Sebastian Menschenmoose © Anna Wasilewski

Sebastian Meschenmoser  [ Germany ]

Sebastian Meschenmoser was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1980 and began studying at the Akademie für bildende Künste in Mainz in 2001. After visiting the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art in Dijon for half a year, he transferred to Anne Berning’s master class in Mainz in 2006 and completed his studies in 2007.

His début »Fliegen lernen« (2005; Eng. »Learning to Fly«, 2006), written for children ages four and up, breaks from picture-book conventions in both pictorial and narrative terms; the story of a confused penguin’s first futile attempts to fly has a surprising, ambiguous ending, the illustrations are minimal, and colors and contours are used sparingly. Meschenmoser launched his squirrel series with his second picture book, »Herr Eichhorn und der Mond« (2006; Eng. »Mr. Squirrel & the Moon«, 2008). Another recurring character in Meschenmoser’s work is Pugman; in »3 Wünsche für Mopsmann« (2008; Eng. »3 Wishes for Pugman«, 2010), the protagonist is a cranky pug who wakes up late one day and realizes that he has nothing to eat and his newspaper is soaked through. The morning seems to be ruined, but then a fairy appears and grants Pugman three wishes to save the day. In »Mopsmanns magische Wunderwolle« (2011; tr: Pugman’s Miraculously Magic Wool), Pugman discovers the magic of automatic knitting needles and an endless supply of wool left to him by a pig princess who’s run off to a beauty pageant. In his Pugman books, Meschenmoser offers a different illustration style, drawing the disgruntled, wrinkly face of the title figure in great detail. »Gordon und Tapir« (2014; Eng. »Gordon and Tapir«, 2016) is about a tiny, order-obsessed penguin named Gordon who lives with his messy friend Tapir; they fight about toilet paper, clutter, and stinky fish until Gordon decides to leave their shared apartment. The fairy tale parody »Vom Wolf, der auszog, das Fürchten zu lehren« (2018; tr: About the Wolf Who Moved Out to Spread Fear) is the last part of his »Wolf Trilogy«, in which he previously retold and illustrated the fairy tales »The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats« and »Little Red Riding Hood«. In 2019, for the 40th anniversary of the first edition of Michael Ende’s »The Neverending Story«, he took a trip to the places in Italy that inspired the author to write his children’s book and created the illustrations for a splendid edition. In his latest children’s book, »Chick« (2021), a chicken turns gender roles upside down. Meschenmoser has also generated several series of images that were shown in a number of group and individual exhibitions in Germany and Switzerland. He was nominated for German Children’s Literature Award in 2007, 2015, and 2018. The author and illustrator lives in Berlin.

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