It was Memorial Day, 2016 when I was walking in the National Cemetery here in Los Angeles and got the idea for TWENTY-ONE STEPS (March 2, 2021, Candlewick). With breathtaking art by Matt Tavares, the book tells the sobering and poignant story of the origin of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, those who gave everything to their nation including their names and identities, and the Tomb Guards whose standard is perfection, and who walk the mat and keep watch every minute of every day, for them, and for us. Publication was held until the centenary year of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in which the first Unknown was interred on November 11, 1921. Known but to God, may they rest in peace, and may our honor and respect never waver.

That the book will be published within 12 months of NO STEPS BEHIND (Creston, 2020) has made this a big if somewhat bittersweet year for me, as it has been for so many of us. I am thrilled by its critical reception, and hope that its subject, the late great Beate Sirota Gordon, becomes as honored now in her adopted United States as she still a heroine in Japan. And Shiella Witanto's artwork is just stunning. Blessed to have won the Freeman Award and be a National Jewish Book Award finalist with it.

In the rest of my life, home is Los Angeles, California, but I've lived the itinerant life of the writer. There was school in New Jersey, Maine, Arizona, and San Francisco, and good stretches in Paris, Salt Lake City and Nashville, while my family center-of-gravity is still in New York City. When I'm not writing and there's no pandemic, you'll find me on the tennis court, ski slopes, Peleton, golf course, or knee-deep in a river with a fishing rod in my hands. Or in some kind of study. I like to learn. I read everything.

If there's something else you want to know, ask away. I'm pretty easy to find.

My fantasy epitaph? "That was a decent first draft."

Matt Tavares created his first picture book as his senior project in college. That book eventually became Zachary’s Ball (Candlewick), which received a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, and was named one of Yankee Magazine’s 40 Classic New England Children’s Books.

Since then, Matt has illustrated nineteen more books, nine of which he also wrote. Three titles received Parents’ Choice Gold Awards, two were named ALA Notable Books, one was an Orbis Pictus Honor Book, and eleven were selected for The Society of Illustrators Original Art exhibits.

The most recent book he wrote and illustrated is Dasher (Candlewick). Learn more about Matt Tavares at tavaresbooks.com.