Litzinger, Rosanne 1948-

Personal

Born July 20, 1948.

Addresses

Home—Beverly Hills, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Illustrator.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

(Reteller) The Old Woman and Her Pig: An Old English Tale, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (San Diego, CA), 1993.

ILLUSTRATOR

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, Octavia Told Me a Secret, Four Winds Press (New York, NY), 1979.

Virginia Masterman-Smith, The Treasure Trap, Four Winds Press (New York, NY), 1979.

Joanne Oppenheim, The Story Book Prince, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (San Diego, CA), 1987.

Joanne Oppenheim, Left and Right, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (San Diego, CA), 1989.

Mitchell Motomora, Lazy Jack and the Silent Princess, Raintree Publishers (Milwaukee, WI), 1989.

Elizabeth Spurr, The Biggest Birthday Cake in the World, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (San Diego, CA), 1991.

Anne Shelby, The Someday House, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Dayle Ann Dodds, Sing, Sophie!, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1997.

Karen Beaumont Alarcón, Louella Mae, She's Run Away!, Holt (New York, NY), 1997.

Charlotte Doyle, You Can't Catch Me, HarperFestival (New York, NY), 1998.

Teresa Bateman, Leprechaun Gold, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1998.

Marsha Wilson Chall, Rupa Raises the Sun, DK Ink (New York, NY), 1998.

Tololwa M. Mollel, Song Bird, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Wheels on the Bus: A Musical Pop-up Book, paper engineering by Renée Jablow, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CT), 1999.

Kirby Larson, The Magic Kerchief, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2000.

Ellin Greene, reteller, The Little Golden Lamb, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Lilian Moore, While You Were Chasing a Hat, HarperFestival (New York, NY), 2001.

Caron Lee Cohen, Happy to You!, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Marilyn Sachs, The Four Ugly Cats in Apartment 3D, Atheneum Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Esther Hershenhorn, Chicken Soup by Heart, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

Old Macdonald Had a Farm: A Musical Pop-up Book, paper engineering by Dennis K. Meyer, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2002.

Michelle Meadows, The Way the Storm Stops, Holt (New York, NY), 2003.

Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey, Creepy Things Are Scaring Me, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Lisa Shulman, The Matzo Ball Boy, Dutton (New York, NY), 2005.

Eric A. Kimmel, reteller, The Frog Princess: A Tlingit Legend from Alaska, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2006.

John Warren Stewig, The Animals Watched: An Alphabet Book, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2007.

Ann Whitford Paul, Snail's Good Night, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2007.

Erica Silverman, There Was a Wee Woman, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2008.

Carl Sandburg, Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2008.

Koko Nishizuka, The Beckoning Cat, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2009.

Sidelights

Rosanne Litzinger has illustrated more than thirty works for young readers. She earned strong reviews for her contributions to Karen Beaumont Alarcón's Louella Mae, She's Run Away!, a humorous tale about a farm family's search for a wayward youngster. According to Julie Corsaro, writing in Booklist, "Litzinger's mixed-media illustrations have a good sense of color, texture, and movement," and a critic in Publishers Weekly noted that her blend of watercolors, pen, and colored pencil produces "a sophisticated look that wittily complements the hill-folks setting" of Alarcón's tale.

A cowgirl with a love of music is the focus of Sing, Sophie!, a story by Dayle Ann Dodds that also features Litzinger's art. Although most of Sophie's family members are too busy to listen to the guitar-strumming heroine, her talents prove invaluable when her infant brother will not stop crying. "Litzinger's exuberant watercolor and pencil illustrations, with their daffily skewed scales and perspectives, express the boundless joy of Sophie's enthusiasms," remarked a Publishers Weekly contributor. In Song Bird, Tololwa M. Mollel's retelling of a traditional African tale, Mariamu locates her family's missing herd of cattle, which have been stolen by a terrifying monster, with the help of a magical bird. "The landscapes are beautiful," wrote Susan Dove Lempke in School Library Journal, and a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that Litzinger's watercolors in Song Bird "conjure a fittingly magical world" for the protagonist's adventures.

With a text by Marsha Wilson Chall, Rupa Raises the Sun centers on a weary woman's request for a well-earned break from her job: making the sun rise each morning. "Litzinger's dawn-drenched watercolors beam with naive, big-nosed villagers and earnest animals," Annie Ayers commented in Booklist. Litzinger also collaborates with Kirby Larson on The Magic Kerchief, in which a mean-spirited old woman finds herself handing out compliments instead of insults after she receives an enchanted gift from a stranger. A Horn Book critic praised the combination of Larson's prose and Litzinger's pictures, concluding of The Magic Kerchief that "both text and art incorporate traditional elements that give the whole a timeless folktale quality."

Ellin Greene presents the Hungarian version of the familiar story "The Golden Goose" in The Little Golden Lamb. Here "Litzinger's energetic watercolor and colored-pencil drawings capture the humor and absur-

dity of the tale," Kathleen Whalin remarked in School Library Journal. In Chicken Soup by Heart, with a story by Esther Hershenhorn, a little boy returns a favor when he learns that his babysitter has come down with the flu. According to School Library Journal reviewer Joy Fleishhacker, here Litzinger's "artwork adds to the affectionate tone of the text and illustrates the special relationship between the boy and his caregiver."

Lisa Shulman offers her take on a favorite children's tale in The Matzo Ball Boy, which also features Litzinger's art. Writing in School Library Journal, Amy Lilien-Harper observed that the book's "folksy cartoon art, with its colorful backgrounds and bell-shaped women chasing the rotund, matzo ball boy, is comical and fun." The Animals Watched: An Alphabet Book by John Warren Stewig looks at the story of Noah's Ark. Litzinger's illustrations for this book "use bold shapes, soft colors and a folk-art style to add a unique flair to the popular Bible story," a Kirkus Reviews critic noted. Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon originally appeared in Rootabaga Stories, Carl Sandburg's 1922 story collection. Litzinger's blend of watercolor, pen, and colored pencil for the 2008 republication of Sandburg's story "results in an appealingly rich sense of texture in many of the spreads," remarked a contributor in Kirkus Reviews. Lauralyn Persson, writing in School Library Journal, concluded that the illustrator's stylized pictures "have a cubist, surreal look that pairs well with the whimsical text."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1996, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Someday House, p. 1189; May 15, 1997, Ilene Cooper, review of Sing, Sophie!, p. 1578; June 1, 1997, Julie Corsaro, review of Louella Mae, She's RunAway!, p. 1714; September 1, 1998, Annie Ayers, review of Rupa Raises the Sun, p. 124; February 15, 1999, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Song Bird, p. 1072; April 1, 2001, Shelley Townsend-Hudson, review of While You Were Chasing a Hat, p. 1479; September 1, 2002, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Chicken Soup by Heart, p. 120; May 1, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of The Frog Princess: A Tlingit Legend from Alaska, p. 86; March 1, 2008, Carolyn Phelan, review of Snail's Good Night, p. 74.

Horn Book, May-June, 1997, Ann A. Flowers, review of Louella Mae, She's Run Away!, p. 300; July-August, 1998, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Leprechaun Gold, p. 470; May-June, 2000, Martha V. Parravano, review of The Little Golden Lamb, p. 325; September-October, review of The Magic Kerchief, p. 551; March-April, 2005, Lauren Adams, review of The Matzo Ball Boy, p. 212; November-December, 2007, Joanna Rudge Long, review of The Animals Watched: An Alphabet Book, p. 703.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2003, review of The Way the Storm Stops, p. 1227; August 15, 2007, review of The Animals Watched; August 1, 2008, review of Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon.

Publishers Weekly, March 4, 1996, review of The Someday House, p. 64; April 14, 1997, review of Sing, Sophie!, p. 75; March 31, 1997, review of Loella Mae, She's Run Away!, p. 73; August 17, 1998, review of Rupa Raises the Sun, p. 70; January 25, 1999, review of Song Bird, p. 95; September 18, 2000, review of The Magic Kerchief, p. 111; July 30, 2001, review of Happy to You!, p. 83; April 8, 2002, review of The Four Ugly Cats in Apartment 3D, p. 228; August 4,

2003, review of Creepy Things Are Scaring Me, p. 79; February 14, 2005, review of The Matzo Ball Boy, p. 79.

School Library Journal, June, 2000, Kathleen, review of The Little Golden Lamb, p. 132; September, 2001, Genevieve Ceraldi, review of Happy to You!, p. 185; January, 2002, Laura Scott, review of While You Were Chasing a Hat, p. 106; March, 2002, Terrie Dorio, review of The Four Ugly Cats in Apartment 3D, p. 200; November, 2002, Joy Fleishhacker, review of Chicken Soup by Heart, p. 124; September, 2003, John Peters, review of Creepy Things Are Scaring Me, p. 188; December, 2003, Carolyn Janssen, review of The Way the Storm Stops, p. 120; March, 2005, Amy Lilien-Harper, review of The Matzo Ball Boy, p. 188; June, 2006, Kirsten Cutler, review of The Frog Princess, p. 136; September, 2007, Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, review of The Animals Watched, p. 186; October, 2008, Lauralyn Persson, review of Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon, p. 122.