Did you know?

So the other night I was watching Meet the Robinsons, a movie based on the picture A Day With Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce, and I remembered a conversation that I had with my sister when she mentioned that she saw William Joyce on Martha Stewart a few year ago. If you're like me, you're wondering why on Earth William Joyce would be on Martha Stewart. I picked up a copy of The World Of William Joyce at the library to show you the answer.

Joyce says that some of his favorite childhood memories are related to the holidays and family traditions and he wants the holidays to be a magical time for his own kids so he goes all out. He even repaints his house for the holidays! He takes the whole month of October off to decorate for Halloween, his favorite holiday. Here's a picture of his mantle set for Halloween.

Spooky, right? He paints the black walls with snowflakes to convert the room for Christmas.And can you imagine Easter eggs hand painted by William Joyce? That would be an amazing site to behold! Every year, besides taking a month to decorate for Halloween, he throw a huge Halloween party. One year everyone dressed up as characters from his books. Can you identify this couple?And every year his nephews receive a handwritten letter from Santa. One year no letter arrived, but the next year a fat letter came explaining Santa's crazy adventures that had prevented him from writing the year before. The letter gave Joyce the idea for writing Santa Calls. Funny how the doodles on Santa's letters look a little like Joyce's doodles. Hmmmmm . . .

There is surprisingly little about Joyce on the Web (do you hear that William Joyce? We'd love a blog or a better web site!) but you can pick up a copy of The World Of William Joyce to learn more about him and you can see a Reading Rockets interview with him here. (Did any of you know about Reading Rockets? I just discovered them and they have some great author interviews!)