Krommes, Beth 1956–

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Krommes, Beth 1956–

Personal

Born January 6, 1956, in Allentown, PA; daughter of Frederick and Shirley Krommes; married David Rowell (a computer programmer), September 25, 1982; children: Olivia, Marguerite. Education: Syracuse University, B.F.A. (painting; magna cum laude), 1977; attended St. Martin's School of Art (London, England), 1976; University of Massachusetts—Amherst, M.A.T. (art education), 1980. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Lutheran.

Addresses

Home and office—310 Old Street Rd., Peterborough, NH 03458.

Career

Illustrator of children's books. Worked variously as an art director and designer for a computer magazine, manager of a handicraft shop, managing director of an arts organization, and as a junior-and senior-high-school art teacher. Freelance wood engraver and illustrator, 1984—. Exhibitions: Works exhibited in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and in England.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Society of Wood Engravers.

Awards, Honors

Certificates of Design Excellence, PRINT's Regional Design Annual, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1999; Yankee Print Awards, League of New Hampshire Craftsmen Foundation annual juried exhibit, 1986, 1987; Merit Awards in Printmaking, Sharon, NH, Arts Center annual regional juried exhibitions, 1986, 1989; Bologna Children's Book Fair Illustrator's Exhibit selection for fiction, 2000, for Grandmother Winter; Bologna Children's Book Fair Illustrator's Exhibit selection for nonfiction, 2001, and Golden Kite Award for Illustration, 2002, both for The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish.

Illustrator

Ruth Adams Bronz, Miss Ruby's American Cooking, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1989.

Marjorie Holmes, At Christmas the Heart Goes Home, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1991.

James Villas, French Country Kitchen, Bantam (New York, NY), 1992.

Tales of the Grizzly, Homestead Publishing (Moose, WY), 1992.

Down Home Cooking, Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, NY), 1994.

Sandra J. Taylor, editor, Yankee Magazine's New England Innkeepers Cookbook, Villard (New York, NY), 1996.

Tales of the Wolf, Homestead Publishing (Moose, WY), 1996.

Ric Lynden Hardman, Sunshine Rider (young-adult novel), Bantam (New York, NY), 1998.

Phyllis Root, Grandmother Winter (picture book), Houghton (Boston, MA), 1999.

Carrie Young, Prairie Cooks, Three Day Burns, and Other Reminiscences, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1999.

Jacqueline Briggs Martin, The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish (picture book), Houghton (Boston, MA), 2001.

Judith Nicholls, editor, The Sun in Me: Poems about the Planet, Barefoot Books (Bristol, England), 2002, Barefoot Books (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Lise Lunge-Larsen, The Hidden Folk: Stories of Fairies, Dwarves, Selkies, and Other Secret Beings (picture book), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

Joyce Sidman, Butterfly Eyes, and Other Secrets of the Meadow,, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA) 2006.

Sidelights

Known for her engravings, Beth Krommes is an illustrator whose works have appeared in many exhibitions and galleries in New Hampshire, where she makes her home. Since the early 1990s, she has illustrated children's books using a scratchboard-and-watercolor technique, among them the picture books Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root, The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, and The Hidden Folk: Stories of Fairies, Dwarves, Selkies, and Other Secret Beings, by Lise Lunge-Larsen. Reviewing her work for The Sun in Me: Poems about the Planet, a Kirkus Reviews writer dubbed Krommes' illustrations "gorgeous," commenting on her "brilliant use of pattern and placement in space along with color that leaps from the page."

For Grandmother Winter, a lyrical tale of people's and animals' responses to the coming of winter, Krommes created "delightful scratchboard illustrations, tinted with soft watercolors," according to Booklist reviewer Kay Weisman. A contributor to Horn Book commented on the bats, worms, frogs, fish, bears, and other creatures Krommes integrates into her images, calling them "carefully observed as well as decorative." The illustrator's work for Joyce Sidman's verse collection Butterfly Eyes, and Other Secretes of the Meadow also focuses on nature, in this case a pond ecosystem. "Visual clues complement the poetic suggestions in striking scratchboard scenes … saturated with color," wrote Margaret Bush in a School Library Journal review of the book. Calling Krommes' stylized art "splendid," Horn Book reviewer Joanna Rudge Long added that the pictures "reflect such precise observation that each species is easily recognizable" to young readers.

In The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish Martin recounts the true story of an expedition that set out in 1913, led by Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Hoping to prove that a continent was hidden under the Arctic ice cap, Stefansson was ultimately forced to abandon his ice-trapped fishing boat, the Karluk. Krom- mes' scratchboard art for the work was deemed "outstanding" by a Horn Book writer, the critic adding that "ice, artifacts, and characters are delineated in handsome black, softened with crosshatching and a limited palette." In School Library Journal Sue Sherif added that the "evocative scratchboard illustrations show many details of the cultural and physical environment" Krommes brings to life.

More fanciful in its focus, The Hidden Folk presents a history of magical creatures as they appear in the European folk tradition, from dwarves and flower fairies to selkies and river sprites. Noting Krommes' use of decorative borders that echo the theme of each interior illustration, School Library Journal contributor Harriett Fargnoli wrote that "the vivid hues and interesting textures make an eye-catching combination." John Peters concluded in his Booklist review of The Hidden Folk that Krommes' creative contribution "give[s] this gathering a suitably folktale feel," and a Kirkus Reviews critic wrote that the illustrator's use of "rich and brilliant color [is] at once cozy and majestic."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 1999, Kay Weisman, review of Grandmother Winter, p. 637; September 1, 2004, John Peters, review of The Hidden Folk: Stories of Fairies, Dwarves, Selkies, and Other Secret Beings, p. 117; October 1, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of Butterfly Eyes, and Other Secrets of the Meadow, p. 51.

Horn Book, September, 1999, review of Grandmother Winter, p. 599; March, 2001, review of The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish, p. 198; September-October, 2006, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Butterfly Eyes, and Other Secrets of the Meadows, p. 603.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2003, review of The Sun in Me: Poems about the Planet, p. 144; July 15, 2004, review of The Hidden Folk, p. 690; August 15, 2006, review of Butterfly Eyes, and Other Secrets of the Meadow, p. 852.

Natural History, December, 2002, review of The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish, p. 70.

New York Times Book Review, April 15, 2001, Heather Vogel Frederick, review of The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish, p. 25.

Publishers Weekly, September 2, 1989, Molly McQuade, review of Miss Ruby's American Cooking, p. 54; August 30, 1999, review of Grandmother Winter, p. 82.

School Library Journal, July, 2001, Sue Sherif, review of The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish, p. 96; March, 2003, Kathleen Whalin, review of The Sun in Me, p. 222; December, 2004, Harriett Fargnoli, review of The Hidden Folk, p. 134; October, 2006, Margaret Bush, review of Butterfly Eyes, and Other Secrets of the Meadow, p. 142.