Art Teacher Pens 7th Children’s Book, 8th Coming Oct. 1

When Jonathan Roth isn’t teaching art at Ashburton Elementary School, he is usually writing, rewriting or illustrating one of his children’s books. So far, he has written six. His seventh, “Almost Underwear: How a Piece of Cloth Traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars,” was published on Aug. 30. An eighth, the third in a graphic novel series of his Rover and Speck books, will be out on Oct. 1.

“Almost Underwear” is his first picture book and first nonfiction work. It tells the story of an ordinary piece of muslin fabric, the type commonly used to make into ladies’ underwear, purchased in 1903 by two brothers in Dayton, Ohio. It was then wrapped around the wing of the first airplane that the Wright Brothers flew. In 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong took a piece of that same wing cloth to the moon. In 2021, a NASA rover landed on Mars with another tiny piece of the same cloth attached.

Roth just started his 26th year with MCPS, his 20th at Ashburton. His first books chronicle the intergalactic adventures of Bob, a space-school student, and his best friend, Beep the alien. There are four Beep and Bob chapter books in the series.

Growing up, Roth says he read a lot of comic strips, especially “Peanuts.” “Newspaper comics and superhero comics taught me to read,” he said. “Around the same time, I got into “Alice in Wonderland.” That’s one of the earliest books I remember blowing my mind. There was so much creativity and word play.”

He gives author talks at schools in the Washington area and at conferences around the country. His advice for aspiring authors? Try, try again.

“I had been writing books for kids long before I was published,” he said. “I went through at least a dozen years and two agents of submitting work and many rejections. There was interest, but it’s very competitive. It can take years.”

Roth says he still has tons of ideas: “I have a lot of books in me. It’s finding the time to do the things we love that’s a challenge.”

Read more about Jonathan Roth.