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New Jersey author and illustrator make Guinness World records

Jacqueline Cutler By Jacqueline Cutler The Star-Ledger
on March 20, 2014 at 3:33 PM, updated March 20, 2014 at 3:39 PM
ed-shankman-dave-o'neill-slmw320.jpgDave O'Neill (standing) of Montclair and Ed Shankman of Verona have made it to the Guinness World Records for participating in the largest read-in in New Orleans. 

Bar bets are won and lost on how many Oscars a movie won and how much the fattest men ever weighed.

Incidentally, these were a lot more fun before you could tap your phone a few times and get the answer. In pre-cell phone days people would argue, actually visit libraries, call around to places to get information and dig a little. Bets could not always be answered before the next drink was served.

Regardless of the ease in obtaining answers, here’s a trivia question about books that does not come up a lot, at least not at the bars we have frequented. And it’s an incredibly cool record to win: Two New Jersey men were instrumental in helping New Orleans break the Guinness World Record for largest reading lesson.

A few weeks ago in this space, Ed Shankman, a children’s book author from Verona, spoke with New Jersey Authors about creating his books with illustrator Dave O’Neill of Montclair.

They write books about particular cities, and wrote one about New Orleans, “The Bourbon Street Gang is Back.” The New Orleans Public Library used it to try to set a Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest read-in.

The duo went to New Orleans on Jan. 22, and read from their book about the day the music stopped in New Orleans and how it came back. Guinness World Records sent the New Jersey men notice that the 451 children who participated in the read-in “easily broke the previous Guinness record.”

Shankman, who grew up in Englewood, says, “It’s been an amazing few months.”
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2014/03/new_jersey_author_and_illustrator_make_guinness_world_records.html
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