Peter Sis grew up in communist Czechoslovakia in a loving, happy family that encouraged him to draw. He was formally trained at the Academy of Arts in Prague and Royal College of Art in London. He followed in his father’s footsteps and became a filmmaker. At the age of 30 Sis was sent to the US by his government to produce a film on the 1984 summer Olympics. This trip turned out to be the turning point of his life. Czechoslovakia along with rest of Eastern bloc decided to boycott the Olympics ending the film project. Ordered to return home, Sis refused and got a political asylum in the US.
He first worked as a teacher at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. An art museum director he had met on his film project set up a meeting with Maurice Sendak, the famous author of the “Where the Wild Things Are” Sendak assumed Sis wanted to illustrate for children and he set up and arranged introductions to New York publishers. In the beginning Sis struggled financially illustrating book covers. His obvious talent landed him jobs with Newsweek and Times magazines. Like many artists, illustrating other authors’ work gave Sis confidence to try writing. Early books “Fire truck” and “Madlenka” reflect his fascination with his own children and their development.
In an exclusive interview with Reading Rockets (national multimedia project by US Department of Education) Peter Sis talks about his winding path that led him to New York City, his children and his father’s Tibetan journey that all have influenced his work.
When his children were born he thought he needs to leave some legacy or some message to them. So he did book about Prague for his daughter Madeleine called “The Three Golden Keys” so that she knows what her father was alike. He wrote a book about Galileo “The Starry Messenger”. He thought he needed to write a book about somebody special to show his son that sometimes life can get very difficult when he has to answer all the questions like Galileo had to answer to cardinals.
When his children grew up a little bit he realized they were not interested in that all. He was trying to observe them and see what they like. So that is how he wrote little older books for his son, which were about fire trucks that he loved, and bulldozers, ships and dinosaurs. Books like "Ballerina" and the whole series of Madlenka were for little girls, for his daughter.
Madlenka is a little girl who lives on the bloc in the big city. She meets people in her bloc that are from different countries and cultures. She wants to let them know that he tooth is wiggling. When the author was growing up, people in Prague did not like to speak to each other because they were afraid to. The political regime and climate was very terrible.
What is unique or captivating about this person’s body of work?
Peter Sis is also the illustrator of his own books.
Peter Sis was influenced by his father trip to Tibet. His father was sent to China to make a film about the construction of the road to Tibet. Father was supposed to come back by the next Christmas but he stayed 19 months. For Peter it just looked like his father was gone forever. When he came back he could not really talk about what he really saw in Tibet, about Tibetan Buddhism and Dalai Lama. He was supposed to talk only about working class in China. The only person he could talk with about his adventures was Peter. Inspired by his father trip he wrote "Tibet trough the Red Box"
In one of his latest books is "The Wall" Peter describes growing up in communist Czechoslovakia, during the cold war.
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