Few children's book author/illustrators are nominated to be entrepreneur of the year, but Peter H. Reynolds combines artistry with business acumen and a desire to make a positive change in the world. A recipient of a Christopher Award for The Dot—the first book in his “creatrilogy” encouraging creativity, which includes Ish and So Few of Me—Reynolds is driven by a mission: “to get people to make stuff. Consume less and create more.” The educational multi-media company FableVision, which he cofounded in 1996 with his twin brother, Paul, is part of that mission.
Named one of the fastest growing private companies of 2008 by the Boston Business Journal, FableVision, which has offices in Boston and Dedham, Mass., has 45 full-time employees and has grown 138% over the past four years with sales of $3.8 million last year. FableVision creates Web sites, digital games, animation and books for WGBH, Pearson and the Jim Henson Company, among others, and publishes software for the k—12 market. In a recent deal, Atheneum signed Peter H. Reynolds and FableVision Present Zebrafish, a series of graphic novels to begin next May based on the webisodes created by FableVision for the Children's Hospital Trust to promote philanthropy.
Even with his growing success, Reynolds is careful not to take himself, or FableVision, too seriously. His business card resembles a playing card, and entering Fable-Vision's offices is much like going to a movie theater, including marquee lights above the door, a popcorn machine and a “wall of inspiration” with toys and books. At one end of the entryway, a set of heavy red curtains hang on either side of a thin white scrim, through which the players/staff can be seen working in an open studio facing Boston harbor.
Despite his playful nature, Reynolds is driven by a deep concern about helping children make their mark. “Fifty percent of kids don't make it through high school, and half of them don't go to school beyond high school. Very few get to the North Star years,” or college years, he says, referring to one of his earliest books, The North Star, published by FableVision a decade ago, about following your star, your dreams. (The book was reissued this past April by Candlewick.)
If FableVision serves as Reynolds's North Star, so, too, does the Blue Bunny, the children's book and toy store that he and Paul opened on Boston's South Shore six years ago. Reynolds views the tailor shop—turned—bookstore as a “my version of a classroom.” He likes to collect and encourage stories from children, parents and grandparents. Although the store contains a carefully culled selection of new titles as well as a section of signed copies of Reynolds's own books, many of which have become bestsellers, the store's bestseller is a blank book, like the ones Reynolds uses to plan out his own stories. Paul's wife, Janet, runs the store, but Reynolds can often be found there. Certainly, he's determined to make it successful, if for no other reason than that he was told he was crazy to open it. “Anytime anyone says something can't work, I think there must be a way,” he says.
For Reynolds, the Blue Bunny strengthens his connection to Dedham, where he lives and where he founded an association for downtown businesses, named with his trademark whimsy, the Dedham Square Circle. “Between my book career and FableVision, our work is spreading across the country and around the world. We felt we could take our mission and make it local.”
Reynolds logs many hours at both the Blue Bunny and FableVision and on the road meeting with children and teachers, but he is careful to make time for his own books, which have been translated into 25 languages. This season he has three new titles, including two he illustrated: Megan McDonald's Judy Moody & Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt (Candlewick, Aug.) and Jess Brallier's Tess's Tree (HarperCollins, Sept.). Next month, Candlewick will release Reynolds's picture book inspired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the Boston park named after her, Rose's Garden. And an exhibition of his art, “Make Your Mark,” just opened at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, Mass.
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