Bettoli, Delana

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Bettoli, Delana

Personal

Born in Somerset County, NJ. Education: Boston University, degree (painting); Art Center College of Design, degree (illustration).

Addresses

Home and office—Silverton, OR.

Career

Illustrator.

Member

Society of Illustrators.

Awards, Honors

Belding and ADDY Award, American Advertising Federation, 1981.

Illustrator

Diane Namm, Baby's Cradle Book: Beloved Nursery Rhymes, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985.

Q.L. Pearce and W.J. Pearce, In the Forest, Silver Press (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1990.

Q.L. Pearce and W.J. Pearce, Nature's Footprints in the African Grasslands, Silver Press (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1990.

Q.L. Pearce and W.J. Pearce, Nature's Footprints in the Barnyard, Silver Press (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1990.

Q.L. Pearce and W.J. Pearce, Nature's Footprints in the Desert, Silver Press (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1990.

Susan Cornell Poskanzer, reteller, Aesop's Fables, Silver Press (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1991.

Alvin Granowsky, Friends at the End, Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 1996.

Julie Chambers, Santa's Busy Christmas, HarperFestival (New York, NY), 1996.

Rick Walton, Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin, HarperFestival (New York, NY), 2004.

Cynthia Cotten, This Is the Stable, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2006.

Sidelights

Delana Bettoli has created artwork for a variety of industries, including the music, film, and publishing arenas. During her career as an illustrator, she has been commissioned by Elektra Records, Atlantic Records, and created a movie poster for the film The Stunt. Her poster was featured at the American Film Market and won both a Belding and an ADDY award. Bettoli has also established a name for herself as a children's book illustrator through her collaborations with authors such as Rick Walton, Q.L. Pearce, Cynthia Cotten, and Julie Chambers.

Bettoli's collaboration with Cotten produced This Is the Stable, a retelling of the Nativity story in which the rhyming couplets in the text are extended by Bettoli's colorful illustrations. Gillian Engberg in her review of This Is the Stable for Booklist, remarked on the artist's ability to capture the spirituality of the text, adding that "Bettoli's attractively patterned, gem-colored painting amplify the sense of devotion and joy" in Cotten's story. School Library Journal reviewer Linda Israelson noticed the variety of colors Bettoli incorporates into her illustrations, writing that the combined hues "create pictures that are bright and imbued with fanciful elements." A Publishers Weekly reviewer acknowledged Bettoli for the details she places in her intricate borders, as well as for her multicultural approach, both of which combine to "add visual depth and interest." Reviewing This Is the Stable for Horn Book, Tanya D. Auger noted that Bettoli's illustrations radiate "softly as if starlight," and "include details that are the book's real highlight."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of This Is the Stable, p. 60.

Horn Book, November-December, 2006, Tanya D. Auger, review of This Is the Stable, p. 689.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2004, review of Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin, p. 814; November 1, 2006, review of This Is the Stable, p. 1127.

Publishers Weekly, September 30, 1996, review of Santa's Busy Christmas, p. 93; September 25, 2006, review of This Is the Stable, p. 70.

School Library Journal, September, 1990, Charlene J. Lenzen, review of In the Desert, p. 218; September, 1990, Charlene J. Lenzen, review of In the African Grasslands, p. 218; July, 1996, Sarabeth Kalajian, review of Friends at the End/The Tortoise and the Hare, p. 78; August, 2004, Jane Marino, review of Mrs. Mc-Murphy's Pumpkin, p. 103; October, 2006, Linda Israelson, review of This Is the Stable, p. 95.