Joe Cepeda is the award-winning illustrator of more than twenty children’s books. His work has received an American Library Association 2002 Pura Belpre’ Honor Award and the Recognition of Merit Award for 2000 from the George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books.
In a recent interview, Cepeda talking about movement and action in children’s book illustrations:
Making a picture book is making a small movie. You need action scenes, as well as moments to introduce a character, close up shots, contemplative scenes, chase scenes, sad pictures.. etc. There’s some level of “action” in every image. Because a character is standing in the middle of an empty room, doesn’t mean there is no action there. Perhaps tilting the characters head to look over his shoulder offers a sense of fear, anxiety… tension. A clenched fists alludes to anger. There’s always action.
In this video, Cepeda does a guerrilla reading from a book he both wrote and illustrated, The Swing. You can see more of his work on his website.
GuerrillaReads 
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