McCue, Lisa 1959-

(Lisa Emiline McCue)

Personal

Born February 16, 1959, in New York, NY; daughter of Richard (a television director and producer) and Emiline (an artist) McCue; married Kenneth Stephen Karsten, Jr. (an electrical engineer), 1986. Education: Attended University of Hartford, 1978-79; University of Southeastern Massachusetts, B.A., 1981.

Addresses

Home—Annapolis, MD. Agent—Publisher's Graphics, 251 Greenwood Ave., Bethel, CT 06801.

Career

Illustrator and author. Designer and creator of Fuzzytail Greetings (card line).

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Fun and Games in Fraggle Rock, Holt (New York, NY), 1984.

The Little Chick, Random House (New York, NY), 1986.

Ten Little Puppy Dogs, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

Puppy Peek-a-Boo, Random House (New York, NY), 1989.

Kittens Love, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.

Puppies Love, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.

Whose Little Baby Says …?, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.

Bunnies Love, Random House (New York, NY), 1991.

Ducklings Love, Random House (New York, NY), 1991.

Christmas Stories and Poems, Whistlestop (Mahwah, NJ), 1994.

Kitty's Carrier, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

Little Fuzzytail, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

Fuzzytail Farm, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

Quick, Quack, Quick, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

Fuzzytail Friends: Lift-and-Look Animal Book, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

Jingle Bell Mice, Whistlestop (Mahwah, NJ), 1997.

WITH FATHER, DICK McCUE; SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Ducky's Seasons, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983.

Froggie's Treasure, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983.

Teddy Dresses, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983.

Kitty's Colors, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983.

Puppy's Day School, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1984.

Bunny's Numbers, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1984.

Kitten's Christmas, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985.

Baby Elephant's Bedtime, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985.

Panda's Playtime, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985.

Raccoon's Hide and Seek, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985.

ILLUSTRATOR

Marguerite Muntean Corsello, Who Said That, Western Publications, 1982.

Carol North, reteller, The Three Bears, Western Publications, 1983.

Michaela Muntean, They Call Me Boober Fraggle, Holt (New York, NY), 1983.

Michaela Muntean, The Tale of the Traveling Matt, Holt (New York, NY), 1984.

Louise Gikow, Sprocket's Christmas Tale, Holt (New York, NY), 1984.

M.C. Delaney, Henry's Special Delivery, Dutton (New York, NY), 1984.

Marilyn Elson, Duffy on the Farm, Western Publications, 1984.

Louise Gikow, Wembley and the Soggy Map, Holt (New York, NY), 1986.

Katharine Ross, The Baby's Animal Party, Random House (New York, NY), 1986.

Ben Cruise, reteller, The Ugly Duckling, Western Publications, 1987.

Katharine Ross, Bear Island, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

Katharine Ross, My Little Library of Fuzzy Tales: A Fuzzy Fussy Tale, A Fuzzy Sleepy Tale, A Fuzzy Wake-up Tale, A Fuzzy Friendly Tale, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

Katharine Ross, Farm Fun, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

Stephanie Calmenson, Spaghetti Manners, Western Publications, 1987.

Stephanie Calmenson, One Red Shoe, Western Publications, 1987.

Jane Thayer, The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, Morrow (New York, NY), 1988.

Katharine Ross, Nighty-night, Little One, Random House (New York, NY), 1988.

Jan Wahl, Timothy Tiger's Terrible Toothache, Western Publications, 1988.

Katharine Ross, Animal Babies Book and Puzzle Set, Random House (New York, NY), 1988.

Katharine Ross, Sweetie and Petie, Random House (New York, NY), 1988.

Judy Delton, Hired Help for Rabbit, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1988.

Katharine Ross, The Fuzzytail Friends' Great Egg Hunt, Random House (New York, NY), 1988.

Bill Wallace, Snot Steb, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1989.

Diane Namm, Little Bear, Grolier, 1989.

Ann Turner, Hedgehog for Breakfast, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1989.

Jane Thayer, The Popcorn Dragon, new edition, Morrow (New York, NY), 1989.

Judy Delton, My Mom Made Me Go to Camp, Dell (New York, NY), 1990.

Ted Bailey, Skunks! Go to Bed!, Western Publications, 1990.

Judy Delton, My Mom Made Me Go to School, Dell (New York, NY), 1991.

Jim Latimer, Fox under First Base, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1991.

Judy Delton, My Mom Made Me Take Piano Lessons, Dell (New York, NY), 1994.

Ben Cruise, adaptor, The Ugly Duckling (based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen), Western Publishing (Racine, WI), 1995.

Marsha Arnold, Quick, Quack, Quick!, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

Cynthia Alvarez, Professor Pipsqueak's Guide to Birds, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

Cynthia Alvarez, Professor Pipsqueak's Guide to Bugs, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

Herman Gall, The Lion and the Mouse, Random House (New York, NY), 1998.

Margaret Wise Brown, Bunny's Noisy Book, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.

Susan Ring, Polar Babies, Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

Annie Ingle, Lift the Lid, Use the Potty!, Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

Jane Thayer, The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Irving Berlin, Easter Parade, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Gail Herman, The Lion and the Mouse, Random House (New York, NY), 2003.

Jane Thayer, Part-Time Dog, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

Eileen Spinelli, Feathers: Poems about Birds, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2004.

Dori Chaconas, Cork and Fuzz, Viking (New York, NY), 2005.

Rick Walton, The Remarkable Friendship of Mr. Cat and Mr. Rat, Putnam (New York, NY), 2006.

Leslie Kimmelman, How Do I Love You?, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

Dori Chaconas, Cork and Fuzz: Short and Tall, Viking (New York, NY), 2006.

Dori Chaconas, Cork and Fuzz: Good Sports, Viking (New York, NY), 2007.

ILLUSTRATOR; "SEBASTIAN (SUPER SLEUTH)" SERIES

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Hair of the Dog Mystery, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1982.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Crummy Yummies Caper, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1983.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Bone to Pick Mystery, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1983.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Santa Claus Caper, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1984.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Secret of the Skewered Skier, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1984.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Clumsy Cowboy, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1985.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Purloined Sirloin, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1986.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Stars-in-His-Eyes Mystery, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1987.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Egyptian Connection, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1988.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Time Capsule Caper, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1989.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Baffling Bigfoot, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1990.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Mystery Patient, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1991.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Impossible Crime, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1992.

Mary Blount Christian, Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Flying Elephant, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1994.

ILLUSTRATOR; "CORDUROY" SERIES; BASED ON THE CHARACTER BY DON FREEMAN

B.G. Hennessy, Corduroy's Day, Penguin (New York, NY), 1985.

B.G. Hennessy, Corduroy's Party, Penguin (New York, NY), 1985.

B.G. Hennessy, Corduroy's Toys, Penguin (New York, NY), 1985.

B.G. Hennessy, Corduroy Goes to the Doctor, Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

B.G. Hennessy, Corduroy on the Go, Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

B.G. Hennessy, Corduroy's Busy Street, Penguin (New York, NY), 1987.

Corduroy's Christmas Surprise (board-book adaptation), Grosset & Dunlap (New York, NY), 2000.

Corduroy's Easter Party (board-book adaptation), Grosset & Dunlap (New York, NY), 2000.

Corduroy (board-book adaptation), Viking Penguin (New York, NY), 2002.

Rhymes and Riddles with Corduroy (board-book adaptation), Viking Penguin (New York, NY), 2002.

Happy Easter, Corduroy (board-book adaptation), Viking Penguin (New York, NY), 2004.

Corduroy's Snow Day (board-book adaptation), Viking Penguin (New York, NY), 2005.

Corduroy's Thanksgiving (board-book adaptation), Viking Penguin (New York, NY), 2006.

Adaptations

McCue's illustrated version of The Ugly Duckling was adapted as both audio-and videocassettes, Western Publications, 1987.

Sidelights

Lisa McCue has illustrated dozens upon dozens of children's books, including the canine detective series "Sebastian (Super Sleuth)" and several adaptations of Don Freeman's popular "Corduroy" series about a lovable

bear, and has also written self-illustrated stories for very young children. Other authors whose texts have been brought to life through McCue's endearing art include Leslie Kimmelman, Judy Delton, and Dori Chaconas. In a review of Chaconas's beginning reader Cork and Fuzz, Kathleen Meulen wrote in School Library Journal that "McCue's endearing drawings add personality and humor to the animals' faces," while a Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that in How Do I Love You?, Kimmelman's poetic paean to the love between a crocodile mother and child, the "illustrations positively sing with the love and the joy the two bring to each other's lives." The focus is on a more slow-growing camaraderie in Rick Walton's The Remarkable Friendship of Mr. Cat and Mr. Rat, brought to humorous life by McCue in what School Library Journal contributor Catherine Callegari dubbed "detailed watercolor illustrations." The critic added that the illustrator's effective use of "simple backgrounds keep the focus on the action."

Because fuzzy and fluffy animal characters are among the artist's favorite subjects, McCue's own story books not surprisingly feature titles such as Jinglebell Mice, Little Fuzzytail, and Ten Little Puppy Dogs. In her work for others, if there is a way to work animals into the plot, McCue will find it. Describing the artist's unique illustrated version of Irving Berlin's classic popular song for Easter Parade, Ilene Cooper wrote in Booklist that the illustrator's "stuffed animal-like characters are instantly appealing, and children will have fun singing the familiar refrain."

Despite McCue's love of animals, she did not enjoy a rural upbringing; in fact, she experienced quite the opposite. Born in Brooklyn, New York, McCue was raised in a nearby suburb. "My mother was a big influence on me," she once recalled of her budding artistic career. "She is an artist. Ever since I can remember, she was painting and drawing and doing every kind of craft. I was always involved in crafts. In elementary school, every time there was a classroom party or art involved, everybody would turn and say, ‘Oh, Lisa could do it.’ So I was always zeroed in on as the artist of the class. The more you're told you're good at something, the more you head toward that area."

McCue enjoyed the benefits of a happy childhood spent near a major city. "My parents liked to go to museums, so I ended up going with them. I would always go to the Metropolitan Museum and go to their costume exhibit, that was my favorite place. I loved all the costumes and stepping back in history and seeing how the people dressed, just trying to imagine lifestyles."

Art was not her only interest, however; as McCue explained, "Music and dance were big interests of mine. I played a lot of sports. In school, I ran track and I played soccer, but my main sport is skiing."

Despite her competing hobbies, drawing and painting eventually won out, and after high school McCue studied art at Southeastern Massachusetts University. There she met Dutch author Loek Kessels, and it was at Kessels' suggestion that she sent a portfolio of her work to the editors of a children's book Kessels was then producing. The editors liked her work, and before she even graduated from college McCue had illustrated her first published book. "It was the best thing I ever did," the artist/author recalled: "I got right into children's books the summer after I graduated. I haven't had much time for anything else."

Most of McCue's illustration projects feature animal characters, and her style has sometimes been compared to that of Garth Williams, the illustrator of E.B. White's beloved Charlotte's Web and the "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. "When I started I was much more comfortable doing animals, and my portfolio had a lot of animal drawings," McCue explained. "As my agent showed my portfolio around, clients tended to give me a lot of animal books, and it snowballed from there." When asked to describe her drawing style, she explained that she concentrates on accuracy and finds that her everyday experiences are helpful sources, as are animal picture books. "I have an extensive library of animal encyclopedias, but if you go through my books, you'll see all the neighborhood animals and children. My own cat and dog have … starred in many books, and bits and pieces of my home and places around my neighborhood and places I travel to show up in all the books. I try and make everything very happy. I try to give as much life and personality as I can. And since I have so much fun when I'm drawing, I think that comes through in the art work.

When choosing an illustrating project, McCue sidesteps the tedious whenever possible. "I think in terms of what type of pictures I would enjoy doing," she once explained. "Sometimes I've gotten stories where I thought the story was just wonderful but it took place in the same room. The characters were doing something different but it all took place in the same background. I like books where there's a lot going on. The characters will be outdoors one time, indoors one time. On every page there's something new going on so that it doesn't all start to look alike. You just get tired of drawing if you're drawing an animal in a kitchen and the kitchen is the background for every page. You get tired of drawing that stove and all the little doo-dahs on top of that stove over a hundred times. So I look for books that I think I can make interesting pictures from. I like upbeat stories, funny, silly stories."

Discussing her approach to illustrating a text by another writer, McCue noted: "I start with a sketch just like any other illustrator. You get your story, you do sketches, and you send it to the publisher for an ‘okay.’ As I'm reading a story for the first time, I visualize. I see things in my mind and I don't really go too far from what my initial reaction to the story is—everything down to what I think characters should be wearing, what type of setting they should be in, and, if it's a rabbit, what kind of rabbit?

"I'll start with a very, very rough, scribbly sketch, put a piece of tracing paper over it, and start neatening it up—maybe changing action and motion a little bit to get more of the feeling that I want, or enlarge or make things smaller to fit in better. I think when I'm figuring out a book and I'm working at a very steady pace, I can average a page a day. But this average varies with the size of the book and the amount of background and characters on each page.

"I use acrylics a lot in a background because they won't bleed later. When I'm doing my animals, I like colored inks because I can get a nice fine line with them, and they're waterproof to an extent. If I'm doing a background with watercolors, a lot of times I get brighter colors. Luma dyes also get nice bright colors, and I'll use those for clothing or things that need to be brighter, more colorful than I might be able to get with some of the acrylics or colored inks."

To gauge the success of her work, McCue relies on the reactions of children who encounter her books. "I have good friends and relatives … and they'll always call

and say, ‘Oh, so and so loves this page and every time we open the book up she only wants to skip right to that because she loves the kitty popping his head out of the bag.’ And they tell me what pictures and what books tend to go over big with their children and why. I keep that in mind for the next stories. It's funny. My favorite pictures are the ones that compositionally work perfectly, but those are not necessarily the ones the kids go for. They tend to like the ones where there's a character that's being a little naughty or hiding or searching for something where the child can get involved."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1993, Kay Weisman, review of My Mom Made Me Take Piano Lessons, p. 1836; December 1, 1994, Kay Weisman, review of Sebastian (Super Sleuth) and the Flying Elephant, p. 680; March 15, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Easter Parade, p. 1328; March 15, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of Feathers: Poems about Birds, p. 1308; August, 2004, Karen Hutt, review of Part-Time Dog, p. 1946; January 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of Cork and Fuzz: Short and Tall, p. 109; January 1, 2007, Ilene Cooper, review of The Remarkable Friendship of Mr. Cat and Mr. Rat, p. 118.

Horn Book, May-June, 2006, Betty Carter, review of Cork and Fuzz: Short and Tall, p. 311.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2004, review of Feathers, p. 185; March 1, 2005, review of Cork and Fuzz, p. 284; February 14, 2006, review of Cork and Fuzz: Short and Tall, p. 179.

Publishers Weekly, December 5, 2005, review of How Do I Love You?, p. 54.

School Library Journal, April, 2004, Susan Scheps, review of Feathers, p. 114; September, 2004, Andrea Tarr, review of Part-Time Dog, p. 182; May, 2005, Kathleen Meulen, review of Cork and Fuzz, p. 78; February, 2005, Kathy Piehl, review of How Do I Love You?, p. 104; April, 2006, Laura Scott, review of Cork and Fuzz: Short and Tall, p. 98; December, 2006, Catherine Callegari, review of The Remarkable Friendship of Mr. Cat and Mr. Rat, p. 118.