Matthew Cordell
“I try to have each book look a little different than one before it. A nice way to do that is to have a variety of pens. If you’re adventurous about it, instead of you choosing the pen, you let the story choose the pen.”
Matthew Cordell has illustrated many books for children including works of poetry, novels, and picture books including The Only Fish in the Sea and Follow That Frog by Philip Stead. His love of comics and comic art led him into drawing and introduced him later to his wife, YA novelist and picture book author Julie Halpern. She convinced Cordell to explore children’s illustrations in a creative and freestyle way.
He has written and illustrated numerous picture books himself including Hello, Neighbor! The Kind and Caring World of Mister Rogers, Bear Island, and Wish. His work has been published around the globe in many different languages, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, French, and Italian. Matthew’s books have been recognized as Best of the Year selections by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe, and his first wordless picture book, Wolf in the Snow, was awarded a 2017 Boston Globe-Horn Book honor award and the 2018 Caldecott Medal. Matthew lives in suburban Chicago with his wife Julie, their two children, and a cat named Norbert.
Related Exhibitions: Matthew Cordell’s Neighborhood (2022)