Illustrator Spotlight: Milanka Reardon
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| © Milanka Reardon |
Nov. 1, 2025
We're pleased to feature illustrator Milanka Reardon and her banner design for Kidlit411, as well as her book An Old Man and His Penguin, written by Alayne Kay Christian (She Went Thataway Press) Enter to win a copy via the widget below.
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| © Milanka Reardon |
Tell us about yourself and how you came to illustrate for children.
When I emigrated to the U.S. from the former Republic of Yugoslavia at the age of six, no one in my school spoke my language, so my teachers sketched pictures of the English words on the chalkboard in order to communicate with me. But instead of copying the words, I loved adding to their drawings, creating my first stories with images. Later, I attended Rhode Island School of Design, earning a certificate in Natural Science Illustration. I loved drawing and painting plants and animals, but I wanted to tell a story with them. I always loved the funny individual expressions of the animals and saw them as characters and I wondered about their story. So that naturally led me to the Children’s Book Illustration program at RISD. Once I started that program, I found that I had so many stories that I wanted to tell with pictures.
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| © Milanka Reardon |
Congrats on your website banner design. How did you approach this project?
A small part of this image started from an Animal Alphabets prompt on Instagram for a “Nuthatch on a Nature Walk.” It made me think of how we as authors and illustrators observe and explore, like these little birds. And how much nature can add to our creativity. Our creative process is more than just the words and images we create.
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| © Milanka Reardon |
Congrats on your book An Old Man and His Penguin. Tell us about it.
An Old Man and His Penguin written by Alayne Kay Christian tells the story of a friendship between an oil-covered penguin who washes up on a beach off the coast of Brazil and the man who rescues him. Joao loves Dindim like a son and Dindim loves Joao as if he were another penguin. This book first came out a few years ago and has been re-released this year. I was excited to see the movie, My Penguin Friend, based on this same story in movie theaters last year. It was such a joy to illustrate this story which is a winner of the Story Monsters Award for Nonfiction. The Kirkus Review says that this story is "A moving, affectionate, and joyful tale, all the more so for being true."
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What is your preferred medium and style?
I love to draw and to paint with traditional mediums, like watercolor and oil paint. Watercolor seemed to be a good fit for An Old Man and His Penguin. I love the looseness of the water and paint and watching it flow on paper. I try to achieve a nice variety of textures. But most of all I am drawn to whatever works for creating that unique character or scene that best fits the story. Most of my portraits are done with oil paint. But I’ve also found such joy in painting on the iPad too. With my busy lifestyle now, it’s easy to pick up the iPad and paint anywhere and almost anytime without having to worry about cleaning brushes.
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| © Milanka Reardon |
What projects are you working on now?
I have a few picture book dummies that I am writing and illustrating now. In THE SECRET DRAGON, Lina believes that the dragon statues on the bridge over the river, Ljubljanica, are alive. She dreams of flying with dragons. Her family says that statues can’t move and dragons aren’t real. But when a little dragon lands on her windowsill, Lina wavers, then reaches for its claw. I love illustrating this story because I emigrated from the country in which this story takes place and it is only in the illustrations that you see that Lina is a child with a disability.
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| © Milanka Reardon |
Another picture book dummy that I am working on now is about Kiwi and Ruby, two little raccoon siblings, who want to find the best surprise for Gammy’s birthday, but Kiwi is too little to tie his own shoes or reach the pedals on his bike. Lucky for him, big sister and expert on most things, Ruby, is there to help even though it often ends with chaos and calamity. Then one day, Ruby is in need of big help and Kiw,i finding his own superpower, comes to her rescue and saves the day with the perfect gift for Gammy.
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| © Milanka Reardon |
What is one thing most people don't know about you?
I have always loved to draw from the time that I was a little girl living in Titograd, Yugoslavia with my mother. My aunt sent us a roll of toilet paper once when we lived in the old country and I used to draw pictures on it. It made a great continuous storyboard and I filled each square with pictures!
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| © Milanka Reardon |
Where can people find you online?
To find out more about Milanka Reardon, or contact me at my websit MilankaReardon.com or social media (bluesky: @milankareardon.bsky.social; Instagram: milanka_reardon; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milanka.reardon; Twitter: @MilankaReardon .
Milanka Reardon is a children’s book author/illustrator. She holds two certificates from the Rhode Island School of Design in Children’s Book Illustration and Natural Science Illustration. Milanka is a recipient of the R. Michelson Galleries Emerging Artist Award and has served as the co-illustrator coordinator for the New England SCBWI. She has illustrated several picture books including Party at Arnie’s and Harry Can Hear by Fynisa Engler, Child of the Sea by Maxine Rose Schur, An Old Man and His Penguin by Alayne Kay Christian, Who Will, Will You? by Sarah Hoppe, and Noodles and Albie’s Birthday Surprise by Eric Bennett. Her illustrations and poem, Baby Dragons of Ljubljana appear in The Writers' Loft Anthology, Gnomes and Ungnomes: Poems of Hidden Creatures. She lives in Massachusetts by a lake, where you can find her sketching swans, ducks and all kinds of wildlife for her next picture books.
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