“One of my most treasured times are the day-long monthly writer’s group meetings I attend. “Carol and I realized that despite all our efforts to be good parents, we had forgotten to warn Walter that teeth fall out.” In Walter’s five year old mind, he was coming unglued and about to fall to pieces.Īfter Arnold creates a story, he reads it to his writing group for their comments and suggestions. The idea for Parts came from a memory he jotted in his journal ten years earlier: “When my first son, Walter, was five years old, I found him lying on the couch looking pale as a ghost and clutching a Bible to his chest.” Walter had found his first loose tooth. His ideas come from a variety of places: his children, wildlife, letting his mind wander. I guarantee if your work that hard and that long and finally succeed, you will always remember the first time.”Īrnold has written or illustrated over 25 books. “ No Jumping on the Bed will always be special to me because it was my first picture book. In Arnold’s opinion the biggest misconception about writing for children is that it’s easy.

He worked for six years before selling No Jumping on the Bed, his first book.

Each evening after work I rushed to the library, brought home piles of children’s books and studied them cover to cover.”Īrnold began writing his own stories and illustrating the images they conjured up. “The words and artwork in those gorgeous picture books reminded me of the captioned cartoons I drew in high school or the advertisements I wrote and illustrated every day. “Even in the Army I used my art when I learned I could get out of a lot of boring work and training by offering to paint murals on the barracks walls.”Īrnold’s wife, Carol, taught kindergarten during his advertising days and frequently brought home books she used in the classroom. After graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in art, Arnold got a job illustrating science textbooks and later, advertisements. He filled his high school history notebook with drawings of his own left hand-being a right-handed artist. In junior high, Arnold took his first formal art lessons from an old man in a studio above the Happy Pool Hall in Gainesville, Florida. Cartoons decorated his papers and desk top throughout elementary school. Tedd Arnold has been a soldier, a hamburger cooker, and a worm counter he’s illustrated school books, delivered newspapers and popped popcorn.

Tedd arnold books list