My favorite illustrators.

Illustrations make a children's story.

I mean, think about it, would Fancy Nancy be the same without the illustrations? What about Angelina Ballerina? When you say Angelina Ballerina, you don't think:

"More than anything else in the world, Angelina loved to dance. She danced all the time, and she danced everywhere, and often she was so busy dancing that she forgot about the other things she was supposed to be doing."
                                   From Angelina Ballerina by Katherine Holabird

No, you think:

Am I right?

Illustrations are very important in children's books.

I'm warning you right now. This is a very long gushy post.

My very favorite books when I was really little were the ones with the most diverting pictures.

                    Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona books are awesome.

                        Madaline? She was such a brave little girl!

                                  The Sam books are adorable...

And then, by the time I was reading actual novels, I'd gotten to the point where I wouldn't actually read the picture books: I'd just look at the pictures. And then I figured out the kind of artist I did not want to be. Ever.

Did Dr. Seuss's illustrations scare anyone else?



Or how about M. D. Bodecker's Half Magic cover? (that book is awesome, by the way...)

I started really liking Trina Schart Hyman's work. The woman was incredible when it came to colors and style!

from Snow White

Snow White

Her illustrations for St. George and the Dragon were some of my favorites.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

And Sleeping Beauty

And of course... there are all the rest, but I'm going to restrain myself. Ish.


My sister bought me The Ordinary Princess when I was about nine or ten. It's a delightful book, written and illustrated by M. M. Kaye. I wonder why she didn't draw more? I think that was the only book she ever illustrated. **sigh** The book itself reads how the pictures look, if that's anything to go by.

        The end of this book makes me cry every time. It's so sweet. :)

Kinuko Y. Craft does absolutely gorgeous illustrations. She captures light so well, and she has such detail in every picture that you can just sit and look for ages.

Even her black and white drawings are beautiful:

P. J. Lynch illustrates my favorite version of The Gift of the Magi.

And also The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. Both books make me sniffle by the end of them. In a good way.

Robin Preiss Glasser does the illustrations for Fancy Nancy. Seriously... Can anyone imagine these books without the pictures?

The books would not be the same with out the over-the-top fancy illustrations.

Okay and finally! My sister Kat is a huge source of jealousy for me, because she's quite the artist herself. I tend to look at her work and think, "And I used to think I  was talented." But hey ho, that makes me practice.

Katrina DeLallo Copyright

Katrina DeLallo Copyright

Katrina DeLallo Copyright

(You really must click on the dragon one! The dragon itself took her three hours--She did every scale one at a time. twice.)

As it is, I hope my style of drawing manages to take on a few of these illustrators' characteristics. They say that imitation is the best form of flattery, but I don't want to copy them, I just want to do their inspirations justice. They are an amazingly talented group people and I find that when I look at their work I get the feeling that maybe one day I'll manage to pluck up the courage to take a few art classes... and maybe come a children's book illustrator myself.

God bless!

Treskie