Wesley Dennis, illustrator

Wesley Dennis, 1903-1966, was an illustrator known mostly for his life-like images of horses and animals. You probably have seen his illustrations on Marguerite Henry books,

































or John Steinbeck's The Red Pony,

or Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

Here are a couple of stories he wrote and illustrated that are still terrific. The stories are genuine but with a sense of humor, and of course, illustrated beautifully:

 We have the Album of Horses book, which I didn't realize was written by Marguerite Henry and illustrated by Wesley Dennis. No wonder I liked it so well.

There are even Breyer horses created for Marguerite Henry/Wesley Dennis books. Here is King of the Wind.

And look: how sweet are Misty and Stormy?       

One last cool thing about Wesley Dennis. He really enjoyed drawing for kids and loved to personally answer his fan mail. It was difficult to keep up, but he knew that kids loved getting mail, so he came up with an idea  to have kids subscribe to a series of postcards that he would illustrate and write, duplicate and send each week. Take a look at these hidden treasures!

Lemony Snicket Readalike

Ardagh, Philip. A House Called Awful End. (The Eddie Dickens Trilogy) 

When eleven-year-old Eddie Dickens’ parents become ill, he is taken in by his great-uncle and great-aunt and embarks on adventures that involve strolling actors, St. Horrid’s Home for Grateful Orphans, and a carnival float shaped like a giant cow.

Bellairs, John. The House with a Clock in its Walls. 

A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion with a clock hidden in the walls which is ticking off the minutes to doomsday.

Byng, Georgia. Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism. 

Unlucky and unloved, Molly Moon, living in a dreary orphanage in a small English town, discovers a hidden talent for hypnotism and hypnotizes her way to stardom in New York city.

Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl.

When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.

Coman, Carolyn. The Big House. 

When Ivy and Ray's parents are sent to jail, and the siblings are left in the custody of their parent's accusers, they decide to look for evidence that will "spring" their parents.                                                             

Dahl, Roald. Matilda.

Matilda is a genius. Unfortunately, her family treats her like a dolt. Her father is a crooked car-salesman and her mother is loud and obsessed with bingo-obsessed. Matilda, with inspiration from the one person who understands her (teacher Miss Honey) starts fighting for herself.

Dahl, Roald. The Witches.

A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a witches’ plot to destroy the world’s children by turning them into mice.

Funke, Cornelia Caroline. The Thief Lord. 

Two brothers, having run away from an aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought out by a detective, but find shelter with Venice’s “Thief Lord.”

Funke, Cornelia Caroline. Inkheart.

Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.   

                                                                  

Gaiman, Neil. Coraline.

Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.  

                                      

Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book.

After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.                                                                     

Gaiman, Neil. Wolves in the Walls.

Giff, Patricia Reilly. Pictures of Hollis Woods. 

A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.

Goldman, William. The Princess Bride 

Is there anyone who isn't in love with S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high

adventure, the "good parts" version, abridged? It's got everything - romance, adventure,

kidnapping, an evil villain, lots of humor, and true love prevailing in the end.

Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker 

First book in a series about a 14-year-old boy named Alex Rider, who is an orphan. His uncle was killed on an assignment for MI6. The head of the agency puts Alex into a special one-week training program and then sends him off to take over his uncle's assignment. He risks life and limb to stop an evil genius who is planning to release a deadly virus with the introduction of his Stormbreaker computer.

Ibbotson, Eva. Dial-a-Ghost.

A family of nice ghosts protects a British orphan from the diabolical plans of his evil guardians.

Ibbotson, Eva. Island of the Aunts.

As they get older, several sisters decide that they must kidnap children and bring them to their secluded island home to help with the work of caring for an assortment of unusual sea creatures.

Ibbotson, Eva. The Secret of Platform 13. 

Odge Gribble, a young hag, accompanies an old wizard, a gentle fey, and a giant ogre on their mission through a magical tunnel from their island to London to rescue their King and Queen’s son who had been stolen as an infant.

Kurzweil, Allen. Leon and the Spitting Image.

Leon, a fourth grader at The Ethical School, tries to outwit the school bully and learn to sew for fanatical teacher Miss Cronheim, with unexpected help from his final project – a doll with magical powers.

Nimmo, Jenny. Midnight for Charlie Bone: Children of the Red King.

Charlie Bone’s life with his widowed mother and two grandmothers undergoes a dramatic change when he discovers that he can hear people in photographs talking.

Pullman, Philip. I Was a Rat.

A little boy turns life in London upside down when he appears at the house of a lonely old couple and insists he was a rat.

Wilson, N.D. 100 Cupboards. 

After his parents are kidnapped, timid twelve-year-old Henry York leaves his sheltered Boston life and moves to small-town Kansas, where he and his cousin Henrietta discover and explore hidden doors in his attic room that seem to open onto other worlds.                                                 

Kind of a Big Deal (that's Minnesotan for "AWESOME")

Photo: Cheryl Simon
For Shelf Awareness blog April 3, 2013
Three of my favorite author-types: Lemony Snicket (Dan Handler), Neil Gaiman, and Jon Klassen promote Lemony Snicket's new picture book for younger readers, The Dark. 

Written by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Jon Klassen, and the

audio version read by Neil Gaiman.

First, Lemony Snicket. I've loved his books and writing since The Bad Beginning, when my husband and I would fight over who got to read to the kids each night. The words, language and wit were intoxicating, a word which here means, very enjoyable and addictive. The tales revolve around three clever siblings to whom very unfortunate things happen, mostly because of an evil foe, sometimes referred to as Count Olaf. To top it off, the books are beautifully bound, and illustrated by the magnificent Brett Helquist. 

Brett Helquist has illustrated a number of young adult books, including some by Blue Balliett called Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3. You must read them.

There is much to like in Chasing Vermeer: two friends, art, a scandal, a mystery. It takes the friends' intuition and clever skills to solve the puzzle. 

OK, back to the picture at top. 
I first read Coraline by Neil Gaiman, which I found to be amazingly creepy and intriguing and I couldn't put it down. The illustration were done by Dave McKean, and they helped draw me in to the story.
The next Neil Gaiman book I read was The Graveyard Book. 

 

Although the Graveyard book starts out with a triple murder, the rest of the book is kind of a sweet book about a newly orphaned boy who is brought up by the ghosts in a cemetery. I loved it.Then, while I was sorting a children's book cart at the library, I came across a picture book by Gaiman, also illustrated by Dave McKean. Great strong female hero Lucy saves her family from the wolves living in the walls of their house. 

And finally, Jon Klassen. I recently wrote about him and his illustrations. I think he's terrific, and I can't wait to see this next book The Dark. Find it and all of the books mentioned at your local library!

Oh, one more piece of awesomeness: listen to Dan Handler's interview on Fresh Air where he accompanies himself on the accordion,  singing Prince's When Doves Cry. Priceless!!

Carson Ellis, Illustrator

I just finished reading Under Wildwood, the follow-up book of Wildwood, written by Colin Meloy and illustrated by his spouse, Carson Ellis. (Read more about the Wildwood Chronicles, including book awards).

These wonderfully creative stories bring the reader into a great forest called the Impassable Wilderness on the edge of Portland, Oregon, where no one has ever gone. The main character, Prue, is a strong, smart, clever child, who seems to be able to make her way out of tough situations with creatures warring and others with dark designs, by making the situation better for everyone involved. 

Mr. Meloy writes perfectly for the young adult who craves a fantastical adventure complete with mystery, danger, magic and wonder. You can see how this book could come from the singer and writer of songs for the group The Decemberists. Think of The Hazards of Love, for instance, as another fantastical tale with magic and wonder.

So, I love the stories themselves, but they are made particularly enjoyable and magical by the gorgeous illustrations of Carson Ellis. I first remember seeing her illustrations in the Mysterious Benedict Society Books, by Trenton Lee Stewart. These are fun adventure books, also for the young adult, full of clues, mysteries, and clever kids. 

Carson Ellis does wonderful miniatures full of detail and information. The pictures are great as line drawings, but really come alive in color. See more examples of her artwork, and a picture of Carson's and Colin's new baby. Congratulations!

Here's one last connection. I have an album, Saltbreakers, by Laura Viers, a singer/songwriter who now lives in Portland. I used to be the Music Department Librarian at Carleton College, which is where Laura went to school. We would keep discs by Carleton alumni in the library, of course, and I really liked Saltbreakers, my kids and I especially liked To the Country because we live in the country. Last year, while looking through the Children's new materials in our library, I spotted a Laura Viers kids CD, but thought the drawing on the front looked kind of familiar.

Sure enough, illustrated by Carson Ellis!

Oh, connections, connections.

Half Magic: Making a Hard Cover from a Paperback

Half Magic
by Edward Eager
Ill. by N.M. Bodecker

I read Half Magic as a kid and loved it. When I had my own kids and would read to them at night, I found my husband's childhood paperback copy at his parents' house. Half Magic is a story about four bored siblings who find a coin-like talisman that grants them half of whatever wish they happen to make when holding it. For instance, when they wish they were home, they are suddenly half-way home. The kids find a way around the half-magic and controlling their wishes and have a marvelous time.

Part of why I liked this book was for the line art by N. M. Bodecker. I always feel a little bad for those paperbacks from the 1960's and '70's. The paper was so cheap and turned brittle, but the cover art and internal art was still cool. So I decided to preserve a couple of old paperbacks, at least for a little longer, by turning them into hard covers.

Since I found three of the other books from Eager's Magic series at the Friends of the Rochester Public Library Bookstore that were library bound discards (thank you, Friends!), I wanted hubby's paperback to (kind of) match.

Lois Lenski

  Lois Lenski (a little bio here) was a prolific writer and illustrator of mostly children's and young adult books. She illustrated at least 50 books by different authors, and wrote and illustrated at least 100 more of her own. Lois won a Newbery award for Strawberry Girl, one book in a collection of stories about children in different parts of the United States.

  Here's the fun connection. You might recognize her art if you are a fan of the Betsy-Tacy series, written by Maud Hart Lovelace. Betsy-Tacy books have a huge cult following, and my favorite thing about them is they are set in Mankato, Minnesota, which is near where I lived during my high school days.

 I collect vintage school readers and children's picture books, choosing mostly by what illustrations attract me. I didn't realize until recently that I had quite a few Lois Lenski books because the illustrations are irresistible. They are charming, of course, but they also portray a sense of adventure and playfulness. They are wonderful as simple line drawings, and delightful in color.

 

Here is the first book I found:

Then I spied this at a Salvation Army:

Illustrator Jon Klassen

Jon Klassen is a Canadian writer and illustrator, who you may have heard of from his fantastic book, I Want My Hat Back, which one the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 2013. Working in a public library gives me immediate access to what people are reading, and this book attracted my attention by the simple cover and intriguing title. It's satisfying right to the surprising and hilarious end, but fun to find clever clues in the middle. I love that the the rabbit's words are in red, matching the red hat, but also indicating that he is lying.

I loved this book so much, and as I do when I love something, I dug around for more info. I found that there have been several adorable adaptations of the book. My favorite is the Dr. Who version which you can find here: http://doctorwho.tumblr.com/post/12891889415/i-want-my-hat-back-the-doctor-edition

Then what I found is some self-plagiarism by Mr. Klassen in another wonderful book that he illustrated called Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett.

Annabelle, the main character in Extra Yarn, knits sweaters for everyone she knows. Then she goes on to knit sweaters for all the animals, and here, Klassen illustrates his animals from I Want My Hat Back wearing Annabelle's sweaters.

These are clever, fun books with fantastic illustrations. Find these and more at your local library!