Dorman, Brandon

views updated

Dorman, Brandon

Personal

Married. Education: Brigham Young University-Idaho, B.F.A.

Addresses

Home—Enumclaw, WA. Agent—Lou Representatives, Peter Lott, 501 5th Ave., Ste. 1708, New York, NY 10017. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Illustrator.

Illustrator

Jon Berkeley, The Palace of Laughter, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

Melvin Berger and Gilda Berger, Can You Fly High, Wright Brothers?: A Book about Airplanes, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2006.

Rebecca Gundersen Thornley, I Know He Is There: A Lift-a-Flap Book about Faith, Deseret (Salt Lake City, UT), 2006.

Melvin Berger and Gilda Berger, What Makes the Light Bright, Mr. Edison?, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2006.

Dean Lorey, Nightmare Academy, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007.

Melvin Berger and Gilda Berger, Did It Take Creativity to Find Relativity, Albert Einstein?, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2007.

Melvin Berger and Gilda Berger, Did You Invent the Phone Alone, Alexander Graham Bell?, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2007.

Jon Berkeley, The Tiger's Egg (sequel to The Palace of Laughter), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007.

Caralyn Buehner, In the Garden, Deseret (New York, NY), 2007.

N.E. Bode (pseudonym of Julianna Baggott), The Slippery Map, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007.

Jack Prelutsky, The Wizard, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 2007.

Jack Prelutsky, Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face, and Other Poems: Some of the Best of Jack Prelutsky, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 2008.

Jon Berkeley, Between the Light (sequel to The Tiger's Egg), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2008.

Marjorie Dennis Murray, Halloween Night, Greenwillow (New York, NY), 2008.

Sidelights

Brandon Dorman, an illustrator based in the Pacific Northwest, creates art for a wide variety of children's books, including novels by Jon Berkeley and Dean Lorey, popular nonfiction by Melvin and Gilda Berger, and verses by noted poet Jack Prelutsky. Many of the books featuring Dorman's art are fantasies, such as The Palace of Laughter and The Tiger's Egg, two novels in Berkeley's "Wednesday Tales" series. A supernatural mystery, The Tiger's Eye follows orphaned Miles Wednesday in his search for his missing father. Christi Voth Esterle wrote in a School Library Journal review of this work that The Tiger's Egg contains "a lot of exciting scenes, and the pen-and-ink illustrations enliven the action." In a review of Lorey's Nightmare Academy for School Library Journal, Sharon Senser McKeller noted that Dorman's "four full-page, intricate black-and-white pencil drawings illustrate the tensest action in the novel, adding some spooky charm."

Dorman's drawings for Prelutsky's poems have also gathered praise, School Library Journal reviewer Lee Bock wrote of The Wizard that "the digitally created spreads are spectacular." In Kirkus Reviews a contributor commented of the same book that Dorman's "elaborately detailed digital paintings give a properly eerie setting" to Prelutsky's verse, and in Booklist Randall Enos described The Wizard as "sumptuous."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2007, Randall Enos, review of The Wizard, p. 130.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November, 2006, Karen Coats, review of The Palace of Laughter, p. 114; October, 2007, April Spisak, review of Nightmare Academy, p. 97.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2007, review of The Slippery Map; July 15, 2007, review of Nightmare Academy; July 5, 2007, review of The Wizard.

Publishers Weekly, August 21, 2006, review of The Palace of Laughter, p. 68; July 9, 2007, review of The Wizard, p. 53; September 24, 2007, review of The Slippery Map, p. 71.

School Library Journal, August, 2006, Christi Voth, review of The Palace of Laughter, p. 114; July, 2007, Lee Bock, Review of The Wizard, p. 84; December, 2007, Christy Voth Esterle, review of The Tiger's Egg, p. 119; December, 2007, Kim Dare, review of The Slippery Map, p. 120; December 2007, Sharon Senser McKellar, review of Nightmare Academy, p. 135.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 2007, Sarah Coffer and Kate Rose, review of Nightmare Academy, p. 258.