For anyone wondering where Jashar Awan’s characters—for example the narrator of I’m Going to Build a Snowman (S. & S.) and the eponymous leads of Towed by Toad (Tundra) and Every Monday Mabel (S. & S.)—get all that industry and energy, look no further than their creator himself. By fall 2026 and Toad’s second book, Awan will have notches for over half a dozen published books on his belt, and the first one, What a Lucky Day! (Norton), only came out in 2020. He worked with Simon Boughton on that one, followed by Only Ants for Andy (Norton); next came Strum & Drum: A Merry Little Quest, I’m Going to Build a Snowman, and Every Monday Mabel at S. & S., where he works with Celia Lee and Lucy Ruth Cummins (who was in the class ahead of him at Pratt).

Awan is not even breathing hard as he talks about future releases Where I Grew (Norton), this time illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell, and the follow-up, in sensibility, to I’m Going to Build a Snowman, called Loops (S. & S.)—it’s about practice, perseverance, and learning to tie shoes.

Perhaps Awan’s calm is due to his background, which included 13 years of doing editorial illustrations for The New Yorker. The turnarounds are tight for “Goings On About Town” and the movie reviews. But that still doesn’t explain how he puts pen to paper and in a few strokes captures the details that make up a child’s world. They are busy! They have places to go, things to see! It may be snow, it may be a friendly neighborhood garbage truck, but the focus his characters demonstrate delights readers of all ages.

His son was six when Awan’s first picture book came out. “After my son was born, I rediscovered my love of picture books. It was so much fun to start building a little library for him. Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio and Christian Robinson was a real reminder of how fun kids books could be—fun to look at and fun to read aloud. I will always remember hearing my son’s little voice reciting the names of the puppies as they are introduced in the book. If that doesn’t make someone want to start making picture books, I don’t know what will!”

His father, who loved William Steig, read to him every night; Awan created visuals for books like The Chronicles of Narnia so his younger brother might follow along more easily. “I drew all the time, that was my thing,” he says.

Their childhood also included much-loved weekend visits to the library. “I left with a stack of books—going to the library was such a big deal.” As it happened, Awan’s first job was working as a page at the library. “I got to check out all the areas of the library I wouldn’t normally get to see, and got to dig around,” he says, noting that he still spends time at the library near his home in Hudson, OH, the Hudson Library and Historical Society. “I’m there all the time. It’s a beautiful building. The children’s department is huge.”

His appreciation for the start he got from books and libraries runs deep and is growing. “Libraries are just so important, they’re such a source of knowledge and community resources,” he says. “That’s why they are under attack. Knowledge is power—it’s a cliché but it’s true. Defunding libraries is just another attempt at taking power away from people.”

That’s the political part. But for Awan, libraries are also deeply personal.

“When I was a new parent in Brooklyn, NY, the library was a great child-friendly place to take a kid,” he says. “The story time with Ms. Elena provided a sense of community for all the new parents in the neighborhood. It definitely helped keep me sane in those early days.”

Keeping sane—that might be another theme. So is forging ahead. Mabel is impervious to stares or comments. She has a mission. And readers learn that Mabel’s mission, watching the sanitation truck do its job, is shared by many others. It’s an unspoken but joyful hurrah in the direction of community, commonalities, and focus.