Arnold, Tedd 1949-

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ARNOLD, Tedd 1949-

Personal

Born January 20, 1949, in Elmira, NY; son of Theodore (a machinist) and Gabriela (Rosno) Arnold; married Carol Clark (a teacher), August 15, 1970; children: Walter, William. Education: University of Florida, B.F.A.

Addresses

Office— Elmira, NY. Agent— Peter Elek Associates, P.O. Box 223, Canal St. Station, New York, NY 10013.

Career

Author and illustrator. Textbook illustrator, Tallahassee, FL, 1973-78; creative director and owner of a graphic design studio, 1978-81; Cycles USA, Tallahassee, advertising art director, 1981-84; Workman Publishing, New York, NY, book designer, 1984-86; freelance author and illustrator, Elmira, NY, beginning 1986. Military service: U.S. Army Reserve, medic, 1969-75.

Awards, Honors

Children's Choice Award, International Reading Association/Children's Book Council (IRA-CBC), 1988,Georgia Children's Picture Storybook Award, 1990, North Dakota Children's Choice Picture-Book Award, 1991, and Volunteer State Book Award, 1992, all for No Jumping on the Bed!; North Dakota Flicker Tale Award, 1993, for The Signmaker's Assistant; Parent's Choice, 1993, and Children's Choice Award, IRA-CBC, 1994, both for Green Wilma; Children's Choice Award, IRACBC, 1995, for My Working Mom, and 1996, for No More Water in the Tub!; National Association of Parenting Publications Award, 1996, for Bialosky's Bedtime; "Tellable" Stories for Ages 4-7 Award, Storytelling World, and Books Mean Business selection, American Booksellers Association/CBC, both 1998, and Colorado Children's Book Award, 1999, all for Parts; Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award, Pennsylvania School Librarians Association, 1998-99, for No More Water in the Tub!; Notable Books for Children citation, Smithsonian, 1999, for Axle Annie.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN; SELF-ILLUSTRATED EXCEPT AS NOTED

Sounds, Little Simon (New York, NY), 1985.

Opposites, Little Simon (New York, NY), 1985.

Actions, Little Simon (New York, NY), 1985.

Colors, Little Simon (New York, NY), 1985.

My First Drawing Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1986.

No Jumping on the Bed!, Dial (New York, NY), 1987.

My First Play House, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1987.

My First Play Town, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1987.

Ollie Forgot, Dial (New York, NY), 1988.

(Compiler) Mother Goose's Words of Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Months, Dial (New York, NY), 1990.

(And designer of samplers) Cross-Stitch Patterns for Mother Goose's Words of Wit and Wisdom: Samplers to Stitch, New American Library/Dutton (New York, NY), 1990.

The Signmaker's Assistant, Dial (New York, NY), 1992.

The Simple People, illustrated by Andrew Shachat, Dial (New York, NY), 1992.

Green Wilma, Dial (New York, NY), 1993.

No More Water in the Tub!, Dial (New York, NY), 1995.

Five Ugly Monsters, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 1995.

Bialosky's Bedtime: An Opposites Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1996.

Bialosky's Big Mess: An Alphabet Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1996.

Bialosky's Bumblebees: A Counting Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1996.

Bialosky's House: A Color Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1996.

Parts, Dial (New York, NY), 1997.

Huggly Gets Dressed, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 1997.

Huggly Takes a Bath, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 1998.

Huggly and the Toy Monster, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 1998.

Huggly's Pizza, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2000.

Huggly Goes to School, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2000.

More Parts, Dial (New York, NY), 2001.

Huggly's Christmas, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2001.

Huggly's Big Mess, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2001.

Huggly's Trip to the Beach, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2002.

Huggly's Snow Day, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2002.

Huggly's Valentines, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2003.

Huggly Goes Camping, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2003.

Even More Parts: Idioms from Head to Toe, Dial (New York, NY), 2004.

Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2004.

Hi, Fly Guy!, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2005.

Super Fly Guy!, Scholastic, Inc. (New York, NY), 2006.

The Twin Princes, Dial (New York, NY), 2006.

No Jumping on the Bed! was translated into Spanish.

FOR CHILDREN; ILLUSTRATOR

Helen Witty, Mrs. Witty's Monster Cookies, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1983.

Ron Atlas, Looking for Zebra: Hotel Zoo: Happy Hunting from A to Z, Little Simon (New York, NY), 1986.

Ron Atlas, A Room for Benny, Little Simon (New York, NY), 1987.

Rena Coyle, My First Baking Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1988.

Anne Kostick, My First Camera Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1989.

Laurie Abel, Bisnipian Blast-off: An Action Counting Book, Discovery Toys, 1991.

David Schiller and David Rosenbloom, My First Computer Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1991.

Peter Glassman, My Working Mom, Morrow (New York, NY), 1994.

Jim Sargena, The Roly-Poly Spider, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Inside a Barn in the Country: A Rebus Read-along Story, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1995.

David Galef, Tracks, Morrow (New York, NY), 1996.

Suzanne Williams, My Dog Never Says Please, Dial (New York, NY), 1997.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Inside a House That Is Haunted: A Rebus Read-along Story, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1998.

Robin Pulver, Axle Annie, Dial (New York, NY), 1999.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Inside a Zoo in the City: A Rebus Read-along Story, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2000.

Brod Bagert, Giant Children, Dial (New York, NY), 2002.

Barbara Larmon Failing, Lasso Lou and Cowboy McCoy, Dial (New York, NY), 2003.

Robin Pulver, Axle Annie and the Speed Grump, Dial (New York, NY), 2005.

Sidelights

Whimsy has become artist Tedd Arnold's stock in trade. A successful author and illustrator of children's picture books, Arnold fills the tales he writes, and those by other authors, with lovable but quirky characters who have a sense of fun. His breakthrough book, No Jumping on the Bed!, won numerous awards, including the International Reading Association/Children's Book Council Children's Choice honor for 1988. "Arnold's soft pencil and watercolor illustrations are full of amusing details," commented School Library Journal contributor Anne Connor, reviewing the follow-up No More Water in the Tub!, the critic adding that such details "will keep young readers coming back again and again." Other tales written by Arnold include characters like his fly-eating girl, Green Wilma, the nervous boy convinced that he is falling apart in Parts, and a growing set of adventures featuring Huggly, a loveable monster that makes its home under the bed.

Born in 1949, Arnold attended the University of Florida where he earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. Although he originally specialized in textbook illustration and graphic design for advertising, he became interested in picture-book illustration thanks to the books his wife, Carol, was collecting for her kindergarten classroom. He approached several publishers with samples of his work, eventually receiving as his first illustration project Helen Witty's Mrs. Witty's Monster Cookies, published in 1983. Since then, Arnold has contributed his humorous drawings to books by Robin Pulver, Alyssa Satin Capucilli, and Peter Glassman, among others. Of Capucilli's Inside a Barn in the Country: A Rebus Read-along Story, Booklist contributor Stephanie Zvirin said that Arnold's "lively pictures, filled with exaggerated, bug-eyed, cartoon-like characters and melodrama, should make this a childhood favorite." His illustrations for Axle Annie, by author and friend Robin Pulver, helped win that book a place on Smithsonian 's 1999 list of Notable Books for Children. Booklist contributor, Ilene Cooper, wrote that Axle Annie 's "pictures shiver with energy and fun."

No Jumping on the Bed!, was inspired by Arnold's oldest son, Walter, a notorious four-year-old bed-jumper. Arnold was, at the time, living with his parents in an old apartment building in Yonkers, New York, and he became intrigued by the possibility of Walter's bed falling through the floor into the neighbor's apartment below. The success of that book with children and parents confirmed Arnold's decision to specialize in illustrating children's books. Ollie Forgot and The Signmaker's Assistant soon followed.

Having penned a book for his older son, Arnold soon needed a book for his younger son, William. No More Water in the Tub!, a sequel to No Jumping on the Bed!, was published in 1995. It is a warmhearted take on bath time, featuring young William who looks forward to snorkeling in the tub. Arnold's rhyming prose and illustrations found favor with Ann A. Flowers, who wrote in her Horn Book review: "Young readers will love the ridiculous incidents and cumulative rhymes, and the illustrations … are hilarious."

Arnold has continued to gain fans among young children due to the many volumes of children's books he has written and illustrated since beginning his career. In a series including Huggly Gets Dressed, Huggly Takes a Bath, and Huggly's Pizza, the author/illustrator introduces his audience to a likable monster from under the bed whose forays into the world of humans uncover many curiosities. In Huggly's Pizza the monster, together with his non-human friends Booter and Grubble, leaves his home under the bed to search for some delicious human food. In Huggly Takes a Bath the green-skinned monster sets forth to explore and discovers a small room full of porcelain objects that swish or spray water, a slippery cube that makes suds, bottles of sudsy, pretty-smelling lotions just perfect for mixing together to make a monster slime pit, and a row of tiny long-handled brushes for which he finds a funny use. Calling Arnold's illustrations "cartoon-like" and "colorfully appealing," Booklist contributor Shelley Townsend-Hudson praised Huggly Takes a Bath as a "simple, efficient text [that] is sure to elicit many laughs."

Equally fanciful, Arnold's Green Wilma recounts a child's dream that she has turned green and developed a talent for catching flies with her tongue. "Fast, funny, and froggy, Green Wilma is guaranteed to be a hit with the story hour silly set," enthused Annie Ayres in a Booklist review of the author/illustrator's 1993 effort. For this book, Arnold's style of illustration is particularly appropriate, featuring rounded lines and exaggerated, saucer-like, "goggle" eyes that give characters in many of his books a frog-like appeal. Characterizing Green Wilma and No More Water in the Tub! as "wacky action romps," a Publishers Weekly contributor praised Arnold for his use of both color and humor in making stories come alive for youngsters.

In his books Parts, More Parts, and Even More Parts: Idioms from Head to Toe, Arnold examines common figures of speech and how they baffle and strike fear into a young boy. Expressions like "hold your tongue," "give me a hand," and "I want all eyes on me" are shown literally in drawings that capture the boy's vivid imagination. Alice Case Smith, reviewing More Parts for the School Library Journal, admitted that "kids will love faces cracking, lungs being coughed up, and bodies flying apart." In her review of the same title, Natalie Soto in the Rocky Mountain News concluded that "readers will delight in this book." Speaking of Even MoreParts, a critic for Kirkus Reviews found that "Arnold's squiggly, bright watercolor-and-pencil illustrations are again delightfully bizarre."

In the 2004 title Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name, Arnold "once again embraces the absurd," according to Piper L. Nyman in the School Library Journal. The story tells of a strange-looking girl with big feet, only two hairs on her head, and ape-like arms. But she is happy with herself, and indeed has some abilities that make her stand out from the crowd. Based on a traditional campfire song, the story is told in verse and takes liberties with a story that was already silly. The critic for Kirkus Reviews noted that the book is "impossible to read without bursting into song."

Arnold once told Something about the Author: "It still comes as a great surprise to me that I'm now an author. I've always drawn pictures, taken art classes, and thought of myself as an artist. In school, my cartoons graced many a desktop, chalkboard, and math paper. (The teachers and the girls always noticed.) In the army, extra duty could be avoided by letting the sergeants know how nice the barracks would look with 'inspirational' murals painted on the walls. After college, I quickly learned that art-related jobs were more comfortable than construction-related jobs. And even today I find that drawing pictures for books is a great way to avoid doing real work.

"Back in college, I began writing titles across the bottoms of my drawings. The titles became lengthy, growing into sentences and paragraphs. The drawings and writings were like fragments of stories, pages torn from books. My interest in the words developed into a renewed interest in an old love—comics. It was in the form of comics that I first explored storytelling.

"However, the writing was always for the pictures. The pictures were the real thing, the reason for being, the fun. Which is why the label of 'author' still feels like brand-new dress shoes, while 'artist' feels like well-worn, street-running, tree-climbing, can-kicking, ballpark sneakers. But don't we all just love a new pair of shoes!"

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1993, Annie Ayres, review of Green Wilma, p. 1234; January 15, 1995, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Inside a Barn in the Country, p. 935; August, 1997, p. 1904; February 1, 1999, Shelley Townsend-Hudson, review of Huggly Takes a Bath, p. 978; February 15, 2000, Ilene Cooper, review of Axle Annie, p. 1120.

Growing Point, July, 1989, p. 5196.

Horn Book, January-February, 1996, Ann A. Flowers, review of No More Water in the Tub!, p. 59.

Humpty Dumpty's Magazine, January-February, 2005, review of Even More Parts, p. 12.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2004, review of Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name, p. 575; August 1, 2004, review of Even More Parts, p. 737.

Language Arts, April, 1988, p. 415.

Mailbox Bookbag, November-December, 1996.

Mailbox Bookbag Kindergarten, April-May, 1998.

New Yorker, November 30, 1987, pp. 140-141.

Publishers Weekly, November 21, 1994, p. 75; January 29, 1996, review of Tracks, p. 99; December 7, 1998, p. 58; August 23, 1999, p. 58; October 16, 2000, review of Parts, p. 78.

Rocky Mountain News, September 28, 2001, Natalie Soto, review of More Parts, p. 29D.

School Library Journal, October, 1987, p. 110; December, 1988, p. 79; November, 1990, p. 76; May, 1993, p. 80; August, 1994, p. 130; April, 1995, p. 98; October, 1995, Anne Connor, review of No More Water in the Tub!, p. 96; June, 1997, p. 103; September, 1998, p. 165; September, 2001, review of More Parts, p. 182; August, 2004, Piper L. Nyman, review of Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name, p. 105; January, 2005, Marge Loch-Wouters, review of Even More Parts, p. 85.

Smithsonian, November, 1999, pp. 42-46.

Times Literary Supplement, April 7, 1989, p. 380.