PORTLAND, Maine — For a writer, there’s just about nothing more thrilling than having one’s book land unexpectedly on the New York Times best-seller list. It happened to Matt Tavares, a writer and illustrator who lives in Ogunquit when his children’s book “Dasher” came out in 2019.
“It was amazing,” he said. “'Dasher' was my twentieth book. And I’d always had that little pipe dream to make the New York Times best-seller list. But by that point, you kind of feel like maybe that’s not going to happen.”
Tavares’ latest book is a sequel, “Dasher Can’t Wait for Christmas,” the story of an impatient reindeer who gets in and out of trouble after flying through the December skies. Illustrating the book took much more time than writing it, and since Tavares is a stickler for accuracy, he had to go out and do research.
“I went to the zoo. I took a bunch of pictures of reindeer,” he said. “If it was a scene [in the book] where Dasher was laying in the snow and I needed to remember how their legs bend when they’re laying down, I could look through my photos and try to make sure I get that right.”
Between December 9 and 17, Tavares will visit four bookstores in Maine and one in New Hampshire to talk about his new book. You’ll find the full schedule of appearances on his website.