Art illustrators who hide things

Carin W. Barwick KSAL 10-2012 [email protected]

Picture Book Art : Illustrators Who Hide Things

in Their Stories

Ahlberg, Janet. Her illustrations often feature her family, as well as her husband's, Allan Ahlberg. Peepo! Is based on his childhood memories of the war and their books about babies are based on their daughter Jessica. Ahlberg's Each Peach, Pear, Plum is yet another. Fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters hide on the pages. Anno. Anno has lots of things to look for in his illustrations, such as fairy tale characters. Anno's books (Anno's Journey, Anno's USA, Anno's Italy) all have ‘the man on a horse’ in every scene along with lots of optical tricks, hidden paintings and literary scenes. AVI always includes her son, curly-haired young boy. Baker, Keith. In Elephants Aloft (written by Kathi Appelt), a nut is hidden in each illustration. Keith Baker's book, Hide and Snake is rather intricate. There is 1 item from each page that 'migrates' to the next page (each page has a different theme), and you can look for bees and fruit (I think) on each page. His Who is the Beast? has a snail on each page. Base, Graham. In The Eleventh Hour there are interesting clues to help solve the mystery of the story. Animalia is an alphabet book with hundreds of pictures on each page for each letter, some of which are quite challenging!. Also on each page he has hidden a young boy in blue pants and a striped shirt (it is supposed to be Graham as a child, not Waldo!) Brett, Jan. Ms. Brett hides a hedgehog in all her stories, sometimes one on each page. Once it was the French name for hedgehog, usually it's a 'real' or toy one. She once had a contest to win an author visit where people sent in lists of where they found “Hedgie” in all her books. Jan Brett always has some activity in her margins--some more obvious than others. In Beauty and the Beast, the tapestries behind Beauty and her beast show the same scene, but with the beast as a young man. Brown, Marc. Marc hides his children's names in his illustrations. It started with Tolon and Tucker and now includes his daughter Eliza. Their friends’ names appear in some, too. Also look for his wife's name (Laurie) from time to time. Brown, Margaret Wise. Goodnight,Moon has a mouse hidden on each page. Also, the mouse moves all around the room, and the clock changes time (it takes an hour to get that bunny settled down!) Browne, Anthony. PIGGYBOOK-- As you get deeper and deeper in the story, more and more pigs are integrated into his pictures. Buehner, Mark. (My Monster Mama Loves Me So, My Life With the Wave, etc.) hides animals in his illustrations. Usually you can always find a cat, a dog, a rabbit, a dinosaur and various other animals. In Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas, Santa is also hidden. In his earlier books, he did not alert the reader that the items were hidden; in later books, he lists what to look for. He also often illustrates for his wife, Laura. Catrow, David. Has a very distinctive style, very creative and


strange. He likes to put crazy images in his illustrations, but not really comment on them. In Rotten Teeth (Simms) the main character talks about her boring house, but it has many crazy items, including an alien landing on the grass and an elephant mowing the lawn. Cole, Henry. Illustrated Pamela Edwards’ Some Snug Slug-- it has S shapes in the illustrations. Crews, Donald. Donald hides the year the book was created in his books. Look on license tags, and other places. Also, in Night at the Fair-- he has put a picture of himself in the book--looks just like the author picture on the flap. dePaola, Tomie. Tomie always includes his dog, a peacock, a dove and/or a heart shape. Many of his stories about “Tom” or “Tommy” are about himself as a child. In The Art Lesson, the last page shows many hints about Tomie’s real-life interests. Egan, Tim. Tim has said he said he likes to hide things in his illustrations. He hides different family names and spoofs on famous art. Ehlert, Lois. Lois hides a heart in all of her books. Gilman, Phoebe. Ms. Gilman puts her husband and her daughter in her picture books. (Jillian Jiggs or The Balloon tree.) The little girl (Jillian) in the story of Jillian Jiggs is drawn after Phoebe's daughter. She tries to put something from her earlier books into the pictures of her later books. E.g. Little Blue Ben (one of her earlier works) is seen in one of the art pictures on the wall in Jillian Jiggs. Also, the knots that are on the border of Grandma and the Pirates) are all authentic knots (eg. sheep shank, reef knot etc.) as she did a lot of research before illustrating the books. Gwynne, Fred. (Yes, of the TV show The Munsters) Fred did this in this books--the little girl is always his daughter. (Contributor noted: “Once at a conference I met both father and daughter. She is grown now, of course, and really looks just like him!”) (titles: Chocolate Mousse for Dinner, The King Who Rained) Hillenbrand, Will In The Biggest Best Snowman" by Margery Cuyler, has the animals roll the snowball and it spells out “snowman” in the snow. This stretches out over several pages, and I never noticed it even though I had to read this story repeatedly to my daughters! (Although, I do remember wondering why they rolled the snowballs in that way…now it seems obvious!) Hyman, Trina Schart. At a conference, she mentioned that in the book Fortuneteller's Daughter by Lloyd Alexander that she illustrated she put her grandchild in the book as one of the babies one of the main male characters is her son-in-law. I have also heard that sometimes she hides things that are ‘off-color’ in her pictures. Kellogg, Steven. Mr. Kellogg usually hides Pinkerton and Secondhand Rose (his personal dog and cat) in his illustrations. He also occasionally writes them into the story (especially Pinkerton, who has his own series) and they often appear in backgrounds without comment in the story. Lobel, Arnold & Anita. In the heart of On Marketplace by you will find old favorites Frog and Toad. Marshall, James This author/illustrator hides the flag of Texas in his books. James Marshall was from Texas and has different Texas symbols in his illustrations. In Miss Nelson is Missing there is a Texas flag hanging in the classroom, and also Texas-themed bulletin board. In his Night Before Christmas Santa has on Cowboy boots, etc.


Mayer, Mercer has a cricket/grasshopper/mouse/spider in the illustrations of his Little Critter books. McCluskey, Robert used to put his entire family, including his mother-in-law in his books. In Blueberries for Sal, little Sal and her mother are said to be based on Robert McCloskey's wife, Margaret, and daughter, Sarah. McGeorge, Constance. Look for a scarecrow hidden on each page of the Waltz of the Scarecrows. Oxenbury, Helen. In The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, each time the little wolves are escaping the pig, they bring along their teapot. Masiello, Ralph. Mr. Masiello often teams with author Jerry Pallotta. Ralph hides pictures of Jerry and others in his artwork. The Extinct Alphabet Book has "hidden pictures": the words "find Jerry" are hidden in the foliage of the trees on the "B" page, more words are hidden in the edge of the cliff on the "L" page, Jerry's face is on the "T" page and a silhouette of Elvis is on the "U" page and his guitar formed by a puddle of spilled paint. He has done this in other books on which he teamed with illustrator Ralph Masiello. Also, in The Skull Alphabet Book, faces of the presidents of the US are hidden in the pages. They have co-created many books and they all have fun little secrets! Pinkney, Jerry. Mr. Pinkney (Ugly Duckling, The Talking Eggs…) uses his family members in his 30+ books. In Sam and the Tigers he uses his wife. In Ugly Duckling he puts himself in. He also puts faces in the foliage. You can look at the leaves and tree trunks. Rathman, Peggy, who wrote Goodnight Gorilla, references her other books in her pictures. Rey, H. A. drew his black cocker spaniel in the Curious George books. Riley, Linnea has her characters in Song of Night reading her first picture book, Mouse Mess. Root, Phyllis. In One Duck Stuck there is a branch with a leaf that gets closer and closer to the duck until he is finally able to step on it and get out of the muck. SanSouci, Daniel. Daniel often collaborates with his author brother, Robert (over 13 books together!) He researches his Native American tales to ensure authenticity the illustrations of clothing and shelter. He is amused by the fact that in Two Bear Cubs, the animals are wearing traditional, ancient, native American adornments (oviella shell necklaces) and the adults always say “how cute, the bears are wearing pearls, just like June Cleaver!”…in other books, Daniel uses his friends and family as models for the characters. This usually works to his advantage, until one friend was upset that he was drawn to be the homely Ichabod Crane! Scarry, Richard. In the old classic Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, Goldbug is hidden in every picture (2 page spread). Kids in my college class pointed that out to me, reminiscing fondly about looking for him. Sendak, Maurice. Mr. Sendak always puts his West Highland White Terrier (named Jenny) somewhere in his books. Jenny was Mr. Sendak's companion for many years and he was heartbroken when she died. Sis, Peter. Check any of his books. They are filled with hidden and disguised images. The Three Golden Keys is a fabulous example.


Sleator, William. On a higher level, likes to give the weird creatures in his books the names of good friends. Spengler, Kenneth. He has illustrated Jennifer Ward’s series of rhyming books, Way Out In the Desert, Over in the Garden, Way Up in the Arctic, Somewhere in the Ocean. In these books he not only puts the correct number of items to go with the counting story, he also hides the numeral, sometimes in very difficult ways to find. (In the desert book, on the 9 coyotes, one of the puppies' tails curves into a very recognizable "9", on 5 gila monsters, there is a 5 in the pattern of scales, etc). ALSO he puts a miniature of the creature for the next page on the current page. Steig, William is in his book The Flying Latkes, he's on the TV screen. VanAllsburg, Chris. There is a white terrier (white dog with a black patch on one eye), named Fritz, somewhere within all of Chris VanAllsburg's books. The dog was a character in his first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. In one book he is a puppet, in another, a pull toy, and in one book he is the label of a bottle! Contrary to popular belief, it is not his dog, It was the dog of one of his relatives. Wiesner, David. The fellow eating a sandwich and drinking milk in Caldecott winner Tuesday is the illustrator himself. And in his surreal art you can often find interesting objects (such as frog-shaped clouds). Wilks, Mike. He always includes a picture of himself and a snail in every picture. In the Ultimate Noah's Ark, which has one picture broken up into a number of panels for the illustrations, his picture is only in one panel, but the snail is in every one. Wood, Don and Audrey put their son in every book. In King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, the King was Don’s good friend, child was his kid. Young, Ed. On Lon Po Po’s dedication page, the face of his grandfather is in the picture of the wolf. It is difficult to see. There are other tricky images also—On the first page, the landscape is a wolf’s head (the mom is walking toward the nose). At the end when the wolf is being pulled up in the basket, the tree is very stylized. If you turn the page sideways, it looks like the wolf’s head. In particular, the basket with the wolf in it looks like an eye. Zelinsky, Paul O. In his Caldecott version of Rapunzel, the cat is on every page and it grows as the book progresses. Many of the items on this list were originally compiled in a post from LM_NET somewhere around 2000. The link is no longer active, but someone else has posted parts of the original list at http://nancykeane.com/rl/231.htm. Anything added or different from that list is from my own observations or editing (in some cases the original post had the incorrect illustrator, etc.)

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Art illustrators who hide things