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.
