Today I am excited to share a new book I illustrated by award winning young adult authors Eileen & Jerry Spinelli. Today I Will: A Year of Quotes, Notes, and Promises to Myself is a book of quotes for every day of the year all taken from children’s literature. The authors pulled the quotes from some of my favorite childhood books and gave advice on how to relate them in your own life. It’s a truly inspiring book for all ages. The book starts on January first and continues through the entire calendar year, each day getting it’s own page. For each page I made a spot illustration- that’s 365 illustrations! I had a great time working on the project doing bunches of drawings at a time. I created a cast of strange looking characters I used throughout the book that were mostly a cross between a giraffe and a weaselish looking animal. Random House (who were a pleasure to work with!) gave me all the layouts and basically I just fit my drawings right around the text. You should pick up a copy here- it makes such a great gift.

© Julia Rothman 2007