When we think of Maurice Sendak, our immediate thoughts go to his ground-breaking Caldecott winning title, Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak smashed the perception of childhood as a time of pleasantness, a time of unicorns and rainbows, sweetness and light. He appalled the “gate keepers” of the time. Too scary they said.
Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney have made an outstanding contribution to the field of children’s literature both as individuals and as a team. Together, they have published more than 70 children’s books that have received the highest awards and accolades.
Illustrator Katy Schneider used oil paint for her illustrations in “Once I Ate a Pie.” Oil paint is a powdered pigment bound in plant-derived oils such as linseed or walnut oils. Although it can be used on paper, oil paint is often used on cotton or linen canvas, and less commonly on wooden panels. Oil paints dry slowly.
“Oink” by Arthur Geisert was illustrated with etchings — a rarely used technique in children’s books. The colors were done with manual color separation. Geisert tried to combine a classic etching style inspired by Piranesi, Rembrandt, and Callot with humor and narrative.
Umbrella (1958) by Taro Yashima is a recollection of childhood, is a story of Momo as a young Japanese-American in New York who wants to use her new umbrella. Yashima had three Caldecott Honors for his work on Crow Boy, Umbrella, and Seashore Story. His style varied from book to book.
“These Hands,” written by Margaret H. Mason, was illustrated by Floyd Cooper, who has won many prestigious awards for his illustrations, including the 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for The Blacker the Berry, written by Joyce Carol Thomas (Amistad), plus three previous Coretta Scott King Honors, a Da Vinci Award, and an NAACP Image Honor. He has illustrated more than 80 books. Floyd lives in Pennsylvania.
Charcoal was used by Clare Turlay Newberry in these black and white illustrations of a mother cat and her three kittens. School Library Journal deemed these “beautiful drawings, so real one wants to pet them. Clare Newberry’s enchanting illustrations reflect her fondness for cats.” Newberry noted, “I had loved cats all my life and had always put them into drawings and, in 1934, I began studying them seriously.”
“Red Rubber Boot Day,” a poetic read-aloud, continues the tradition of the “Here-and-Now” school. Ray’s buoyant text and Stringer’s energetic acrylic paintings perfectly capture an up-close child’s eye view of indoor and outdoor rainy-day play.
Gág used ink to draw outlines of cats and characters, as well as for shading and creating tonal qualities. She wrote: “I aim to make the illustrations for children’s books as much a work of art as anything I would send to an art exhibition. I strive to make them completely accurate in relation to the text. I try to make them warmly human, imaginative, or humourous — not coldly decorative — and to make them so clear that a 3-year-old can recognize the main object in them.”
By Lisa Von Drasek Antarctic Antics written by Judy Sierra, Illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, Harcourt 1999. Watercolor, pen and ink. Antarctic Antics…
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