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Summary
Summary
Our families help shape who we are-what we look like, what we like to eat, even what our strengths and abilities are. So when a parent is a renowned children's book author or illustrator, creative ability may be part of an amazing legacy.
Leonard S. Marcus introduces readers to five best-selling and award-winning families with talent that spans the generations. By opening up these family albums-sharing personal memories, scrapbooks, book dummies, model shots, and final art, Marcus chronicles the way books come into being, the way artists are nurtured and grown, and the way where we come from influences who and what we become.
Includes in depth interviews and extensive histories of five famous multi-generational families of children's book creators:
Jerry Pinkney and his son Brian Pinkney
Anne and Harlow Rockwell and their daughter Lizzy
Donald Crews and Ann Jonas, and their daughter Nina Crews
Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers
Edith and Clement Hurd and their son Thacher Hurd
Summary
Our families help shape who we are--what we look like, what we like to eat, even what our strengths and abilities are. So when a parent is a renowned children's book author or illustrator, creative ability may be part of an amazing legacy.
Leonard S. Marcus introduces readers to five best-selling and award-winning families with talent that spans the generations. By opening up these family albums--sharing personal memories, scrapbooks, book dummies, model shots, and final art, Marcus chronicles the way books come into being, the way artists are nurtured and grown, and the way where we come from influences who and what we become.
Includes in depth interviews and extensive histories of five famous multi-generational families of children's book creators:
Jerry Pinkney and his son Brian Pinkney Anne and Harlow Rockwell and their daughter Lizzy Donald Crews and Ann Jonas, and their daughter Nina Crews Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers Edith and Clement Hurd and their son Thacher Hurd
Author Notes
Leonard S. Marcus is one of the children's book world's most respected and versatile writers, historians, and critics, and has been a contributor and editor for numerous publications. Most recently, Leonard has been named the literary director of Night Kitchen Radio Theater for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. He holds degrees in history from Yale and poetry from the University of Iowa Graduate Writers' Workshop. He and his wife, the picture-book artist Amy Schwartz, live with their son Jacob in Brooklyn, New York.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4 Up-Marcus presents the events and circumstances that have resulted in five picture-book dynasties. Each chapter includes biographical information about the subjects that zeroes in on the salient pieces that nurtured artistic growth and includes numerous quotes from the authors/illustrators themselves. The featured families are Donald Crews, Ann Jonas, and Nina Crews; Clement and Edith Hurd and Thacher Hurd; Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers; Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney; and Harlow and Anne Rockwell and Lizzy Rockwell. Marcus carefully makes the point that, although perhaps blessed with some inherited talent and encouraged by their parents, all of the children pursued their art with diligence and have emerged with their own unique styles. Marcus's writing is, as usual, tight but lively, and each chapter is liberally laced with photographs, preliminary sketches, and final art. The book will be of interest to those readers who enjoy getting behind the scenes of the books they love.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Leonard S. Marcus previously profiled a quintet of famous picture-book collaborators in his Side by Side: Five Favorite Picture-Book Teams Go to Work (PW's starred review said, "Readers may well end up appreciating their favorite picture books more, for the energy and ingenuity it takes to create them"), which is now available in a paperback edition ($11.95 ISBN 978-0-8027-9616-5). In a companion of sorts, Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Families Make Their Mark, Marcus explores creativity in the genes of the Crews family, the Hurds, the Myerses, the Pinkneys and the Rockwells. Early influences (the home of Donald Crews's grandmother, which winds up in Bigmama's) and early drafts (a typed-out front page for Little Dog, Dreaming "by Edith Thacher Hurd, Thacher Hurd, Clement Hurd"), an editorial letter, a sketch and watercolor painted by Brian Pinkney with father Jerry as his model, add to the candor of the text. The narrative consists largely of parent-child conversations that Marcus captures so effortlessly it feels like readers are eavesdropping. (Walker, $19.95 56p ages 8-12 ISBN 978-0-8027-9600-4; Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Growing up in a family of artists is a little unusual: your parents are almost always home, and to amuse you they hand you paper and pencil so you can draw, too. It's not all that surprising, then, that several picture-book artists have passed their talent along to the next generation, and here Marcus looks at four of these families (Crews/Jonas, Hurd, Pinkney, and Rockwell) and adds, in the Myers family, a writer father and artist son. The timeline ranges from the 1930s, with the Hurd family (including Clement Hurd, illustrator of the classic Goodnight Moon), to the newest illustrators in the group, Christopher Myers and Nina Crews, who began their careers in the 1990s. Marcus also discusses some of the art techniques used (especially in connection with Brian Pinkney's deliberate rejection of his father Jerry's watercolor medium in favor of his own signature scratchboard technique) and offers preliminary sketches and other samples of the publishing process in action. Marcus provides a glimpse into these families' lives, leaving it to the reader to spot the interesting similarities and differences between them. The main audience will probably be children's librarians and teachers, but the writing level is perfectly in keeping with elementary-school children, and the style is chatty and anecdotal. Photos of the book creators and reproductions of their work illustrate the text. The only disappointment is an oddly truncated list of published works by each family, which omits those titles mentioned in the book. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Children's literature scholar Marcus is back with a fascinating portrait of five families who have achieved success in their picture-book endeavors. His intelligent introduction explains that offspring inherit not only traits like eye and hair color but talent in such areas as music and art. Nina Crews, Thatcher Hurd, Christopher Myers, Brian Pinkney and Lizzy Rockwell had their gifts nurtured from an early age by their like-minded parents. The contrast between the experiences of these children and that of their struggling elders is compelling: Walter Dean Myers and Anne Rockwell were foster children; Clement Hurd rebelled against his high-society clan; the working class dads of Donald Crews and Jerry Pinkney focused on making a living, not their son's aspirations. Interspersed with quotations from the subjects, the text is lavishly illustrated with letters, family photographs and portraits of the artists at work, sketches, storyboard studies and finished artwork. Written in an engaging style with clarity and immediacy, this doubles as an accessible primer on the art of penning and visualizing picture books. Filled with intriguing tidbits, this is an outstanding work about the connections between parents and children, editors and artists and readers and writers. (photo credits, selective bibliography, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-13) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Similar in format to Marcus' previous books on picture-book creators, including Side by Side: Five Favorite Picture-Book Teams Go to Work (2001), this handsome book looks at five picture-book dynasties. Each chapter spotlights creators in a multigenerational family: Donald Crews, Ann Jonas, and Nina Crews; Clement Hurd, Edith Thacher Hurd, and Thacher Hurd; Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers; Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney; Harlow Rockwell, Anne Rockwell, and Lizzy Rockwell. Marcus quotes extensively from interviews with each living subject and weaves the personal statements into a coherent presentation to show how each person developed creatively. Illustrations include family photos and artwork, beautifully reproduced in color on heavy, glossy pages. This may be of greatest interest to librarians, but young fans will find this a very readable and perceptive book that throws an intriguing light on growing up within a successful family and choosing a career path. --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2006 Booklist
