D.C. Swanson’s The Book Cook, illustrated by Clint Hansen
“A brilliantly creative story told in verse, The Book Cook IS destined to become a holiday favorite.”
– Christine, THE BOOKWORM, Omaha, NE
“The Book Cook is right up the alley for school librarians and others who love books about books.”
– Kristin, PHOENIX BOOKS, Essex Junction, VT
D.C. Swanson’s The Book Cook, illustrated by Clint Hansen
D.C.'s DAILY RHYME
Each time you stand up, you might make someone frown. They’ll yell you’re in the way and tell you to sit down. But each time you stand up, you might change someone’s view And they’ll see, and believe, that they can stand up too.
About the author
Dan (D.C.) Swanson was born in Burlington, Vermont, and grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, where his parents were teachers and worked at a local bookshop. He went to law school and spent nearly 20 years working as a government attorney in Boston and Washington, D.C., and he now lives in Maryland with his wife, two daughters, and puppy.
From an early age, Swanson learned to respect the power of rhyme. In sixth grade, he got an A on a history project when he turned his dull speech about ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III into a lively rhyme about Tutmo the Rapping Pharoah. When he was 21 and courting his future wife, he dazzled her by writing a dozen Valentine’s Day poems, tying them to a dozen roses, and giving them to her during a candlelight pasta dinner at Bertucci’s. And when he wrote a rhyming story called The Book Cook in 2016 for his then-first grade daughter, that family project would later become his first book, illustrated by Iowa-based scratchboard artist Clint Hansen and published in 2023 by Baobab Press. Swanson and Hansen’s second book, Catch, will be published in April 2026 by Black Rose Writing.
Swanson continues to crank out daily rhymes, a few of which you can find on this website. As he would say: There’s much in this world that I don’t understand, but I’m not on the brink of despairing; instead, I take time to help make the world rhyme, and I hope that you’ll find they’re worth sharing.
About The Book Cook: When 11-year-old twins Maria and Matty realize they forgot to buy a Christmas gift for their mother, they set out on a snowy Christmas Eve for some last-minute shopping. They discover the mysterious store of the Book Cook, who takes literary ingredients and mixes them together in a giant cauldron to make stories come to life. The twins begin creating a story of their own, but when they accidentally knock over shelves of ingredients into the cauldron, their story takes some very strange twists. In the end, the children learn that even when a story doesn’t go perfectly to plan, it can still make a perfect gift.
