Croton Illustrator's Work Found in Cheerios Boxes

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – Croton residents hankering to see some hometown art need look no further than their grocer’s cereal aisle. Croton illustrator Rob Shepperson’s drawings will appear in 3 million Cheerios cereal boxes and will depict the story of a sleepy young boy in a new book by Ron Rauss, "Can I Just Take a Nap?"

“This one was quite a challenge because it’s interesting to have a child that wants to take a nap and I’ve never had that experience, so I had to figure out how to draw that. So what I actually illustrated was the world he lives in,” said Shepperson, about the challenges of illustrating "Can I Just Take a Nap?"

Shepperson has been illustrating scenes for books and newspapers since the mid-80s. His work in newspapers can be seen as recently as Sunday’s Wall Street Journal article about curious fixtures in JFK’s Terminal 4 men's bathrooms.

The book’s author, Rauss, is the newest winner of Cheerios “Spoonfuls of Stories,” new author competition. The Warrrenton, Va. dad said he was selected out of 8,000 entries and judged by editors, librarians and teachers. The book, according to Simon and Schuster’s website, was inspired by Rauss’ son Aiden, who enjoys an afternoon nap like his father.

If you’re looking for a snippet of Croton in the mini-bilingual paperback, Shepperson said to look no further than the tee ball.

“I never experienced tee ball until I had children and I loved that the rules were sort of subjective. There’s a little girl who’s a sidekick to the story, she’s the batter at the tee ball and she’s pretty amazing,” said Shepperson.

The 32 page hardcover will be released June 5 and will be readily available in book stores. A General Mills spokesperson said boxes of Cheerios containing Shepperson’s book are already on grocery shelves and are available while supplies last.

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