On Sunday, May 8th, while attending the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, I ran around to as many of my favorite kids comics creators as I could and asked them all the exact same questions. Keep in mind, conventions are crazy loud and crazy busy, so there is a lot of background noise. Let me know in the comments if you have trouble hearing anything and I’ll translate for you.
Here’s the thing: If anyone ever invites you anywhere and you find out Colleen AF Venable is going to be there, accept the invitation. Colleen is smart, funny, talented, and as entertaining as all get-out. And I’m not saying that just because her Desert Island Book is one of my favorite books, too.
Colleen is the author of the Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye series, a set of goofy detective stories that take place in a pet store. Volume three was released in March much to the delight of my library kids; the books are checked out so often I’ve had to add copies to the collection to satisfy demand. Snow reviewed volume one for us here.
Books mentioned in this video:
- Jim Henson’s Muppets: Short, Green and Handsome, by Guy and Brad Gilchrist
- The Monster at the End of this Book, by Jon Stone
- Zita the Space Girl, by Ben Hatke
- The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook, by Eleanor Davis
- The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin


[...] Creators | Eva Volin interviews Colleen AF Venable, who is both the designer for First Second Books and the writer of Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye, a series of graphic novels that has a Pixar-like ability to appeal to both adults and kids. [Good Comics for Kids] [...]