Dewdney, Anna

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Dewdney, Anna

Personal

Daughter of a doctor and Winifred Luhrmann (an author); children: two daughters. Hobbies and other interests: Running.

Addresses

Home—Putney, VT. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

Career

Author, illustrator, and educator.

Member

Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Llama, Llama Red Pajama, Viking (New York, NY), 2005.

Grumpy Gloria, Viking (New York, NY), 2006.

Llama, Llama Mad at Mama, Viking (New York, NY), 2007.

Nobunny's Perfect, Viking (New York, NY), 2008.

ILLUSTRATOR

Dian Curtis Regan, The Peppermint Race, Holt (New York, NY), 1994.

Matt Christopher, All-Star Fever: A Peach Street Mudders Story, Little Brown (Boston, MA), 1995.

Matt Christopher, Shadow over Second: A Peach Street Mudders Story, Little Brown (Boston, MA), 1996.

Jake Wolf, What You Do Is Easy, What I Do Is Hard, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 1996.

Dorothy McKerns, The Kid's Guide to Good Grammar: What You Need to Know about Punctuation, Sentence Structure, Spelling, and More, Lowell House (Los Angeles, CA), 1998.

Harriet Heath, Using Your Values to Raise Your Child to Be an Adult You Admire, Parenting Press (Seattle, WA), 2000.

Sidelights

A teacher, artist, and author, Anna Dewdney began her career in children's literature by illustrating several chapter books. Her first picture-book project, What You Do Is Easy, What I Do Is Hard, written by Jake Wolf, features "watercolor, gouache and pencil pictures" that "favor the delicate and sweet," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor. April Judge, reviewing the work for Booklist, cited in particular Dewdney's "rollicking illustrations." Along with illustrating children's books, Dewdney has also created artwork for the parenting book Using Your Values to Raise Your Child to Be an Adult You Admire.

In her first self-illustrated picture book, Llama, Llama Red Pajama, Dewdney introduced loveable Baby Llama, who becomes agitated when his mother does not appear quickly with his drink of water. He worries and whimpers until finally she arrives to reassure him that she is always nearby. "Dewdney gives a wonderfully fresh twist to a familiar nighttime ritual with an adorable bug-eyed baby llama," wrote Julie Cummins in Booklist. In her School Library Journal review, Corrina Austin noted that the artist's "large, boldly colored pictures have a grand and sweeping quality," and a Kirkus Reviews contributor called the story "an uproariously funny tale" that "is bound to become a comical classic oft-requested at bedtime."

Baby Llama returns in Llama, Llama Mad at Mama. While Baby Llama and his mother are shopping, she pulls him away from all of the fun displays, making him try on clothing he does not like and not letting him play with toys. After he has a tantrum, Mama reassures her child that they will be done soon; she invites him to help push the cart so they can finish faster and then go get ice cream. "Snappy rhythm, pleasing rhyme and large-scale art … make this an involving read-aloud,"

wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Jayne Damron, writing in School Library Journal, explained that "children will giggle at Dewdney's rhythmic rhymes," and a Kirkus Reviews critic deemed Lllama, Llama Mad at Mama "a perfect choice for preschool read-alouds."

Grumpy Gloria, Dewdney's second self-illustrated work, is the tale of a bulldog who worries that she has been replaced by her owner's new doll. "Large illustrations done in rich, bright colors are great for viewing at a distance," noted Kirsten Cutler in School Library Journal. According to a Kirkus Reviews contributor, "Gloria has personality to spare," while in Publishers Weekly a critic maintained that "humor … comes through not only in Gloria's facial expressions but also in the lilting descriptions of her feelings."

Discussing her drawing process on her home page, Dewdney explained: "People ask me how I come up with the faces that I draw. I answer that they are self-portraits. I make a lot of funny faces, anyway, just going about my day, but when I draw, I usually make the face of the character as I draw."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 1994, Hazel Rochman, review of The Peppermint Race, p. 603; December 15, 1996, April Judge, review of What You Do Is Easy, What I Do Is Hard, p. 734; April 1, 2005, Julie Cummins, review of Llama, Llama Red Pajama, p. 1365.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2005, review of Llama, Llama Red Pajama, p. 537; September 1, 2006, review of Grumpy Gloria, p. 902; August 1, 2007, review of Llama, Llama Mad at Mama.

Library Journal, December, 1999, Elizabeth Caulfield Felt, review of Using Your Values to Raise Your Child to Be an Adult You Admire, p. 174.

Publishers Weekly, October 21, 1996, review of What You Do Is Easy, What I Do Is Hard, p. 82; October 9, 2006, review of Grumpy Gloria, p. 54; July 16, 2007, review of Llama, Llama Mad at Mama, p. 162.

School Library Journal, April, 2005, Corrina Austin, review of Llama, Llama Red Pajama, p. 96; September, 2006, Kirsten Cutler, review of Grumpy Gloria, p. 165; September, 2007, Jayne Damron, review of Llama, Llama Mad at Mama, p. 162.