The cover of "Zoolidays" says "Written by Bruce Glassman, Illustrated by Rolandas Kiaulevicius," but the only reason Kiaulevicius' name isn't there as author, too, is because the Lithuanian was still learning English. His beautiful watercolor illustrations brought the story to life and to the attention of Red Cygnet Press, a unique new book publishing firm in San Diego, Calif., which was founded by former New Haven resident Glassman and Joshua Gravin. It's a bit of six degrees of separation working at its best.

  Kiaulevicius will be signing copies of "Zoolidays" Dec. 10 at 2:30 p.m. at the Guilford Art Center, 411 Church St. If you're lucky, he may show up as one of his characters, such as Blue Moose. Kiaulevicius' illustrations make his characters jump off the pages, but how many authors do so literally?

"It's a lot of fun for me, but it's a lot of fun for the kids," he says. "I've done about 10 presentations. One was at a private house on Thanksgiving that was fun."

Kiaulevicius is one of the few lucky artists being nurtured by Red Cygnet, whose raison d'etre is to find student artists or illustrators and give them their big publishing break. Originally, co-founder Glassman and his parents owned Blackbirch Press in New Haven, publishing non-fiction books for schools and libraries. When the company was acquired by Thomson Gale, Glassman moved to San Diego, but owning a company like Red Cygnet "was always on my list of things to do," said Glassman by phone from his California office.

"The beauty is we get to go into a talent pool of young, creative, highly motivated students where we get a great deal of creativity and a lot of unique art styles," he said. "It's a very vibrant resource for us to use as publishers."

Of course, it makes economic sense for a start-up like Red Cygnet, too, which, by offering these students a dream come true, is also able to get talent before they become famous and outpriced.

Kiaulevicius fits on all counts. A native of Lithuania, where he studied woodworking and drawing, he comes from artistic genes. "All of my mother's side are artists," says Kiaulevicius, whose uncle, Vytautas Dabrukas, is a well-known sculptor and artist in his homeland and Europe.

Kiaulevicius followed his girlfriend, now-wife, Laura, to Branford, five years ago when she was an au pair with the Mariotti family in Short Beach. The Mariottis fell under the spell of his considerable charm and allowed the lovesick boyfriend to extend a weeklong visit with their au pair into a permanent place with the family, which he grew to love, and weathered with them the family tragedy of the breast cancer death of 41-year-old Gini, to whom he dedicates the book.

Red Cygnet — named after a baby swan, or cygnet to push the metaphor of a young artist, growing into a beautiful swan — found Kiaulevicius at Western Connecticut State University, where he recently earned his master's in fine arts and will be honored at a reception at 4 p.m. Dec. 11.

"I was very happy there," he says. " ... that program is really good, and the professors are really helping the students. I found really nice people there."

One of them was Abe Echevarria, professor of illustration, who urged Kiaulevicius to answer Red Cygnet's call for artists. That was in December of 2005. "I was feeling pretty strong about it, because I know how people do a book dummy," he says. "I was feeling strong, but not sure I could win."

He learned that at Paier College of Art, which he attended after learning to speak English at adult eductaion classes in New Haven.

He specifically credits John Falato at Paier for teaching him how to work again. He also showed his work to Vladimir Shpitalnik there, who was immediately struck by the illustrations, and helped shepherd them into book form.

"He helped me a lot do this book in the beginning, " said Kiaulevicius, who now teaches drawing and art at Eastern Connecticut State University and Branford's Wightwood School. "He's from Russia and very talented. He helped me through the process, how to work on a book, how many pages it should be, directed me where I should go. He told me to go to the library and and look at children's books there."

He never started out specifically to be a children's book illustrator, though Kiaulevicius drew his entire life — "everywhere, even on Sundays in church when my mother would say, 'put the drawings down,'" recalls Kiaulevicius. The genesis for the book actually came about in Branford when he was chauffeuring the Mariotti kids and some friends to an after-school program.

"They said, 'Tell a story, tell a story,' and I told this story," said Kiaulevicius. "They said, 'Wow, this is wonderful, we're going to buy your book.'"

In January he received word that he was among the lucky 12 awarded contracts to have their books published. "I was so excited," says Kiaulevicius, "when I received the e-mail," though Glassman said there was still work to be done.

"Rolandas' proposal was a great concept, and we loved the illustrations," says Glassman, who did a rare intervention into the btext. "They were whimsical, and he was talented. As an editor, I try to touch things as little as possible. He had the concept and the plotline, not so much in the words, but in the illustrations."

All parties are thrilled with the results. Glassman changed Kiaulevicius' story from one in which the animals paint each other after finding children's left-behind paint and brushes, and eventually form a Christmas tree that heads toward the moon, into a more structured plot of a day at the zoo when the visitors were so bored and uninterested in the animals, that they all left, threatening the zoo's existence. The animals paint themselves to become more attractive to the visitors — blue squids on the giant sow, paisley on the hippo — and, of course, the plan works.

Kiaulevicius pulled a few all-nighters to add many more illustrations, though he feels his non-deadline originals are stronger pieces.

"The text is really good now," says Kiaulevicius. "It's a great story. Kids love it. The story's strong, the illustrations are strong," he says. In his next book, he says the animals may very well find out if there are artists on the moon, though he knows he will have to find a new publisher, since Red Cygnet rarely publishes an author's second book. They push them out of the nest and force them to fly on their own. But they have a leg up as published authors.

Donna Doherty may be reached at (203) 789-5672 or ddoherty@nhregister.com.