Every week we put new beautifully illustrated picture books on the library shelves for our patrons. We all have our favorites and look forward to new works. Did you know that nowadays many picture books are written by one person and illustrated by another? Publishers and editors are responsible for matching the concept and tone of a book with just the right illustrator. However, a lot of picture book writers are also responsible for the illustrations. We are constantly coming across new talent, illustrators whose work brings a distinctive style to the story being told. Hopefully we will be seeing many more books from these often award-winning illustrators. Following is just the tip of the paintbrush:
Kevin Duggan
already an exhibited artist who specializes in natural history has worked with his wife, Sheila Keenan, to author a beautiful book about a not so lovely bird. We learn about the behavior of these common American birds through a rhyming, often humorous text accompanied by soft, colored pencil drawings. Detailed and realistic, Duggan shows us crows from many perspectives, creating striking close-up images which become almost a graphic design.
Tao Nyeu
illustrates using silkscreen, with clean simple lines and a distinctive palette of teal, blue and orange . The flat white space and patterning hark back to such classic illustrators as
Lois Lenski and
Wanda Gag. The text in her books varies from wordless (
Wonder Bear) to short chapters(
Squid & Octopus) while the pictures complete the gentle humor in the story.
Renata Liwska
in collaboration with Deborah Underwood, has illustrated the bestseller
The Quiet Book, along with its sequels, The Loud Book and The Christmas Quiet Book. She creates delicately nuanced yet very solid pictures with pencil and digitized coloring. In
The Quiet Book, animals experience different kinds of quiet at home, school, and play. The simple, uncluttered drawings have just enough detail to allow us to stop and spend time on each page, while still being able to follow the simple narrative.
Katherine Battersby
has created an unlikely hero - Squish Rabbit - to help children learn the importance of friendship. Although Squish Rabbit is simply drawn, she completes each scene with multi-media collages, soft and reassuring. Illustrations are not always explained by the text, requiring input by reader, a technique to help children increase their visual literacy. The variety of materials used in the collages (watercolor, ink, paper, textiles) create pleasing diversity of texture.
Levi Pinfold
has painted an increasingly large and ferocious black dog looking in upon the inhabitants of a house. Leave it to the brave young miss to confront and deflate the unknown danger. Pinfold, uses gouache, tempera, watercolor to achieve a style he describes as stylized realism. The pictures are soft and smoky, misty and atmospheric, but humorous details keep young readers from becoming too afraid of the danger lurking outside. Check out his rollicking
Django for the story of a gypsy folk singer aided (and hindered) by a mysterious leprachaun-like character.
Joe Berger
who pens comics in addition to illustrating children’s books, has created fun-loving Bridget Fidget with her deadpan companion Capt. Cat and other characters, such as
Hattie the Bad. These are all energetic, humorous stories of children having adventures. Berger’s retro, cartoonish style is complete with dot grids, and bright primary colors. He also illustrates the praiseworthy
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Berger’s style is similar to Tony Fucile, who struck a funny bone with his
“Let’s Do Nothing” and has brought Kate DiCamillo’s
Bink & Gollie to life
Chris Haughton
gives us simple stories and pictures while dealing with common childhood issues such as feeling lost and trying to be good (well, maybe not just childhood issues!) His strong simple shapes with warm vibrant colors pull the reader into the story as much as the questions posed on the pages.
Erin Stead
won the Caldecott Medal for her illustration debut with fellow picture book author & husband Philip Stead in
A Sick Day for Amos McGee. She draws delicate scenes of friendship & patience, judiciously adding areas of muted, textured color via wood block printing. Her latest book
Bear Has a Story to Tell, continues this very successful collaboration.
For more on the fabulous authors involved with
Picture Book Month, see the website.
Our next
book discussion will meet Thursday, December 6 at 7:15 p.m. in the Children’s
Programming Room. Elise Barack will lead
a discussion of The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka.
