Another pastime was drawing – anywhere, anytime, and on anything! I began when I was two years old, drawing with a black crayon on paper bags that my grandmother cut up for me. Later, when I was five, I would take wagonloads of drawings over to my girlfriend’s house. Sometimes passion for drawing got me into trouble. Drawing on walls was not acceptable, nor was drawing during school, except in art class!

In my neighborhood, everyone played sports so I played sports all year long. In spring and summer, I played baseball. In autumn, it was football, and in winter, basketball.

 But even my enthusiasm for sports gave way when Elvis Presley came along. After I heard Elvis sing “Blue Suede Shoes,” I saved some money and bought a guitar. I took guitar lessons, and practiced and practiced. Soon, I joined a band and toured around with it. My travels brought me to California, where I played my guitar less and less and drew more and more.

In 1963, I enrolled in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. But it was in 1966, while working as a shipping clerk in a book clearinghouse, that I rediscovered children’s books. I would spend my lunch hours looking through the many picture books that crossed my desk. I started my own collection and soon began to write and illustrate stories of my own.

My first book, The Bear’s Toothache, was published in 1972. Since then, I have written and/or illustrated more than fifty books and expect to do many more. I love writing and illustrating just as much today as I did when I began.

I moved back to Newburyport, to the house I grew up in, near the fields and woods that were so much a part of my childhood. I still love baseball and music, even rock and roll, and I guess I’ll always love the beach and wonderful books.

Selected books illustrated by David McPhail

The Bear's Toothache
by David M. McPhail 
When he discovers a bear with a toothache outside his window, a little boy tries to think of ways of removing the tooth.
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback - 32 pages Reissue edition (May 1988)

Drawing Lessons from a Bear
by David M. McPhail 
David McPhail portrays the unusual life of an artist who just happens to have been born a bear.
Reading level: Ages 4-8

A Friend for Growl Bear
by Margot Austin, David McPhail (Illustrator)
A story about making friends.
Reading level: Ages 4-8

Mole Music
by David M. McPhail (Illustrator)
Patience and dedication help Mole create music that can change others for the better.
Reading level: Ages 4-8