Category: Blog

Victoria Chess

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An impromptu homage to one of my favorite artists. Images from some of her books in my library.

Poor Esmé (1982)

Peacocks Are Very Special (written by Sue Alexander, 1976)

Grim and Ghastly Goings-on (written by Florence Parry Heide, 1992)

Three Blind Mice (written by John W. Ivimey, 1990)

The Costume Party (2005)

The Sheriff of Rottenshot (poems by Jack Prelutsky, 1982)

Slugs (written by David Greenberg, 1983)

Tales for the Perfect Child (written by Florence Parry Heide, 1985)

Tommy at the Grocery Store (written by Bill Grossman, 1989)

Which do you trust more, the words or the pictures?

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Every time I share my picture book Two Mice (Clarion Books, 2015) with a group of children––like I did recently at Kinderbuchfestival in Basel, Switzerland––a certain passage never fails to excite the spirits. In the story, the mice, after surviving a scary shipwreck, are swimming towards a little island.

When I read the line “One island, two trees,” after a moment of hesitation while studying the picture, most kids start protesting: “Those are not trees! Those are bird’s feet!” To which I respond: “Wait a second: The text clearly states those are two trees. Why would you question that?” “Because we see in the picture that that’s not true! Those are clearly bird’s feet!” At this point, I pause and say: “You all know that I was the one who both wrote the words and drew the pictures. Now you are telling me that you don’t trust my words but you trust my pictures. Why is that? What if I was telling you the truth with the words and lying with the pictures?”

When I move to the next spread, text and drawings seem to agree again, showing in fact a big bird of prey flying away with the mice in its claws. That usually makes the children think “Ha! We were right!” Which in this case is true, but that doesn’t make it a rule.

In my experience, I have never found a child yet who trusts the words more than the pictures. Why is that?

Good Endings

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I don’t know how you are feeling, these days, but I often find myself thinking of the apocalypse, the end of everything. In that spirit, I’ve been collecting a bunch of nice little spot illustrations placed on the last page of many books, often with the words The End close by. I see them as a friendly farewell from the illustrator. Here are some. I might add more as I find them.

James Marshall; Anonymous; Beni Montresor.

Hendrik van Loon; Lothar Meggendorfer; Franz Masereel.

Leo Longanesi; ditto; H. A. Rey.

Jean de Bosschère; Yambo; Anonymous.

The Making of The Real Story

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Here are the dummy sketches, the preparatory drawings, and the final pen & ink-and-watercolor illustrations for one spread of The Real Story. Those red splashes on the monster’s head were removed before going to print! Click on image to enlarge.