Theodore Taylor III is an artist, designer, photographer, and new dad. He received the 2014 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for his first picture book, When the Beat Was Born. Heavily influenced by music and pop culture, he was a natural to take up his tools to illustrate Shaquille O’Neal’s Little Shaq series, in addition his own self-written children’s book.

Your latest illustration project is Little Shaq. What did you think when you were approached with this project?

I remember being very excited! After When the Beat Was Born I wasn't sure when my next book project would be. So being signed on to this project meant a lot. It definitely gave me hope for my future as a children's book illustrator. I was also nervous because Shaq was a big part of my childhood. I never followed basketball closely, but I always remembered his jersey number for the Orlando Magic. I vividly remember watching Kazaam. And I still have my old copy of Shaq-Fu for Sega Genesis! Now suddenly I was drawing a book for him! It was surreal.

You’ve done the cover art for a lot of albums, mostly beats. What was the transition like from album art to a book?

The transition was fairly smooth, especially considering the hip-hop themes of my first book. The pages were still in a square format, so I sometimes tried to think of each page as an album cover. The book's cover was especially easy as I wanted it to feel like an old record jacket.

Did music inform Little Shaq’s illustrations at all?

I'm not sure if music informed my drawings directly, but all of the music I listened to during my late-night drawing sessions must have had some effect!

What was the inspiration for Raised by Humans and will you write more of your own books?

Raised by Humans was actually an assignment for a Web development course I took in college. We had to create something interactive, so I thought a virtual children's book would be perfect. My inspiration probably came from what I expected my son to be like. It turns out I was pretty spot-on. He's wild.

I am in the process of writing my own book for Roaring Brook Press inspired by murals and graffiti. I'm hoping it will be done next year. I have a few other ideas in my head as well. I'm also thinking of redrawing Raised by Humans for fun!

You’re a new dad. We hear a lot about how reading is essential, even in infancy. As an illustrator, do you have essential reads for your child and are they motivated by the artwork?

I have a shelf full of books for my son, from childhood favorites to newer books I've picked out on my own. I've been buying him a lot of books with artwork I personally enjoy. Some recent favorites have been JooHee Yoon's books, several books published by Flying Eye Books, Carson Ellis's Home, Samuel Hiti's Waga's Big Scare and Bridget Heos and Joy Ang's Mustache Baby. As far as classics go, I always keep Where the Wild Things Are handy. My son's a little too young to fully understand any of these books, but he does seem to enjoy the pictures. I can tell because he grabs them and tries to rip the pages.

April Hall is editor of Literacy Daily. A journalist for about 20 years, she has specialized in education, writing and editing for newspapers, websites, and magazines.