Sarah Pedry
Sarah Pedry is an artist and illustrator in love with the natural world. She spends her days working on intricate drawings and colorful paintings, and strives to always keep her hands dirty with charcoal dust. She is the co-creator and illustrator of HOW BIRDS SLEEP, her first picture book. Whether she is making pictures books, paintings, or teaching, Sarah is always looking for ways to strengthen the bond between people and the nature around them.
Sarah lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband David Obuchowski, their two children, and an abundance of black-capped chickadees in the yard.
Represented by Andrea Cascardi.
Sarah Raymond
Sarah Raymond grew up in rural Ontario, where she wrote stories, drew pictures and took attendance of her stuffed animals—interests that combined into degrees in visual art, English, and education.
She also graduated from the Humber School for Writers, and her writing and comics have appeared in Canadian anthologies and collections.
Sarah wrote the YA novel Signs of Martha, and continues to write and illustrate educational materials. When she’s not scribbling, Sarah is often sewing or walking the dogger along the lake. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario and has two grown-up yet still incredibly cute kids.
Sarah is jointly represented by Elizabeth Bennett and Lisa Rambert-Valaskova
Mike Shiell
Mike Shiell is a kid’s book author/illustrator, director, animator, character designer and cartoonist.
Mike has illustrated a number of children’s books including the “GROSS SCIENCE” series written by Edward Kay and published by Kids Can Press. This series includes the titles; “Stinky Science”, “Germy Science” and “Poopy Science” and is now in multiple translations including: Chinese, Polish, Russian and Finnish. An animated TV series based on these books has also been produced. “What the Stink” features Mike’s characters, design and direction.
Mike is happy to announce that the first book that he has both written and illustrated was recently released by Kids Can Press. “Linty: A Pocketful of Adventure” is a graphic novel for early readers and is available in bookstores and libraries around the world and online.
In addition, Mike has over 25 years’ experience working as a director, animation supervisor and animator. He has directed and supervised a number of children’s shows including the Emmy awarding winning series, “The Backyardigans” and “Mike the Knight”.
Represented by Amy Tompkins and Tim Travaglini.
Izzy Boyce-Blanchard
Izzy Boyce-Blanchard is a Brooklyn-based comic book artist and illustrator whose love of creatures great and small began during a childhood in New Jersey. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2021 with a BFA in Cartooning and currently works on Nickelodeon’s “Loud House” and “Casagrandes” graphic novels as well as other YA and adult projects.
Izzy’s passion is telling queer and trans stories that are compelling, memorable, and richly illustrated for readers around the world.
Izzy is represented by Elizabeth Bennett.
Tara Hannon
Represented by Elizabeth Bennett.
Claudia Dávila
Photo Credit: Marina Dempster.
Claudia Dávila is a Canadian author/illustrator with over 30 children’s books and graphic novels published in North America.
Many of her books feature characters often missing from children’s reading such as Latina eco-heroes, and differently-abled kids. She illustrated the TD Grade 1 Book Giveaway of 2023, Fast Friends, which was distributed to over half a million children across Canada. Her stories also reflect her love of nature and the importance of sustainability, as in her award-winning graphic novels Luz Sees The Light and Luz Makes A Splash.
Born in Santiago, Chile, Claudia spent her childhood in Montreal and Spain and now lives in Toronto.
Represented by Elizabeth Bennett.
Ellen Lindner
Ellen Lindner (she/her) is a cartoonist, illustrator, educator and editor living in Upper Manhattan. She has created comics for the Museum of Modern Art, Medium.com, The Washington Post, World War III Illustrated, and many anthologies and collections, including The Strumpet, Nelson, Pandemix and American Cult. Ellen is the author of Undertow and The Black Feather Falls (Soaring Penguin), and was the artist for Turning Points: Little Rock Nine (Aladdin/Simon and Schuster). Ellen is currently working on Lost Diamonds, a MoCCA Award of Excellence-winning comic about gender and baseball. Her illustration clients have included Ray-Ban, SONY Playstation, Dotdash Meredith, Z2, Workman, Bloomsbury, Ernest and Julio Gallo Wines, and the City of New York. Her activist art is in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian, and she has won two LMCC Creative Engagement grants for her work in comics education. In Ellen’s spare time, she loves biking and sewing, along with playing softball through the long, unbearably hot NYC summers.
Website: www.littlewhitebird.com Instagram: @ellenlindna
Ellen is represented by Andrea Cascardi.
Andrew Sebastian Kwan
Andrew Sebastian Kwan is a Canadian-Chinese illustrator and writer. He graduated from Max the Mutt College of Animation and Design in Toronto, Canada with a Diploma for Illustration in Sequential Art. Andrew wrote and illustrated his first creator owned comic book series, GEL, in 2017 and illustrated the graphic novel, THE GRAVEYARD WARS, with Ablaze Publishing in 2020. Andrew also enjoys creating alternative movie posters and his design for Get Out was featured in the New York Times.
Represented by Brenna English-Loeb.
Laura Zarrin
Laura planned on becoming an archeologist, but realized she was much happier staying home drawing and watching TV. Luckily that worked out pretty well. Laura is the illustrator of the Wallace and Grace series by Heather Alexander and the Katie Woo’s Neighborhood series by Fran Manushkin. Laura has illustrated over 30 books for children including board books, picture books, and chapter books, Highlights Hidden Pictures, and various educational projects. She’s happiest writing and illustrating characters with subtle and not so subtle humor. Her work has been published by Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Schoolzone, Babybug, Ladybug, Spider Magazine, Highlights Hello Magazine, Highlights Let’s Play Hidden Picture Books, Tricycle Press, Magic Wagon, and Benchmark Press.
Represented by Elizabeth Bennett.
Noella Bickel
Photo Credit: Ana Gabriela Photography
Noella Bickel is a graphic novelist, illustrator, author, and educator based in San Jose, California. Beginning art instruction at the age of ten, she knew early on that she loved animation and wanted to create her own films. She attended the School of Film and Television at Loyola Marymount University with a Bachelor of Arts in Animation in 2002. While she loved animation and art, she also found a passion for education, earning multiple credentials and has worked as a teacher and assistant principal since 2005. Her love of art as a form of communication was incorporated in new ways to reach struggling students by using visuals to create meaningful connections. Noella looks forward to aging into her personality as she loves to sleep, knit, and watch true crime documentaries curled up on the couch with her big ol’ dog, Winston the Bullsky.
Represented by Elizabeth Bennett.