The 2012 London Olympics are in full swish and so I thought I'd showcase the first picture book I illustrated for Simon & Schuster, How To Train With a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals, which came out in 2009 - a year after Michael Phelps made Olympic history by winning 8 gold medals during one Olympics. Quite an incredible feat, and one that might not be ever duplicated. The book was a challenge for me - not as challenging as what Mr. Phelps had to endure of course, but it definitely required endurance and stamina on my part - pulling all-nighters and working on re-dos and do-overs. And honestly, I enjoyed working on it. Being my first book, I wanted to prove to both myself and my publishers that I could do it. All the hard work was worth it. 
I know that Michael is not doing as well in London as he did in Beijing, but that's okay. The book puts into perspective the crazy amount of training Michael went through for the six years leading up to the 2008 Olympics - maybe after achieving such a tremendous goal, his training wasn't as strong for the four years leading up to the current Olympics. Who knows? I wish him well. I've never met the guy (it's not typical for artists to actually meet the author/co-author of the picture books that they're working on), but I will definitely be rooting for the guy when he swims tonight. He may reach another record: winning the most medals ever for an Olympic athlete. 
Here's a page on my site about the book: How To Train With a T.Rex And Win 8 Gold MedalsAnd here's some more photos of the book in my Flickr set: How To Train With a T.Rex And Win 8 Gold Medals Flickr setLook! Michael went on Conan (back when he was still on NBC) to promote the book: 
Hey! Thanks for posting this!! I recently had an olypmic booklist on my blog and this was one I had hoped to get ahold of. Also thank you for sharing some illustrator's insight into what his training was like then. I think he is taking a lot of negative heat this go around-- cmon people he's still an amazing athlete and his accomplishments have been amazing!!
Thanks, Whitney! Hope you enjoy the book! It was a lot of fun to work on it.