Meet the Author and Illustrator

We had some very special visitors at our school today. Our fantastic librarian, Mrs. Adams, planned an awesome assembly for just the first and second graders. She invited the Buehners to speak to us. They are the husband and wife team that author and illustrate the cute Snowman books. I found out that you say their name with a long e- (Bean-ner). They have made 22 children's books with the Snowmen series being their latest.

It was so interesting to hear how they create a book from start to finish. They told the kids it takes over a year. They showed them sloppy copies, editor notes, thumbnail sketches, and oil painting canvases of some of their books.

They talked about how they get ideas for a book. Mr. Buehner told the kids how they came up with the idea for the snowmen series. He had built a snowman in the front yard. One morning they noticed the snowman had moved from the middle of the yard to next to the porch and now had some soup in his hand. They laughed about it for weeks before they discovered some good friends had stopped by one night to deliver a gift for a sick family member of soup and bread. When they arrived, the Buehner's house was dark because everyone had gone to bed. Seeing the cute snowman, they decided to play a practical joke on them and proceeded to move him over by the porch. Later, the Buehner's thought it would make a great story.

Cara writes the story first and then Mark gets busy with the art work. Sometimes he'll spend up to 4 weeks on just one pages by the time he sketches, makes changes, and paints it. Each picture is painted in oil paints on canvas. Just amazing.

They took time to autograph books and take pictures.

I was super excited to get this book WITTILDA. It's out of print and now it's autographed as well!

They have several great books you really should check out.

It really makes you appreciate how much work goes into making the picture books we LOVE!

Thanks Buehner's for sharing your wonderful talents!!!