Tag: Illustrator

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Author & Illustrator Robin Ha Pays a Visit to Ridgewood High School

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the staff of the Ridgewood

Ridgewood NJ, on December 7th, Robin Ha, author of the graphic memoir Almost American Girl, visited Ridgewood High School and shared her time and talents with students and staff. Ms. Ha presented two hands-on Memoir Comics Workshops, each attended by over 250 students! She joined members of the Asian Festival Club to give a more intimate lunchtime talk. Ms. Ha offered strategies for improving one’s writing and drawing skills, engaged the audience with amusing and poignant stories from her past, and brought out the inner artist in all who attended. When asked how we become writers, Ms. Ha responded, “You have to write a lot!” Many thanks to the RHS Home and School Association for their generous sponsorship of this event.

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Illustrator Leah Tinari and author Harlan Coben will read and sign “The Magical Fantastical Fridge.” at Bookends in Ridgewood

Illustrator to sign book with author Harlan Coben in Ridgewood

BY SOPHIA F. GOTTFRIED
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

BOOKS

WHAT: Illustrator Leah Tinari and author Harlan Coben will read and sign “The Magical Fantastical Fridge.”

WHERE: Bookends bookstore, 211 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood.

WHEN: 4 p.m. Tuesday.

DETAILS: Event is free but attendees must purchase the book, $17.99. To reserve books in advance of the signing or order a signed copy, go to book-ends.com.

Artist Leah Tinari is known for her colorful, contemporary paintings. She can now add children’s book illustrator to her résumé, with the newly released “The Magical Fantastical Fridge,” a picture book for children ages 4 to 8. And Tinari, who grew up in Ho-Ho-Kus, has her North Jersey roots to thank for that.

The project came about due to a bold mural Tinari painted in her mother’s restaurant, Janice a Bistro in Ho-Ho-Kus (now called Just Janice). The piece caught the eye of best-selling author Harlan Coben, a Ridgewood resident and a regular at the popular bistro. “One night, my wife, Anne, suggested that Leah’s artwork would work great in a kid picture book,” says Coben, who wrote the story. “That’s how it all started.”

Tinari agrees the book’s back story itself makes for “a very cool Jersey story.”

Coben and Tinari collaborated for almost two years to create the colorful adventure that is “The Magical Fantastical Fridge,” a story about a little boy named Walden who, while boycotting his chores, gets pulled into the photos, mementos and knickknacks on his family refrigerator, which have all come to life.

https://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/books/artist-draws-on-local-roots-for-new-kids-book-1.1515263