{"id":228,"date":"2021-11-30T21:37:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T21:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/childrenslitfest\/?page_id=228"},"modified":"2026-09-08T20:08:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:08:03","slug":"mike-thaler","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/childrenslitfest\/mike-thaler\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Thaler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>\n\t\t\tMike Thaler\t<\/h2>\n<figure data-animation-delay=\"0\" data-animation-duration=\"1\" itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/childrenslitfest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/01\/PS-3570-H3176-T42-2006-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Green book cover with a kid sitting looking scared at a desk with a looming shadow of a person in front of him. The text &quot;The Teachers from the Black Lagoon&quot; is above the illustration and below is &quot;by Mike Thaler&quot; and &quot;Illustrated by Jared Lee.&quot;\" title=\"PS-3570-H3176-T42-2006\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<figure itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/childrenslitfest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/01\/Thaler.png\" alt=\"Black script signature of Mike Thaler.\" title=\"Thaler\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t<p>Mike Thaler was born in 1936 and attended the University of California and the Art Center College of Design to major in English and art. The story goes that Thaler drew newspaper cartoons for awhile, eventually catching the attention of Ursula Nordstrom, editor from Harper &amp; Brothers. She asked him for a children&#8217;s book manuscript, which he wrote that night and delivered the next day. It was therafter successfully published.<\/p>\n<p>Thaler didn&#8217;t continue as an illustrator for long. As he wrote more, Jared Lee came to draw for his\u00a0<em>A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher<\/em> book, which led to the Black Lagoon series they are more famously known for. Thaler says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I love language. Words are great. I love to use my imagination and make people laugh. That&#8217;s why I am a writer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>More can be found on <a href=\"https:\/\/mikethaler.com\/\">the Mike Thaler website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/childrenslitfest\/jane-kurtz\/\"  target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2190 Jane Kurtz\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/childrenslitfest\/mary-downing-hahn\/\"  target=\"_self\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Downing Hahn \u2192\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike Thaler Mike Thaler was born in 1936 and attended the University of California and the Art Center College of Design to major in English and art. The story goes that Thaler drew newspaper cartoons for awhile, eventually catching the attention of Ursula Nordstrom, editor from Harper &amp; Brothers. She asked him for a children&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-228","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mike Thaler - The Children&#039;s Literature Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/childrenslitfest\/mike-thaler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mike Thaler - The Children&#039;s Literature Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mike Thaler Mike Thaler was born in 1936 and attended the University of California and the Art Center College of Design to major in English and art. 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