Cantone, AnnaLaura

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Cantone, AnnaLaura

Personal

Married.

Addresses

Home and office—Milan, Italy. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Illustrator.

Illustrator

Brigitte Weninger, Zara Zebra Counts, North-South Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Brigitte Weninger, Zara Zebra Draws, North-South Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Brigitte Weninger, Zara Zebra Gets Dressed, North-South Books (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Sophie Fatus and Anna De Carlo) Prima di Natale, Nuages, 2002.

Brigitte Weninger, Zara Zebra's Busy Day, North-South Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Beatrice Masini, The Wedding Dress Mess, Watson-Guptill Publications (New York, NY), 2003.

Emily Jenkins, My Favorite Thing (according to Alberta), Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2004.

Alan Madison, Pecorino's First Concert, Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2005.

Alan Madison, Pecorino Plays Ball, Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2006.

Barbara Veit, Who Stole Little Snail's House?, North-South Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Pippa Goodhart, Three Little Ghosties, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Also illustrator of books published in Italian.

Sidelights

Italian illustrator AnnaLaura Cantone has a penchant for creating illustrations with a humorous flair. She has contributed images to children's books by a number of authors, among them Brigitte Weninger's picture-book series about a spunky young zebra, Alan Madison's Pecorino's First Concert and Pecorino Plays Ball, and Emily Jenkins' My Favorite Thing (according to Alberta).

In her art, Cantone often works in mixed media, and this technique allows her to accentuates her whimsical style. In creating her illustrations, she incorporates textiles and other fibers, as well as photographs, into the backdrop for her pen-and-ink and acrylic art. Her illustrations for Madison's "Pecorino" series have been cited by critics for their unusual but engaging and humorous qualities. Mary Elam, reviewing Pecorino's First Concert for School Library Journal, wrote that Cantone's "mixed-media pen-and-paint illustrations … add whimsy to descriptive text." In the same periodical, Roxanne Burg wrote of Pecorino Plays Ball that Cantone's "acrylic, pen, and collage illustrations add to the general silliness" of the story and highlight Madison's determined main character with over-exaggerated features.

My Favorite Thing also incorporates Cantone's illustrations, which a Publishers Weekly reviewer dubbed both "imaginative" and "zippy." In the book, a young girl named Alberta goes through a list of things she likes and dislikes, and ultimately declares herself to be her most favorite thing. In line with Jenkins' text, Cantone portrays Alberta as a "a squat, bossy presence," noted a Publishers Weekly critic. In a review of My Favorite Thing for Horn Book, Christine M. Heppermann praised Cantone's comical images and noted that the picture book's "idiosyncratic rundown [of favorite things is] depicted in humorously manic mixed-media cartoons."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2006, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Pecorino Plays Ball, p. 56.

Horn Book, July-August, 2004, Christine M. Heppermann, review of My Favorite Thing (according to Alberta), p. 439.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2004, review of My Favorite Thing, p. 493; June 15, 2005, review of Pecorino's First Concert, p. 43; January 1, 2006, review of Pecorino Plays Ball, p. 43.

Publishers Weekly, July 12, 2004, review of My Favorite Thing, p. 63; August 8, 2005, review of Pecorino's First Concert, p. 234.

School Library Journal, September, 2004, Roxanne Burg, review of My Favorite Thing, p. 169; August, 2005, review of Pecorino's First Concert, p. 102; March, 2006, Roxanne Burg, review of Pecorino Plays Ball, p. 198.