactic romp with nine-year-old Jason from Berkeley and two friendly aliens from the Pleiades, Sam and Edna, who travel the universe in a 1960 Dodge Dart. An evil psychiatrist, ray guns and a rickety rocket cycle complete the sci-fi ambience.
I fell in love with photogravure ten years ago when I first saw a small print by Unai San Martin. The rich images produced by photogravure, one of the earliest and most difficult photographic processes, rival any other method in their beauty.
In the late thirties my father illustrated The World is Round, the only published children's book by Gertrude Stein. HarperCollins will be publishing a reissue of the book, as an exact reproduction of the first edition, with bright pink pages and deep blue type. An unusual and beautiful modernist children's book unlike any other. I have written a short introduction, and there is also an essay about the making of the book, by my mother, Edith Thacher Hurd. Coming sometime next year.
The dog story collection Because of Shoe and Other Dog Stories has been published by Henry Holt, with my story Patty amongst them. Patty is a slightly off-kilter, half-fact mostly fiction rendition of life with a black lab in Vermont, where we spent our summers during my childhood(We still go there for most of the summer).
From the Holt blurb for the book:
Hilarious and heartwarming dog stories from nine renowned authors:
• Ann M. Martin
• Jon Muth
• Mark Teague
• Margarita Engle
• Thacher Hurd
• Valerie Hobbs
• Matt de la Peña
• Pam Muñoz Ryan
• Wendy Orr
For young readers who have ever wanted, known or loved a dog, the short stories in this anthology evoke the full spectrum of endearing doggy traits! With stories ordered from easiest to most difficult to read, this is a book for young readers of varying levels to enjoy.
I've gotten distracted from children's books lately, and been wandering around doing all the things in life I always wanted to do. Somewhere on the list was the banjo, so I started... more...
In the back of the car, the old Ford station wagon, driving from California to Vermont in the fifties. I was an only child, in my own world in the back of the car. I could stay there all day... more...