If you know artists, you know confidence is something we always struggle with. Just the simple fact that she believed in me was worth a million dollars. 'Trina kind of taught me how to be an artist,' Chin said. It's likely that's so because a friendship took hold -and Chin kept drawing. Let's say, for the sake of the story, Chin was polite (not a little rude) when he called Hyman, his mentor, 20 years ago. 'There are thousands and thousands of kids, every one of them is polite and respectful and a reader.' Large crowds of children attend the book festival, checking out the books from each state, Greene said.

'Although gravity doesn't have anything particular to do with Vermont, I think it's nice to be able to highlight a really fabulous author/illustrator.' 'I picked 'Gravity' because I think Jason's books are incredible - the research he does, the way he explains things and his fabulous art work,' Greene said. He also illustrates books by other authors. The titles of the books Chin writes and illustrates, 'Redwoods,' 'Coral Reefs,' 'Island' and his latest, 'Gravity,' speak to the clarity and wonder of his stories. Complex realms of physics and biology become accessible and comprehensible to readers young and old in their treatment by Chin.

Art classes at Syracuse University, where he studied illustration, taught his 'hand.'Ĭhin makes beautiful books, illustrated with watercolors, about science and nature. Informal study with Hyman as a teenager and college student - hanging out, talking, watching, painting - taught Chin's 'heart' as an artist, he said. He and Gill moved to Burlington four years ago. Twenty years after that phone call, Chin's unsure if calling Hyman was 'a little rude' or just bold.Ĭhin, 35, is a children's book illustrator and writer who lives near Oakledge Park in Burlington with his wife, artist Deirdre Gill, and their kids Liam, 3, and Maeve, 7 months. 'I was 15,' Chin said the other day, 'and I didn't know what I was doing.' Jason Chin was a sophomore at Hanover High School when he telephoned Trina Schart Hyman, an acclaimed children's book illustrator, and asked for guidance with an art project.Ĭhin was a kid in Lyme, N.H., who liked to draw.

Redwoods by Jason Chin