HarperCollins Publishers has announced the forthcoming publication of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer Jules Feiffer’s first graphic novel created for young readers. Amazing Grapes is scheduled for publication on September 24 under the Michael di Capua Books imprint. The middle grade graphic novel adventure follows a family in search of their mother and charged with the mission of saving another dimension.
“Writing for young readers connects me professionally to a part of myself that I didn’t know how to let out until I was 60,” Feiffer said in a statement. “That kid who lived a life of innocence, mixed with confusion and consternation, disappointment, and dopey humor. And who drew comic strips and needed friends—and found them—in cartoons and children’s books that told him what the grown-ups in his life had left out. That’s what reading did for me when I was a kid. Now I try to return the favor.”
Over the course of his long career as a cartoonist and writer, Feiffer has earned a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award. He made his debut in children’s books in 1961, with his illustrations for Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth. Three decades later, while working on his book The Man in the Ceiling, Feiffer was introduced to editor Michael di Capua.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been over 30 years since Jules Feiffer and I began working together,” di Capua said in a statement. Of the many children’s titles borne of their working relationship, Feiffer’s 1999 picture book Bark, George is one of the most notable, selling more than one million copies worldwide. This June, the picture book will celebrate 25 years in print.
“Jules is breaking new ground at 95,” di Capua said. “Amazing Grapes, his first graphic novel for kids, is just as dazzling as you’d expect from this lifelong lover of graphic novels.”
