It was a short jaunt but we made the most of it - tons of schools, tons of readings, lots of murals, lots of kids. How’s the tour going? It looks like a lot of fun from the pictures on your website. PopMatters caught up with him, via email, just after he completed a short tour of the western U.S., for a discussion that touched on his self-made success story, his son’s role in his creative process and the importance of making kid’s books that connect on multiple levels. Now, The Awesome World Foundation sends Clayton all over the world to read, paint murals, sing songs and have a rowdy and mischievous good time with the kids who love his books. And Google recently featured him and his son in a popular ad campaign for their Chrome web browser, bringing even higher levels of exposure.
Clayton’s books with - their smart and silly rhyme schemes and wonderfully quirky illustrations - have earned comparisons to the work of his heroes Dr. And now, he has book deals with both Harper Collins and Candlewick Press, who put out his recently released collection of poetry, Make Magic! Do Good!. Amazon published his second book, An Awesome Book of Thanks!, under their AmazonEncore imprint. It even made a prominent appearance in the Casey Affleck/Joaquin Phoenix film I’m Still Here.Īfter the success of An Awesome Book!, Clayton created The Awesome World Foundation to support childhood literacy and keep giving away his books for free. Celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and Justin Timberlake hyped An Awesome Book on their blogs and in interviews. People wrote from around the world requesting copies. After receiving nothing but rejections, he put it online for free, and waited to see what would happen.īefore long, he had more orders than he could keep up with.
When it was finished, he thought the book actually did turn out pretty awesome, and decided to send it out to some publishers. So, he wrote and illustrated a book about dreaming big dreams and called it An Awesome Book!. But after becoming a father, he wanted to make something just for his son. He began his career as an artist selling homemade zines of poetry and collage on the streets of L.A.
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