About the Author
Dan Labecki is a full-time professor of Media, Art & Design with eighteen years in the classroom, and a father of two daughters — which is, he would argue, the primary qualification for writing books about giving things away. He is based near Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
He is the creator of two distinct picture book brands — the Selfless Santa trilogy, and If Your Toys Are Listening, a year-round giving series.
The Selfless Santa trilogy follows one cold Christmas morning and one very underdressed Santa through three years of a giving operation that grows from a single coat into something far bigger than he first imagined.
"'Twas not-so-early Christmas morn.
The sun was peeking through.
My sleigh dipped low. My sack was bare.
My reindeer barely flew. "
His manuscripts use structure as concept. In If Your Toys Are Listening, the dual-voice format — one voice for the child, one addressed to any toys in the room — turns every read-aloud into a giving tradition. The concept is the architecture. The dual-voice format has, to my knowledge, no direct comp in the current market.
Both brands are built for the child who wants to be let in on something, and for the adult who didn't expect to feel seen.
"They learn cough nights and thunder nights."
