Illustrator Chris Soentpiet (soon-peet) celebrates his birthday on January 3rd. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal and three IRA book awards. After Chris does research about the topic and setting of a book, he hires models to pose as the main characters. He even puts makeup on them and creates costumes for them if necessary. He then shoots about 60 rolls of film as the models act out the parts. The photographs help him as he paints. His latest book is Saturday and Teacakes, written by Lester Laminack.