Halsey, Megan

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Halsey, Megan

Personal

Married; husband's name Marty. Education: Mary University, M.A. (studio art and illustration).

Addresses

Home and office—Lansdowne, PA. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Author and illustrator. Ah!Ha! Studios, co-founder. Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA, instructor; Marywood University, Scranton, PA, graduate instructor. Worked previously at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.

Awards, Honors

Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award, 2001, for Circus 1-2-3; NAPPA Gold Award, National Parenting, 2005, for Changed the World.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Garden Colors, Western Publishing (Racine, WI), 1993.

Three Pandas Planting, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Jump for Joy: A Book of Months, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Hounds around Town: A Guess-What-They-Do Flap Book, Little Simon (New York, NY), 1997.

Circus 1-2-3, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.

ILLUSTRATOR

Barbara Brenner, Rosa and Marco and the Three Wishes, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1992.

M.C. Helldorfer, The Darling Boys, Bradbury Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Janice Boland, Annabel, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1993.

Ross Martin Madsen, Stewart Stork, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1993.

Sara Atherlay, Math in the Bath (and Other Fun Places, Too!), Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1995.

Janice Boland, Annabel Again, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1995.

Clare Hodgson Meeker, Who Wakes Rooster?, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1996.

Anne Rockwell, One Bean, Walker & Company (New York, NY), 1998.

Anne Rockwell, Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night, Walker & Company (New York, NY), 1999.

Jules Older, Telling Time: How to Tell Time on Digital and Analog Clocks!, 2000.

Phyllis S. Busch, Winter, Benchmark Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Phyllis S. Busch, Summer, Benchmark Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Phyllis S. Busch, Spring, Marshall Cavendish (Tarrytown, NY), 2000.

Phyllis S. Busch, Autumn, Benchmark Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Dandi Daley Mackall, Things I Do, Augsburg Fortress (Minneapolis, MN), 2002.

Dandi Daley Mackall, Rainbow Party, Augsburg Fortress (Minneapolis, MN), 2002.

Dandi Daley Mackall, One Lost Sheep, Augsburg (Minneapolis, MN), 2002.

Kathi Appelt, Where, Where Is Swamp Bear?, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

Dandi Daley Mackall, Made by God, Augsburg (Minneapolis, MN), 2002.

Anne Rockwell, Becoming Butterflies, Walker & Company (New York, NY), 2002.

Anne Rockwell, Four Seasons Make a Year, Walker & Company (New York, NY), 2004.

Anne Rockwell, Little Shark, Walker & Company (New York, NY), 2005.

Cynthia Chin-Lee, Amelia to Zora: Twenty-six Women Who Changed the World, Charlesbridge Publishing (Waterstown, MA), 2005.

Patricia Hubbell, Trains: Huffing! Puffing! Pulling!, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2005.

Anne Rockwell, Backyard Bear, Walker & Company, 2006.

Patricia Hubbell, Cars: Rushing! Honking! Zooming!, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2006.

Patricia Hubbell, Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble!, Marshall Cavendish (New York, NY), 2006.

Cynthia Chin-Lee, Akira to Zoltan: Twenty-six Men Who Changed the World, Charlesbridge Publishing (Watertown, MA), 2006.

Sidelights

Megan Halsey was introduced to art and literature by her family at a young age; her father was a teacher and an artist, and he would take Halsey to the museum every year on her birthday. Her love of art was balanced by her love for reading, and this hobby was encouraged by her schoolteacher grandmother. Halsey discovered the world of children's book illustration in college, and she knew immediately that she had found her life's work. An award-winning book illustrator who has created art for writers such as Anne Rockwell, Patricia Hubbell, Dandi Daley Mackall, Cynthia Chin-Lee, and Jules Older, Halsey is also the co-founder of her own design company, Ah!Ha! Studios. Her design partner, Sean Addy, is an illustrator whom Halsey met while teaching art classes at the Pratt Institute.

Halsey's illustrations have been recognized by critics for their ability to enhance texts written by a variety of authors, as well as for their uniqueness. For instance, she sometimes uses cutouts to give illustrations a three-dimensional effect. Her self-illustrated title Circus 1-2-3 incorporates such cutouts, creating what a Publishers Weekly critic described as an equally unique "spotlight" effect in which "animals and acrobats alike appear to be performing under bright lights." Halsey also uses this cutout technique in Who Wakes Rooster?, a picturebook featuring a text by Clare Hodgson Meeker. The farm animals in Who Wakes Rooster?, rendered in warm tones, are accented by the technique in such a way that a "warm, homey, and visually very interesting" effect is produced, according to Booklist critic Leone McDermott.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, 1996, Leone McDermott, review of Who Wakes Rooster? p. 508; April 15, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of One Bean, p. 1449; September 1, 1999, Ellen Mandel, review of Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night, p. 142; March 1, 2000, Kathy Broderick, review of Telling Time: How to Tell Time on Digital and Analog Clocks!, p. 1246; March 15, 2002, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Becoming Butterflies, p. 1261; April 15, 2003, Kay Weisman, review of Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble!, p. 1478; May 1, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Two Blue Jays, p. 1606; February 15, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of Four Seasons Make a Year, p. 1061; April 1, 2005, Ilene Cooper, review of Amelia to Zora: Twenty-six Women Who Changed the World, p. 1358; June 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of Akira to Zoltan: Twenty-six Men Who Changed the World, p. 97; October 15, 2006, Randall Enos, review of Backyard Bear, p. 55; November 1, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Cars: Rushing! Honking! Zooming!, p. 60.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May, 2002, review of Becoming Butterflies, p. 338; July-August 2005, review of Little Shark, p. 509.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2002, review of Becoming Butterflies, p. 107; February 15, 2003, review of Trucks, p. 308; February 15, 2003, review of Two Blue Jays, p. 316; February 1, 2004, review of Four Seasons Make a Year, p. 138; March 15, 2005, review of Amelia to Zora, p. 349; April 15, 2005, review of Little Shark, p. 480; August 1, 2005, review of Trains: Steaming! Pulling! Huffing!, p. 850; June 15, 2006, review of Akira to Zoltan, p. 632; August 1, 2006, review of Cars, p. 788; September 15, 2006, review of Backyard Bear, p. 53.

New Yorker, November 18, 1996, review of Who Wakes Rooster?, p. 101.

Publishers Weekly, September 27, 1999, review of Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night, p. 107; July 31, 2000, review of Circus 1-2-3, p. 93; November 26, 2001, review of What Is Swamp Bear?, p. 60; March 3, 2003, review of Two Blue Jays, p. 75; March 29, 2004, review of True Companions, p. 64.

School Library Journal, September, 1996, Virginia Opocensky, review of Who Wakes Rooster?, p. 185; May, 1998, Pamela K. Bomboy, review of One Bean, p. 136; October, 1999, Betsy Barnett, review of Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night, p. 124; March, 2000, Anne Chapman Callaghan, review of Telling Time, p. 230; November, 2000, Lisa Gangemi Krapp, review of Cir-

cus 1-2-3, p. 142; March, 2002, Ellen Heath, review of Becoming Butterflies, p. 220; January, 2003, review of One Lost Sheep, p. 106; January, 2003, Olga R. Kuharets, review of Made by God, p. 106; January, 2003, review of Things I Do, p. 106; May, 2003, Susan Scheps, review of Two Blue Jays, p. 128; June, 2003, review of Trucks, p. 107; September, 2005, Genevieve Gallagher, review of Trains, p. 174; April, 2005, Patricia Manning, review of Little Shark, p. 126; April, 2005, Peg Glisson, review of Amelia to Zora, p. 147; March, 2006, John Peters, review of Amelia to Zora, p. 89; July, 2006, Ann Wellton, review of Akira to Zoltan, p. 118; October, 2006, Andrea Tarr, review of Backyard Bear, p. 124; November, 2006, Maren Ostergard, review of Cars, p. 96.