SVA presents: Tiny Table Talk. Sergio Ruzzier and Sophie Blackall

The MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Program at the School of Visual Arts, in partnership with Rizzoli Bookstore and The Sendak Fellowship, a program of The Maurice Sendak Foundation is pleased to announce a new series of public conversations dedicated to the art and craft of the picture book.

The second event will take place on 1/12 at 6 PM, featuring Sergio Ruzzier and Sophie Blackall.

Hosted at Rizzoli, the series brings together fellows, artists, illustrators, writers, and editors to discuss the creative and collaborative processes behind illustrated storytelling.

Speakers will examine the history and evolving traditions of the picture book, exploring how images and words work together to create stories that resonate across generations. Though often associated with childhood, picture books remain powerful literary, visual, and cultural forms for readers of all ages, bridging memory, imagination, and shared experience.

At a time when many cultural institutions face defunding and financial strain, iconic bookstores like Rizzoli help bridge the gap by providing vital spaces for dialogue, learning, and cultural exchange.

Here are a few award-winning titles by the authors:

From award-winning creator Sergio Ruzzier comes a stunning and timeless picture book that’s perfect for young readers embarking on new experiences, from their first days of school to visiting new places, moving away, and beyond.

Bianca the polar bear loves the things she knows—her mom, the snow, the cold.

But then Bianca meets a beautiful butterfly, who leads her to an unfamiliar world that is different from everything she’s ever experienced. Through curiosity and wonder to discomfort and homesickness and back, Bianca discovers that she may also love the things she doesn't know...yet.

Two-time Geisel Honoree Sergio Ruzzier's distinctive illustrations illuminate Bianca's journey as she leaves the blues and greens of her arctic world and enters a lush landscape filled with warmth and color.

A full-color picture book from award-winning creator Sergio Ruzzier, The Real Story is a hilarious, imaginative whodunit in which Cat and Mouse debate the truth behind a broken cookie jar, which makes for a perfect read-aloud story.
Cat has found a broken cookie jar.
How did it happen?
And where are the cookies?
With his signature brilliant humor and eccentric characters, Sergio Ruzzier draws the line between truth and fiction in this exuberant whodunit. It’s important to know the real story, but what is the best story?

A 2019 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award honoree and 2019 ALA Notable Children's Book, now in paperback!
Fox and Chick don't always agree. But Fox and Chick are always friends. With sly humor and companionable warmth, Sergio Ruzzier deftly captures the adventures of these two seemingly opposite friends. The luminous watercolor images showcased in comic-book panel form will entice emerging readers, while the spare text and airiness of the images make this early chapter book accessible to a picture book audience as well.

Sergio Ruzzier was born and grew up in Milan, just around the corner from the medieval Little Church of the Lizards, and moved to New York in the mid 1990s. A 2011 Sendak Fellow, he has written and illustrated many picture books, both for children and grown ups. Sergio now spends most of his time in an old house in the Apennine mountains.

Two-time Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall’s follow-up to her bestselling If I Was a Horse explores the challenges of first friendships through imaginative play.

If we were dogs, what kind would we be?
I’d be a big dog! And you’d be little dog.
Woof!
Join two friends as they bark and growl, woof and howl—and maybe even quack—in a romp that makes room for everybody’s ideas.
Sophie Blackall unleashes a marvelous game of pretend that explores navigating friendship and celebrates boundless imagination in this wonderful companion for her national bestseller If I Was a Horse.

Two-time Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall invites readers to peek through windows that shine like real glass on this lavish book’s cover, and explore the dollhouse-like world of a beloved farmhouse where twelve children were born and raised.
Over a hill, at the end of a road, by a glittering stream that twists and turns stands a farmhouse.
Step inside the dollhouse-like interior of Farmhouse and relish in the daily life of the family that lives there, rendered in impeccable, thrilling detail. Based on a real family and an actual farmhouse where Sophie salvaged facts and artifacts for the making of this spectacular work, page after page bursts with luminous detail and joy. Join the award-winning, best-selling Sophie Blackall as she takes readers on an enchanting visit to a farmhouse across time, to a place that echoes with stories.

A beloved picture book from two-time Caldecott Medal award-winner Sophie Blackall that transports readers to the seaside in timeless, nautical splendor!
Watch the days and seasons pass as the wind blows, the fog rolls in, and icebergs drift by. Outside, there is water all around. Inside, the daily life of a lighthouse keeper and his family unfolds as the keeper boils water for tea, lights the lamp's wick, and writes every detail in his logbook.
Step back in time and through the door of this iconic lighthouse into a cozy dollhouse-like interior with the extraordinary award-winning artist Sophie Blackall.

Sophie Blackall has illustrated over 60 books for children, including the New York Times best-selling Ivy and Bean series, the 2016 Caldecott Medal winner, Finding Winnie and the 2019 Caldecott Medal winner, Hello Lighthouse. She is a five-time recipient of the New York Times Best Illustrated Picture Book Award. Originally from Australia, she now splits her time between Brooklyn, New York, and the Catskill Mountains, where she and her husband run a retreat for the children’s book community called Milkwood Farm.

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