Day 7 of The Zoe Vote – The Amazing Ard Hoyt!!

Update on The Zoe Vote:  I, Queen Louise, just voted!  Have you???  When I did, I noticed that our Zoe Girl is still in fourth place, BUT she has 11% of the vote.  Please, Please, Please, after you read Ard Hoyt’s comments about making Zoe come to life on the page… VOTE!!!  (the instructions are below for those of you just joining us!)

                                                                                              

Recently, Laurie asked Ard Hoyt, illustrator of THE HAIR OF ZOE FLEEFENBACHER GOES TO SCHOOL, to comment on his experience with Zoe.  He wrote:

        I always knew she was special.  I have a dear friend who also happens to be my 90 year old Grandmother LaPreal.  She and I have kindred spirits and became close when I had the privilege of living with her and Grandpa Wayne for a time during college.  She told me stories about her life with such feeling that I tell you, I felt like I lived it with her.  Thanks to her I got to know my own Grandfather Ard who died before I was born.  Well she is a character and has reddish hair and when I told her I wanted to dedicate a book to her sometime, she asked if I would dedicate a special story with a red headed girl to her.   I waited a long time for Zoe Laurie, and when I read your text I knew that I had found just the book for my special friend. 

Each book that I have worked on has appealed to me emotionally first.  As I read your text again and again thinking about visually telling this story, I could feel Zoe’s eagerness to please and her hair’s unwillingness to cooperate.  I could almost see that little pensive face on the cover, wondering what those locks were going to do next. 

With that in mind I drew this …. and fell in love with Zoe. 

The rest of the images sprang to life once I knew her.  There was some push back on my original Ms. Trisk who I recall being older with a beehive that was way too expected.  A great catch by our editor Kevin Lewis and designer Jessica Sonkin who both told me to update and modernize her a bit.  I drew feverishly trying to find her but was frustrated until the day I saw a woman in a "power suit" wearing a necktie without a collared shirt and I thought…"ooooo, hello Ms. Trisk."

The wild hair antics were so fun to imagine.  The "Big Mistake" Tyranosaur hair is probably my favorite.

Anyway I had a blast breaking the rules at school with Zoe’s Hair.  The story really told itself to me visually and I was proud to bring it to view. 

As Laurie wrote in her note to Ard, "Thank you again a million bazillion times for making our girl so fabulous!!!!" 

And now, the time has come…  for you to VOTE and for me, Queen Louise, to beg, plead and, well, you get the idea.  I can grovel just as good, if not better, than Laurie!  Although, she does do a really good pouty face!  (I won’t "pull rank" and order you to vote, either; but it would be nice.)  So here you go…. be sure to share this information with your doctor’s office (dentist, too!), your child’s boy scout leader, your child’s dance instructor…EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

For those of you who are new to our game, here are your voting instructions:

HOW TO VOTE:

1. Go to the voting page.

2. In the bottom right corner, click on MORE BOOKS twice. (Yes, this is the tricky part. No, I don’t know why Zoe is buried at the absolute back of the pack. Kind of makes you feel sorry for her, huh?) That will take you to ZOE.

3. Click on the yellow box that says VOTE!

4. Notify all of your friends, neighbors, family members, the folks at church or temple or mosque or other house of faith, the rest of the PTA, the people at the firehouse, everyone in your classroom, and tell them all pretty, pretty please with a headful of unruly red hair, PLEASE VOTE FOR ZOE.

5. Do this every day until the end of October.


Tomorrow:  Well, I don’t really know. I do have to go to work in the Forest, probably file some paperwork, let the Creature with Fangs out… OH!  That’s right, this section isn’t about ME; it’s about Zoe!  How silly.  I don’t really know what Laurie has planned for Zoe tomorrow, but I can bet it will be very interesting.. come back tomorrow and see!  I order Thee….

3 Replies to “Day 7 of The Zoe Vote – The Amazing Ard Hoyt!!”

  1. GO ZOE, GO GO GO!
    I’ll see how much I can broadcast your girl, because she sounds like someone I ought to know!
    I’ve got a niece in New Zealand who would love her I think, I’m going to look into ordering her a copy from the US!

    As always thank you for letting us into the secret magic process! Loved your guest blogger! I have a very dear friend who happens to be my little sister 🙂

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