Kellogg, Steven 1941–

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Kellogg, Steven 1941–

(Steven Castle Kellogg)

PERSONAL:

Born October 26, 1941, in Norwalk, CT; son of Robert E. and Hilma Marie Kellogg; married Helen Hill, 1967; children: (stepchildren) Pamela, Melanie, Kimberly, Laurie, Kevin, Colin. Education: Rhode Island School of Design, B.F.A., 1963; graduate study at American University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—P.O. Box 280, Essex, NY 12936.

CAREER:

Author and illustrator of children's books; artist. American University, Washington, DC, instructor in etching, 1966; has also taught printmaking and painting. Exhibitions: Works exhibited at American Institute of Graphic Arts Book Show, Children's Book Showcase, and at Bologna International Children's Book Fair.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Dutch Zilveren Griffel, 1974, for Can I Keep Him?; Christopher Award, 1976, for How the Witch Got Alf; Irma Simonton Black Award, Bank Street College of Education, 1978, for The Mysterious Tadpole; American Book Award finalist, 1980, and Georgia Children's Picture Storybook Award, University of Georgia College of Education, and Little Archer Award, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Department of Library Services, both 1982, all for Pinkerton, Behave!; Parents' Choice Award, Parents' Choice Foundation, 1982, for Tallyho, Pinkerton!, and 1986, for Best Friends; Michigan Young Reader's Award, Michigan Council of Teachers of English, 1983, for The Island of the Skog; Boston Globe/Horn Book Illustration Award Honor Book, 1985, and Utah Children's Informational, and Young Adult's Book Award, 1988, both for How Much Is a Million? by David M. Schwartz; David McCord Children's Literature citation, Framingham (MA) State College/International Reading Association (IRA), 1987, for significant contribution to excellence in books for children; Regina Medal, Catholic Library Association, 1989; Horn Book Honor Book designation, 1994, for If You Made a Million by Schwartz; New England Booksellers Award, 1996; Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Books of the Year designation, 1996, and IRA Children's Choice designation, 1997, both for Frogs Jump! by Alan Brooks; Jo Osborn Medal, 1997; IRA Children's Choice designation, ALA Notable Book designation, and Utah Children's Book Award list, all 1997, all for Rattlebang Picnic by Margaret Mahy; ALA Notable Children's Book designation, for Jack and the Beanstalk; Capitol Choice designation, 1997, for The Three Pigs; Children's Literature Choice listee, 1998, and Buckeye Children's Book Award listee (OH), 2001, both for Library Lil by Suzanne Williams; designations for American Library Association Notable Books for Children, Child Study Association of America Children's Book of the Year, New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, and School Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts designation, National Council of Teachers of English, 2000, for The Three Sillies; Capitol Choices honor, 2000, Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Books of the Year designation and Children's Literature Choice designation, both 2001, Michigan Reader's Choice Award, 2003, and Volunteer State Book Award, 2004, all for The Baby BeeBee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie; Delaware Diamonds Reading list, 2001-02, for The Missing Mitten Mystery; Rhode Island School of Design Professional Achievement Award, 2003; Boston Globe/Horn Book Nonfiction Award, 2006, for If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith McNulty.

WRITINGS:

FOR CHILDREN; SELF-ILLUSTRATED

The Wicked Kings of Bloon, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1970.

Can I Keep Him?, Dial (New York, NY), 1971.

The Mystery Beast of Ostergeest, Dial (New York, NY), 1971.

The Orchard Cat, Dial (New York, NY), 1972.

Won't Somebody Play with Me?, Dial (New York, NY), 1972.

The Island of the Skog, Dial (New York, NY), 1973.

(Reteller) There Was an Old Woman, Parents' Magazine Press (New York, NY), 1974.

Much Bigger than Martin, Dial (New York, NY), 1976.

The Mysterious Tadpole, Dial (New York, NY), 1977, twenty-fifth anniversary edition revised with new illustrations, 2002.

Pinkerton, Behave!, Dial (New York, NY), 1979.

A Rose for Pinkerton, Dial (New York, NY), 1981.

Tallyho, Pinkerton!, Dial (New York, NY), 1982.

Ralph's Secret Weapon, Dial (New York, NY), 1983.

(Reteller) Paul Bunyan: A Tall Tale, Morrow (New York, NY), 1984.

(Reteller) Chicken Little, Morrow (New York, NY), 1985.

(Reteller) Pecos Bill, Morrow (New York, NY), 1986.

Best Friends, Dial (New York, NY), 1986.

Aster Aardvark's Alphabet Adventures, Morrow (New York, NY), 1987.

Prehistoric Pinkerton, Dial (New York, NY), 1987.

(Reteller) Johnny Appleseed, Morrow (New York, NY), 1988.

(Reteller) Jack and the Beanstalk, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991.

(Reteller) Mike Fink, Morrow (New York, NY), 1992.

The Christmas Witch, Dial (New York, NY), 1992.

(Reteller) Yankee Doodle, Aladdin Books (New York, NY), 1994.

(Reteller) Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett: A Tall Tale, Morrow (New York, NY), 1995.

(Reteller) I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago: A Tall Tale, Morrow (New York, NY), 1996.

(Reteller) The Three Little Pigs, Morrow (New York, NY), 1997.

(Reteller) A-Hunting We Will Go!, Morrow (New York, NY), 1998.

(Reteller) The Three Sillies, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1999.

(Reteller) Give the Dog a Bone, SeaStar Books (New York, NY), 2000.

A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton, Dial (New York, NY), 2001.

Pinkerton and Friends: A Steven Kellogg Treasury (omnibus), Dial (New York, NY), 2004.

"COLOR" STORIES

The Mystery of the Missing Red Mitten, Dial (New York, NY), 1974, revised edition published as The Missing Mitten Mystery, 2000.

The Mystery of the Magic Green Ball, Dial (New York, NY), 1978.

The Mystery of the Flying Orange Pumpkin, Dial (New York, NY), 1980.

The Mystery of the Stolen Blue Paint, Dial (New York, NY), 1982.

ILLUSTRATOR:

George Mendoza, Gwot! Horribly Funny Hairticklers, Harper (New York, NY), 1967.

James Copp, Martha Matilda O'Toole, Bradbury Press (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1969.

Eleanor B. Heady, Brave Johnny O'Hare, Parents' Magazine Press (New York, NY), 1969.

Mary Rodgers, The Rotten Book, Harper (New York, NY), 1969.

Miriam Young, Can't You Pretend?, Putnam (New York, NY), 1970.

Hilaire Belloc, Matilda Who Told Lies and Was Burned to Death, Dial (New York, NY), 1970.

Ruth Loomis, Mrs. Purdy's Children, Dial (New York, NY), 1970.

Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers' Songbook, Random House (New York, NY), 1970.

Peggy Parish, Granny and the Desperadoes, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1970.

Anne Mallett, Here Comes Tagalong, Parents' Magazine Press (New York, NY), 1971.

Jan Wahl, Crabapple Night, Holt (New York, NY), 1971.

Aileen Friedman, The Castles of the Two Brothers, Holt (New York, NY), 1972.

Jan Wahl, The Very Peculiar Tunnel, Putnam (New York, NY), 1972.

Jeanette Franklin Caines, Abby, Harper (New York, NY), 1973.

Joan Lexau Nodset, Come Here, Cat, Harper (New York, NY), 1973.

Doris Herold Lund, You Ought to See Herbert's House, F. Watts (New York, NY), 1973.

Liesel Moak Skorpen, Kisses and Fishes, Harper (New York, NY), 1974.

Jean Van Leeuwen, The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper, Dial (New York, NY), 1975.

Margaret Mahy, The Boy Who Was Followed Home, F. Watts (New York, NY), 1975.

Cora Annett, How the Witch Got Alf, F. Watts (New York, NY), 1975.

Alice Bach, The Smartest Bear and His Brother Oliver, Harper (New York, NY), 1975.

Hilaire Belloc, The Yak, the Python, the Frog, Parents' Magazine Press (New York, NY), 1975.

Judith Choate, Awful Alexander, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1976.

Lou Ann Bigge Gaeddert, Gustav the Gourmet Giant, Dial (New York, NY), 1976.

Edward Bangs, Steven Kellogg's Yankee Doodle, Parents' Magazine Press (New York, NY), 1976.

Alice Bach, The Most Delicious Camping Trip Ever, Harper (New York, NY), 1976.

Alice Bach, Grouchy Uncle Otto, Harper (New York, NY), 1977.

Carol Chapman, Barney Bipple's Magic Dandelions, Dutton (New York, NY), 1977, new edition, 1988.

Alice Bach, Millicent the Magnificent, Harper (New York, NY), 1978.

Marilyn Singer, The Pickle Plan, Dutton (New York, NY), 1978.

Mercer Mayer, Appelard and Liverwurst, Four Winds Press (New York, NY), 1978.

Douglas F. Davis, There's an Elephant in the Garage, Dutton (New York, NY), 1979.

William Sleator, Once, Said Darlene, Dutton (New York, NY), 1979.

Susan Pearson, Molly Moves Out, Dial (New York, NY), 1979.

Julia Castiglia, Jill the Pill, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1979.

Jean Marzollo, Uproar on Hollercat Hill, Dial (New York, NY), 1980.

Trinka Hakes Noble, The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash, Dial (New York, NY), 1980.

Amy Ehrlich, Leo, Zack and Emmie, Dial (New York, NY), 1981.

Mercer Mayer, Liverwurst Is Missing, Four Winds Press (New York, NY), 1981.

Alan Benjamin, A Change of Plans, Four Winds Press (New York, NY), 1982.

Cathy Warren, The Ten-Alarm Camp-Out, Lothrop (New York, NY), 1983.

Jane Bayer, A, My Name Is Alice, Dial (New York, NY), 1984.

Trinka Hakes Noble, Jimmy's Boa Bounces Back, Dial (New York, NY), 1984.

David M. Schwartz, How Much Is a Million?, Lothrop (New York, NY), 1985.

Carol Purdy, Iva Dunnit and the Big Wind, Dial (New York, NY), 1985.

Amy Ehrlich, Leo, Zack, and Emmie Together Again, Dial (New York, NY), 1987.

Trinka Hakes Noble, Jimmy's Boa and the Big Splash Birthday Bash, Dial (New York, NY), 1989.

David M. Schwartz, If You Made a Million, Lothrop (New York, NY), 1989.

Deborah Guarino, Is Your Mama a Llama?, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1989.

Reeve Lindbergh, The Day the Goose Got Loose, Dial (New York, NY), 1990.

Tom Paxton, Engelbert the Elephant, Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

Amy Ehrlich, Parents in the Pigpen, Pigs in the Tub, Dial (New York, NY), 1993.

Peter Glassman, The Wizard Next Door, Morrow (New York, NY), 1993.

James Thurber, The Great Quillow, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1994.

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Morrow (New York, NY), 1994.

Margaret Mahy, The Rattlebang Picnic, Dial (New York, NY), 1994.

Laura Robb, editor, Snuffles and Snouts, Dial (New York, NY), 1995.

Alan Brooks, Frogs Jump!: A Counting Book, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1996.

Suzanne Williams, Library Lil, Dial (New York, NY), 1997.

Bill Martin, Jr., A Beasty Story, Silver Whistle/Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1999.

Diane Redfield Massie, The Baby Beebee Bird, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.

Joanne Ryder, Big Bear Ball, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

David M. Schwartz, Millions to Measure, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Trinka Hakes Noble, Jimmy's Boa and the Bungee Jump Slam Dunk, Dial (New York, NY), 2003.

Robert Kinerk, Clorinda, Silver Whistle/Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 2003.

J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

Faith McNulty, If You Decide to Go to the Moon, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2005.

Dennis Haseley, The Invisible Moose, Dial (New York, NY), 2006.

Robert Kinerk, Clorinda Takes Flight, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2007.

ADAPTATIONS:

Author's works have been adapted into other media by Weston Woods, including: Chicken Little (video, film), The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash (video, film, filmstrip/cassette), How Much Is a Million? (video, film), Is Your Mama a Llama? (video, film), Island of the Skog (video, film, filmstrip/cassette), The Mysterious Tadpole (video, film, filmstrip/cassette), Pinkerton, Behave! (filmstrip/cassette), Yankee Doodle (video, film, filmstrip/cassette), and If You Made a Million (video).

SIDELIGHTS:

While award-winning author and illustrator Steven Kellogg is perhaps best known as the author of the beloved picture book The Mysterious Tadpole, he has also created popular children's picture books about Pinkerton the Great Dane, a series of "color" mysteries for younger readers, and adaptations of American legends featuring Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed and Mike Fink. As a Publishers Weekly reviewer pointed out, "one reason for the popularity Kellogg enjoys is that children sense he's laughing with them when they explore his tenderly comic, always surprising stories and pictures."

Noted for his humorous texts and his detailed, action-filled drawings, Kellogg has also illustrated works for many other children's authors, among them Hilaire Belloc, Mercer Mayer, Trinka Hakes Noble, Tom Paxton, David M. Schwartz, James Thurber, Joanne Ryder, Faith McNulty, and Margaret Mahy. His collaborations with Schwartz, which include How Much Is a Million?, If You Made a Million, and Millions to Measure, showcase his ability to synthesize abstract elements in what School Library Journal reviewer Kathleen Kelly Macmillan described as "trademark whimsical illustrations." Praising Kellogg's artwork for another nonfiction picture book, McNulty's award-winning If You Decide to Go to the Moon, as "impressive," a Publishers Weekly reviewer added that the illustrator's "sweeping spreads of realistic space-and moonscapes strike just the right balance of beauty and eeriness" in bringing to life McNulty's environmental "call to action." In his art for Robert Kinerk's Clorinda, a picture book that finds a Rubenesque bovine pursuing her dream of becoming a ballet dancer, "Kellogg's costumed dancers, human and livestock both, likewise cavort across the pages with characteristic verve," according to a Kirkus Reviews writer. In similar fashion, the title character in Dennis Hasley's The Invisible Moose is portrayed in a similarly ludicrous situation—wandering the streets of Manhattan—providing Kellogg's young fans with a picture book that a Publishers Weekly reviewer dubbed "a winsome and witty collaboration."

Born in Connecticut in 1941, Kellogg was combining his artistic and storytelling talents from an early age, drawing pictures for his younger sisters while telling them tales to accompany his artwork. He especially enjoyed drawing animals, and he papered his room with many such pieces; one of his favorite growing-up fantasies was to be hired by National Geographic magazine to draw animals on location in Africa. Kellogg was encouraged in his childhood ambitions by his grandmother, who taught the boy about the animal inhabitants of the wooded areas near his home.

Kellogg continued to draw and paint throughout his high-school years, and after graduation he won a scholarship to study at the Rhode Island School of Design. One of the highlights of his time there was a semester spent in Florence, Italy, where he was able to study the original drawings of the great artists of the Italian Renaissance. After graduating, he enrolled in graduate courses at the American University in Washington, DC, and by 1966, he was teaching an etching class there.

While in graduate school, Kellogg married Helen Hill and gained the six stepchildren who have since served as inspiration for many of his drawings. At about the same time, Kellogg began work on his original picture books The Orchard Cat and The Island of the Skog. He also illustrated George Mendoza's Gwot! Horribly Funny Hairticklers. Several other illustration projects followed, including James Copp's Martha Matilda O'Toole and Eleanor B. Heady's Brave Johnny O'Hare, before Kellogg's first solo effort, The Wicked Kings of Bloon, was published in 1970. In between his self-authored projects, Kellogg has continued to collaborate with other writers, creating art for books such as the award-winning The BeeBee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie and A Beasty Story by Bill Martin, Jr.

When it was released in 1971, Can I Keep Him? gained its author/illustrator an even wider audience and also attracted critical praise. As Kellogg later admitted to Pamela Lloyd in How Writers Write, this story about a little boy who begs his mother to allow him to keep the stray animals he finds is "a little bit autobiographical." Animals also figure in The Orchard Cat, about a cat who discovers he would rather make friends than follow his mother's cynical, power-hungry advice. Won't Somebody Play with Me? is another early work, this time focusing on a little girl who must find a way to fill the time until she is allowed to open her birthday presents.

The Mystery of the Missing Red Mitten follows Annie through the many scenarios she imagines for her lost mitten: including serving as the heart for a snowman, or the hat for a hawk. As Kellogg's illustrations consist of black-and-white line drawings, the mitten adds a splash of red as it appears in all the young girl's imaginative incarnations. The success of The Mystery of the Missing Red Mitten prompted Kellogg to create several other color-related titles, such as The Mystery of the Magic Green Ball, The Mystery of the Flying Orange Pumpkin, and The Mystery of the Stolen Blue Paint.

First published in 1977, Kellogg's The Mysterious Tadpole quickly won over a generation of young children, and it would do the same thing twenty-five years later when, in 2002, Kellogg re-released the story with a revised plot and new illustrations. Cited by several reviewers as a modern classic, the story begins when a boy receives a tadpole his uncle has brought home from Scotland. Named Alphonse, the tiny amphibian quickly outgrows his original container, and within a short time the creature is large enough to take over the swimming pool and even overwhelms Louis's school. Alphonse's metamorphosis becomes clear to all when it is learned that he was caught along the shore of Scotland's famous Loch Ness. Praising the new edition of the book in Booklist, Carolyn Phelan wrote that Kellogg brings to life Louis's humorous efforts to deal with his ungainly pet in "new illustrations [that] are bigger, bolder, brighter, and brimming with lively details."

Kellogg's popular Pinkerton character was introduced in 1979 in the pages of Pinkerton, Behave! Inspired by the author/illustrator's family's Great Dane of the same name, Pinkerton, Behave! chronicles the dog's misadventures in obedience class. Barbara Elleman declared in her Booklist review of the book that "Kellogg wittily captures expressions and movements of animal and human," while his "bright, lively colors and spare use of narrative blend to help make this a splendid comedic success." In A Rose for Pinkerton the Great Dane meets Rose the cat, a critter based on another of the Kellogg family's pets. Tallyho, Pinkerton! finds Pinkerton and Rose entangled in a humorous fox hunt, while the Great Dane is tempted by dinosaur bones during a chaotic visit to a natural history museum in Prehistoric Pinkerton. After dreaming that he is the father of a penguin egg in A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton, the hapless Great Dane creates chaos all over town when he mistakes toy balls for real eggs. In the words of School Library Journal reviewer Lisa Dennis in a review of the last-named book, "Pinkerton's back—and his new adventures are as outrageous and entertaining as ever."

While much of Kellogg's inspiration has come from his own family, the author/illustrator has also been inspired by larger-than-life characters recalled from his childhood. In Paul Bunyan: A Tall Tale, for example, he retells the story of the famed woodsman and his blue ox named Babe, bringing all to life in illustrations that Millicent Lenz described in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as "splendidly fitting." Critics were equally appreciative of Pecos Bill, in which Kellogg chronicles several of the Texas hero's adventures, including his marriage to cowgirl Slewfoot Sue. Kellogg expands his collection of tall tales with Johnny Appleseed, Mike Fink, Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett, and I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago. In the last-named book, in which five narrators relate the special—and unlikely—roles they played in events dating back to Adam and Eve's departure from Eden, Kellogg "has pulled out all the stops," according to Horn Book contributor Mary M. Burns. Praising Kellogg's art for "lighting up every page," Booklist contributor Carolyn Phelan noted that his "expansive, effervescent illustrations interpret the boastful stories with zest, imagination, and wit."

Traditional folktales have also provided the author/illustrator with inspiration, leading to picture books such as There Was an Old Woman, Chicken Little, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, and A-Hunting We Will Go! Another traditional tale, The Three Sillies, introduces an exasperated young man who believes that his sweetheart and her family are the three silliest people in the entire world … that is, until he meets three other individuals who are even sillier. Calling the picture book "a rollicking farce," a Publishers Weekly critic added that Kellogg's "riotous ink-and-watercolor illustrations spill over with preposterous particulars." The author/illustrator's "bizarre use of language and grammar makes [The Three Sillies] … feel like oral storytelling at its best," added Marta Segal in a Booklist review.

"I try to blend illustrations and the words so that each book is a feast for the eye and ear," Kellogg noted on his home page. "I want the time that the reader shares with me and my work to be an enjoyable experience—one that will encourage a lifetime of association with pictures, words, and books."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Children's Literature Review, Volume 6, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1984.

Cummings, Pat, editor and compiler, Talking with Artists, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 61: American Writers for Children since 1960: Poets, Illustrators, and Nonfiction Authors, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1987.

Lloyd, Pamela, How Writers Write, Methuen (London, England), 1987.

St. James Guide to Children's Writers, 5th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Silvey, Anita, editor, Children's Books and Their Creators, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1995.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 1979, p. 506; May 15, 1989, Barbara Elleman, interview with Kellogg, pp. 1640-1641; October 15, 1996, Carolyn Phelan, review of I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago: A Tall Tale, p. 422; August, 1998, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of A-Hunting We Will Go!, p. 2011; October 1, 1998, Irene Wood, review of Chicken Little, p. 348; September 15, 1999, Linda Perkins, review of A Beasty Story, p. 268; November 1, 1999, Marta Segal, review of The Three Sillies, p. 535; October 15, 2000, Ilene Cooper, review of The Missing Mitten Mystery, p. 435; December 1, 2000, Michael Cart, review of Give the Dog a Bone, p. 715; December 15, 2000, Amy Brandt, review of The Baby BeeBee Bird, p. 827; September 1, 2001, Kay Weisman, review of A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton, p. 116; November 1, 2002, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Mysterious Tadpole, p. 508; February 1, 2003, Carolyn Phelan, review of Millions to Measure, p. 994; November 1, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Clorinda, p. 513; February 1, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of The Invisible Moose, p. 44.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November, 2005, Elizabeth Bush, review of If You Decide to Go to the Moon, p. 148.

Connecticut, December, 1989.

Early Years, January, 1986, "Steven Kellogg … Teachers' Co-Conspirator."

Horn Book, November-December, 1990; January-February, 1994, Maeve Visser Knoth, review of Parents in the Pigpen, Pigs in the Tub, p. 62; November-December, 1994, Ann A. Flowers, review of The Great Quillow, p. 727; January, 2000, review of The Three Sillies, p. 87; September, 2001, Robin Smith, review of A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton, p. 574; March-April, 2003, Danielle J. Ford, review of Millions to Measure, p. 227; November-December, 2004, review of Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, p. 657; September-October, 2005, Vicky Smith, review of If You Decide to Go to the Moon, p. 605; January-February, 2007, Steven Kellogg, transcript of Boston Globe/Horn Book Award acceptance speech, p. 25.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2003, review of Millions to Measure, p. 238; August, 15, 2003, review of Jimmy's Boa and the Bungee Jump Slam Dunk, p. 1077; September 15, 2003, review of Clorinda, p. 1176; September 1, 2005, review of If You Decide to Go to the Moon, p. 979; February 15, 2006, review of The Invisible Moose, p. 183.

Publishers Weekly, April 16, 1982, p. 71; December 13, 1999, review of The Three Sillies, p. 82; April 29, 2002, review of Big Bear Ball, p. 68; October 13, 2003, review of Clorinda, p. 77; November 14, 2005, review of If You Decide to Go to the Moon, p. 67; March 27, 2006, review of The Invisible Moose, p. 78.

School Library Journal, November 1, 1998, Nancy A. Gifford, review of A-Hunting We Will Go!, p. 107; September, 1999, Pat Leach, review of A Beasty Story, p. 195; September, 2000, Julie Cummins, The Baby BeeBee Bird, p. 205; November, 2000, Joy Fleishhacker, review of Give the Dog a Bone, p. 144; August, 2001, Lisa Dennis, review of A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton, p. 155; April, 2002, Sylvia Veicht, review of Is Your Mama a Llama?, p. 76; March, 2003, Kathleen Kelly Macmillan, review of Millions to Measure, p. 224; November, 2003, Kristin de Lacoste, review of Clorinda, p. 102; October, 2005, DeAnn Tabuchi, review of If You Decide to Go to the Moon, p. 141; March, 2006, Wendy Woodfill, review of The Invisible Moose, p. 192.

Times Literary Supplement, July 18, 1980.