CRANBERRY TWP — A visitor to St. Kilian Catholic School on Thursday illustrated the picture book industry for students in second through sixth grades.

John Manders of Franklin, who has illustrated more than 40 children's books, visited the school to share his knowledge and passion for the craft.

“Hi, my name is John Manders, and I have the best job in the world,” the illustrator told the sixth-graders assembled in the library, where students, teachers and a few parents congregated.

Manders spent an hour explaining in his kid-friendly way how a picture book proceeds from a story idea to a 32-page item on the bookstore shelf.

Manders said authors initially send their manuscript to a publishing house. An editor chooses one manuscript from the hundreds he reads every week and takes it to the art director, who reads the story and considers which artist's style would best suit the tale.

“He says, ‘I've got the perfect illustrator to do this job,'” Manders told the students.

Manders said if the story has an element of humor, whimsy or history, a good chance exists that art directors will choose him to create the pictures that go along with the tale.

The manuscript is then emailed to Manders, whose reads it about six times to create in his brain the basic elements that will comprise the book's illustrations.

“I just like to visualize (the stories,)” Manders told the students.

Manders said he will often go to the library to find books with pictures of the clothing, furniture, and styles of the location or historical period included in the book.

He gave as an example the book “The Year without a Santa Claus,” in which he decided to forgo the traditional red and green, candy cane color scheme. Instead, Manders researched the dress, furniture and architecture of northern Russia and Europe because they are nearest to the book's North Pole setting.

Instead of pointy hats and curled-toe shoes, elves in the story wear the garb of the Laplanders, and Santa only appears in his traditional suit on Christmas Eve.

Manders went on to explain that upon visualizing the story, he creates tiny thumbnail sketches in rough form with pencil to correspond with each page of text.

Manders said the reason for the illustrations' tiny size is purely economical: He can draw a thumbnail in 10 minutes as opposed to the daylong task of drawing a large picture.

The thumbnail sketches then go on a “storyboard,” which allows the art director to “read” the story in pictures. Manders said the storyboard is sent to the art director, and adjustments are made as necessary.

“After we go back and forth a couple times, we begin to get an idea of the story in pictures,” Manders told the students.

Once the entire creative team agrees on the sketches, the thumbnails are individually enlarged and traced onto a larger sheet of paper.

Manders then adds more detail to the enlarged sketches and sends them to the art director for any last-minute tweaks. Once those sketches, known in the industry as the “beautiful” version, are approved and fine-tuned, Manders spends two to three months painting each sketch with watercolors.

Sixth-grader Mario Mastroianni was surprised to learn the paintings are scanned for placement in the book, and the printed result is a compilation of pixilated dots that make up each illustration.

“I never knew that before,” said Mario, whose teachers say is a talented young artist himself.

Mario was an admirer of Manders before his visit to St. Kilian, and he appreciated Manders' humorous, cartoonlike style of drawing.

“And I liked how he showed us step-by-step how a book is made,” said Mario.

His classmate, Kaitlin Laird, said Manders made the presentation fun and informative. She learned that the story comes first, then the illustrations are created.

The aspiring doctor or lawyer said Manders' presentation was valuable for all students, artistic or not.

“It encourages people to pursue their dreams, in art or in any area,” Kaitlin said.

Fifth-grader Taylor Brenner, who has won two art awards at St. Kilian, said she learned from Manders that there are distinct steps to be followed in illustrating a children's book.

“I hope he comes back,” Brenner said of Manders. “It's really interesting to see how he does things.”

Manders said he visits about 15 schools per year all over the U.S., talking to students about his job.

“It's good to meet the customers,” said the affable Manders.

He also said that having no children of his own, he uses the visits to keep up with the likes and dislikes of the youngest literary set.

“They provide a vital service to me,” he said.

Manders has visited St. Kilian twice before, and gave presentations to second-, third-, and fourth-graders on character illustrations and interactive writing.

“They are the smartest, funniest, most hospitable kids,” Manders said of the St. Kilian students. “They're fun to hang around.”

Debra Laird, chairwoman of the parent-teacher guild's students and the arts committee, said visiting artists and performers allow students to learn using all five senses, discover new ways to express themselves, and see that their dreams are within reach.

“When they see a role model right in front of them, that's the best way to inspire them,” Laird said.

Fifth-grader Audrey Jen said she enjoyed Manders' presentation on Thursday.

“I loved it,” Audrey said. “I hope he comes back next year.”