“Feels like reading a love story that doesn't quite know it's a love story yet, and a success story that doesn't know it’s made it.”
—Emma Straub, New York Times–bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow

Award-winning, beloved children's book author and illustrator Carson Ellis makes a stunning adult debut with an illustrated memoir that evocatively captures a specific cultural moment of the early 2000s and in her journey as an artist.

In January 2001, the young artist Carson Ellis moved into a warehouse in Portland, Oregon, with a group of fellow artists. For the first week she lived there, she kept a detailed diary full of dry observations, mordant wit, hijinks with friends (including her future husband, Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy), and turn-of-the-millennium cultural touchstones. Now, Ellis has richly illustrated this two-decade-old journal with extraordinary new paintings in the signature style that has made her an award-winning picture book author today.

This beautiful volume offers a snapshot of a bygone era, a meticulous re-creation of quotidian frustrations and small, meaningful moments, and a meditation on what it means both to start your journey as an artist and to look back at that beginning many years later.

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR: Carson Ellis is a Caldecott award-winning author and artist known for her work in the Wildwood Chronicles, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and beyond and the longtime illustrator-in-residence for the band The Decemberists. People who love her children’s books will be thrilled to discover this new book—especially parents who are nostalgic for the days of the early 2000s.

A NOSTALGIC GIFT: One Week in January is the perfect nostalgic gift for anyone who came of age in the heyday of indie rock, offering a glimpse into the lives of a particular Portland art scene.

BEAUTIFUL, ECCENTRIC, AND CHARMING: Dry, specific, mundane, and somehow completely magical—this book is a true revelation. With gorgeous one-of-a-kind paintings by the one-and-only Carson Ellis, it’s transporting and relatable, an unglamorous homage to youthful misadventure, fun, sadness, and all the intense feelings of early adulthood.

Perfect for:

• Fans of Carson Ellis’s picture books and illustration
• People who grew up listening to The Decemberists and other bands from the 90s Portland music scene
• Millennials and Gen Xers
• Readers of diaries and memoir
• Art book collectors

Carson Ellis' profile page

Carson Ellis is the author and illustrator of bestselling picture books Home and Du Iz Tak? (a Caldecott Honor book) and the illustrator of a number of books for children, including The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket, and the Wildwood Chronicles by her husband, Colin Meloy. She has won awards for illustration and is the illustrator-in-residence for Colin’s band, The Decemberists, for which she has received Grammy nominations for album art design. She does work for The New Yorker, the New York Times, and other publications. Ellis lives on a farm in Oregon.

“A touching ode to cigarettes, art, pre-digital life, and nascent love.”

—Jillian Tamaki, Eisner Award–winning illustrator of This One Summer

“This diary tells the story of Carson Ellis and her husband Colin Meloy when they were just friends, before either of them had made their enormous, vibrant artistic contributions to American arts and letters and music—it feels like reading a love story that doesn't quite know it's a love story yet, and a success story that doesn't know it’s made it.”?

—Emma Straub, New York Times–bestselling author of The Vacationers

“As long as I’ve known Carson’s work, she’s been at the height of her powers, but here she really is at the height of her powers, all over again. Combining memories from such a rich and formative time in your life with the power and control you have to visualize it later on is such an amazing idea, and I can’t think of anyone who could pull it off better.”

—Jon Klassen, Caldecott Medal–winning author of I Want My Hat Back

“One Week in January is a minute-by-minute oral history of a pivotal moment in time—before the internet took over and everything still felt possible. On top of an oral history, Carson created a visual one, too. Her gorgeous gouache paintings are like fuzzy, high-contrast snapshots from her memory, but they might as well be mine. And yours. And anyone who was ever 20-something and dreamed of a life making things, falling in love, and living a full, creative life. Little did we know that is exactly what we were doing then. Maybe we are still doing it now.”

—Wendy MacNaughton, New York Times–bestselling illustrator of Salt Fat Acid Heat