Image by Edmund Dulac © (Image Source)
Image by Judith Kerr © Kerr-Kneale Productions 1968
Some of my Favorite Picture books
My childhood was surrounded by books of every variety (that’s what you get when you have a professor for a dad and a teacher turned librarian for a mum!), and from an early age I was absolutely enthralled with the visual storytelling aspect of picture books, and that fascination remains.
I immediately notice that most of the prominent illustrators from my childhood are Causasian men. I know there were (and still are) many fabulous female picture book illustrators from incredibly diverse backgrounds, but I had to really dig for any women from the books I was exposed to growing up, and many were not household names in the way their male counterparts were. Moving from Scotland to Australia at the age of 8 definitely influenced my childhood book choices too, and that is when I started to write and illustrate my own books.
Here are just a few illustrators from my early years that influence my work to this day - not necessarily in my style choices, but sometimes in the feelings they evoke, the subject matter they explore or the ideas they suggest, and most definitely the humor that ties in with the stories (in no particular order - women in bold). I am very conscious that this list is utterly lacking in diverse cultures and backgrounds, and that is something I am constantly trying to unlearn and address as an adult. I am committed to doing all that I can to promote greater diversity in children's picture books.
Maurice Sendak - Where the Wild Things Are, The Big Green Book, Little Bear
Jan Pienkowski - The Haunted House, Meg and Mog series
Richard Scarry - The Busy Town books
Judith Kerr - The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mog the Forgetful Cat
Quentin Blake - anything by Roald Dahl
Raymond Briggs - Fungus the Bogeyman, The Snowman
Arthur Rackham - Alice in Wonderland
Arnold Lobel - Frog and Toad series
Beatrix Potter - Peter Rabbit series
E.H. Shepherd - Winnie the Poo
Peggy Fortnum - Paddington Bear
Roger Hargreaves - the Mister Men and Little Miss books
May Gibbs - the Gumnut Baby books
Tomie dePaola - Strega Nona
Julie Vivas - Possum Magic
Edmund Dulac - Arabian Nights
Aubrey Beardsley - book plates
Pamela Allen - Who Sank the Boat
Helen Oxenbury - We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Jean de Brunhoff - Babar
John Tenniel - Alice in Wonderland
Antoine de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince
Janet and Allan Ahlberg - Burglar Bill, Each Peach Pear Plum
Stephen Axelsen - The Oath of Bad Brown Bill
(I could go on forever!!!)
Some of my favorite contemporary illustrators are: