Munsinger, Lynn 1951-
Munsinger, Lynn 1951-
Personal
Born December 24, 1951, in Greenfield, MA; daughter of Robert William and Jeanne Munsinger; married Dan Lace (a sales manager), November 27, 1981. Education: Tufts University, B.A., 1974; Rhode Island School of Design, B.F.A. (illustration), 1977; additional study in London, England.
Addresses
Home—CT and VT.
Career
Freelance illustrator, 1977—. Has created designs for greeting cards.
Awards, Honors
Volunteer State Award, 1984, for Howliday Inn by James Howe; New York Times Notable Book selection, 1986, for Hugh Pine and the Good Place by Janwillem Van de Wetering; Emphasis on Reading Award (Grades 2-3), 1987-88, for My Mother Never Listens to Me by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat; Little Archer Award, 1989, for Underwear! by Mary Monsell; Colorado Children's Book Award, 1990, California Young Reader Award (Primary), 1991, and Golden Sower Award (K-3), 1991, all for Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester; Washington Children's Choices Picture Book Award, 2001, for Hooway for Wodney Wat by Lester.
Illustrator
Margret Elbow, The Rootomom Tree, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1978.
William Cole, editor, An Arkful of Animals: Poems for the Very Young, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1978.
Jane Sutton, What Should a Hippo Wear, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1979.
Nancy Robison, The Lizard Hunt, Lothrop (New York, NY), 1979.
Gloria Skurzynski, Martin by Himself, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1979.
Elaine M. Willoughby, Boris and the Monsters, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1980.
Janwillem van de Wetering, Hugh Pine, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1980.
Karen J. Gounaud, A Very Mice Joke Book, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1981.
Sandol Stoddard, Bedtime Mouse, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1981.
James Howe, Howliday Inn, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1982.
Judy Delton, A Pet for Duck and Bear, edited by Ann Fay, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1982.
Galway Kinnell, How the Alligator Missed Breakfast, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1982.
Phyllis Rose Eisenberg, Don't Tell Me a Ghost Story, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1982.
Helen Lester, The Wizard, the Fairy, and the Magic Chicken, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1983.
Judy Delton, Duck Goes Fishing, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1983.
Joseph Slate, The Mean, Clean, Giant Canoe Machine, Crowell, 1983.
Caroline Levine, Silly School Riddles and Other Classroom Crack-Ups, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1984.
Judy Delton, Bear and Duck on the Run, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1984.
Richard Latta, This Little Pig Had a Riddle, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1984.
Ann Tompert, Nothing Sticks like a Shadow, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1984.
Eve Bunting, Monkey in the Middle, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1984.
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, My Mother Never Listens to Me, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1984.
Virginia Mueller, A Playhouse for Monster, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1985.
Virginia Mueller, Monster and the Baby, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1985.
Seymour Reit and others, When Small Is Tall, and Other Read-Together Tales, Random House (New York, NY), 1985.
Helen Lester, It Wasn't My Fault, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1985.
Judy Delton, The Elephant in Duck's Garden, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1985.
Helen Lester, A Porcupine Named Fluffy, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1986.
Joan Phillips, My New Boy, Random House (New York, NY), 1986.
Virginia Mueller, Monster Can't Sleep, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1986.
Judy Delton, Rabbit Goes to Night School, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1986.
Janwillem van de Wetering, Hugh Pine and the Good Place, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1986.
William H. Hooks and others, Read-a-Rebus: Tales and Rhymes in Words and Pictures, Random House (New York, NY), 1986.
Virginia Mueller, A Halloween Mask for Monster, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1986.
Helen Lester, Pookins Gets Her Way, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1987.
Barbara Bottner, Zoo Song, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1987.
Joanna Cole, Norma Jean, Jumping Bean, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.
Helen Lester, Tacky the Penguin, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1988.
Gloria Whelan, A Week of Raccoons, Knopf (New York, NY), 1988.
Linda Hayward, Hello, House!, Random House (New York, NY), 1988.
Mary Ada Schwartz, Spiffen, a Tale of a Tidy Pig, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1988.
Sandol Stoddard, Bedtime for Bear, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1988.
Mary Elise Monsell, Underwear!, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1988.
Susan Heyboer O'Keefe, One Hungry Monster: A Counting Book in Rhyme, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1989.
Janwillem van de Wetering, Hugh Pine and Something Else, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1989.
William J. Smith, Ho for a Hat!, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1989.
Pat Lowery Collins, Tomorrow, Up and Away, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1990.
Maryann Macdonald, Hedgehog Bakes a Cake, Gareth Stevens (Milwaukee, WI), 1990.
Joanna Cole, Don't Call Me Names, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.
Helen Lester, The Revenge of the Magic Chicken, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1990.
Virginia Mueller, Monster's Birthday Hiccups, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1991.
Virginia Mueller, Monster Goes to School, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1991.
Maryann Macdonald, Rabbit's Birthday Kite, Bantam (New York, NY), 1991.
Joanne Oppenheim, Rooter Remembers: A Bank Street Book about Values, Viking (New York, NY), 1991.
William Cole, selector, A Zooful of Animals, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1992.
Helen Lester, Me First, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1992.
William H. Hooks, Rough, Tough, Rowdy: A Bank Street Book about Values, Viking (New York, NY), 1992.
Barbara Brenner, Group Soup: A Bank Street Book about Values, Viking (New York, NY), 1992.
Ann Tompert, Just a Little Bit, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1993.
Valiska Gregory, Babysitting for Benjamin, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1993.
Helen Lester, Three Cheers for Tacky, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1994.
William H. Hooks and Betty Boegehold, The Rainbow Ribbon: A Bank Street Book about Values, Puffin (New York, NY), 1994.
Abby Levine, Ollie Knows Everything, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1994.
Helen Lester, Lin's Backpack, Addison-Wesley (New York, NY), 1994.
Sandol Stoddard, Turtle Time: A Bedtime Story, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1995.
Stephen Krensky, The Three Blind Mice Mystery, Dell (New York, NY), 1995.
Ogden Nash, The Tale of Custard the Dragon, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1995.
Helen Lester, Listen, Buddy, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1995.
Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson, Gator Girls, Morrow (New York, NY), 1995.
Helen Lester, Princess Penelope's Parrot, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1996.
Ogden Nash, Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1996.
A.M. Monson, Wanted—Best Friend, Dial (New York, NY), 1997.
Stephanie Calmenson and Joanna Cole, Rockin' Reptiles, Morrow Junior Books (New York, NY), 1997.
Kay Winters, The Teeny Tiny Ghost, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1998.
Helen Lester, Tacky in Trouble, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1998.
Stephanie Calmenson and Joanna Cole, Get Well, Gators!, Morrow Junior Books (New York, NY), 1998.
Jackie French Koller, One Monkey Too Many, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1999.
Helen Lester, Hooway for Wodney Wat, Houghton Mifflin (New York, NY), 1999.
Maryann Macdonald, Rabbit's Birthday Kite, Gareth Stevens (Milwaukee, WI), 1999.
Kay Winters, Whooo's Haunting the Teeny Tiny Ghost?, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.
Stephanie Calmenson and Joanna Cole, Gator Halloween, Morrow Junior Books (New York, NY), 1999.
Carolyn Crimi, Don't Need Friends, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1999.
William Wise, Dinosaurs Forever, Dial (New York, NY), 2000.
Helen Lester, Tacky and the Emperor, Houghton, Mifflin (New York, NY), 2000.
Laura Joffe Numeroff, What Grandmas Do Best/What Grandpas Do Best, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2000, published separately, 2001.
Laura Joffe Numeroff, What Daddies Do Best, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2001.
Helen Lester, Score One for the Sloths, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2001.
Patricia Hooper, A Stormy Ride on Noah's Ark, Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.
David T. Greenberg, Skunks!, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2001.
Deborah Lee Rose, Birthday Zoo, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 2002.
Laura Joffe Numeroff, What Mommies Do Best, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2002.
Helen Lester, Tackylocks and the Three Bears, Houghton Mifflin (New York, NY), 2002.
Irving Berlin, God Bless America, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.
Laura Malone Elliott, Hunter's Best Friend at School, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.
My New Boy, Random House (New York, NY), 2003.
Laura Joffe Numeroff, What Sisters Do Best; What Brothers Do Best, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2003.
Helen Lester, Something Might Happen, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2003.
Joanna Cole, Norma Jean, Jumping Bean, Random House (New York, NY), 2003.
Kay Winters, The Teeny Tiny Ghost and the Monster, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.
Laura Joffe Numeroff, What Aunts Do Best/What Uncles Do Best, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.
Laura Joffe Numeroff, Beatrice Doesn't Want To, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004.
Helen Lester, Hurty Feelings, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.
David T. Greenberg, Snakes!, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2004.
Helen Lester, Tacky and the Winter Games, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2005.
Jackie French Killer, Seven Spunky Monkeys, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2005.
Barbara Brenner, William H. Hooks, and Betty Boegehold, Bunny Tails, Milk and Cookies Press, 2005.
Laura Malone Elliott, Hunter and Stripe and the Soccer Showdown, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2005.
William Wise, Zany Zoo, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.
Helen Lester, Batter up Wombat, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.
James Howe, Howliday Inn, Aladdin (New York, NY), 2006.
David J. Olson, The Thunderstruck Stork, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 2007.
Susan Heyboer O'Keefe, Hungry Monster ABC, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2007.
Helen Lester, The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2007.
David Greenberg, Crocs!, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2008.
Laura Malone Elliott, Hunter's Annoying Big Sister, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2008.
Illustrator of textbooks. Contributor of illustrations to Cricket.
Sidelights
The whimsical animal characters created by illustrator Lynn Munsinger, familiar to several generations of young readers, decorate the pages of children's books by a wide variety of authors. From Ogden Nash's early-twentieth-century classic The Tale of Custard the Dragon to works by such contemporary writers as Joanna Cole, Laura Malone Elliott, Helen Lester, William Wise, Laura Joffe Numeroff, and Virginia Mueller, the illustrator has brought her creative talent and imagination to bear. "It is easy to recognize Munsinger's personable animal characters," wrote Stephanie Zvirin in a Booklist review of Elliott's Hunter's Best Friend at School, adding that these characters "always seem to sparkle with mischief and good humor." "I … feel very fortunate to be an illustrator," the prolific artist once told SATA. "I really enjoy my work and cannot conceive of doing anything else."
Born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1951, Munsinger knew she wanted to be an artist from the time she was a young girl. After graduating from high school, she attended Tufts University, moving on to Rhode Island School of Design (RISDI) after earning her B.A. in 1974, and obtained her B.F.A. degree three yeas later. She began looking for freelance assignments immediately after graduation, and her first illustration job, Margret Elbow's The Rootomom Tree, was published a year later. Many more book illustration projects have followed in the years since, earning Munsinger not only legions of young fans but critical praise as well. Of her work for Mary Elise Monsell's Underwear!, for instance, a Booklist reviewer called the "zany," "perky-colored" illustrations "a perfect foil for the text," while Lori A. Janick maintained in School Library Journal that "what could have been an unbelievable moralistic tale … is saved by Munsinger's delightful illustrations." Reviewing Judy Delton's Rabbit Goes to Night School, Booklist contributor Denise M. Wilms stated that "Munsinger's deft pen-and-ink drawings … lend a good deal of personality to the story," while the illustrator's work for A Stormy Ride on Noah's Ark, "featuring expressive animal characters and shifting perspectives, capture the balance between the comic and the contemplative achieved in the lilting text" by Patricia Hooper.
While Munsinger has illustrated books for numerous authors, including Delton, Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, Galway Kinnell, and Ann Tompert, she has developed multi-book working relationships with several popular children's book writers. Dutch-immigrant author Janwillem van de Wetering's three-book series featuring a large, elderly porcupine named Hugh Pine was the first collaboration to benefit from Munsinger's pen-and-ink renderings. In series opener Hugh Pine, the wise porcupine learns to walk upright and mimic a small human being in order to avoid being hit by passing cars, and eventually helps his younger, more inexperienced friends learn to cross busy roads in safety. In Hugh Pine and the Good Place, the elderly porcupine longs to move out to the deserted island he can see from his home in a tree growing on the Maine coast. However, following the adage "be careful what you wish for," Pine ultimately changes his mind after a few days of loneliness. "Munsinger provides sprightly line drawings with just the right elan to give this porcupine person believability," commented Barbara Elleman in a Booklist review. In Hugh Pine and Something Else Munsinger captures the wise old porcupine as he accompanies his friend, Postman McTosh, to New York City, meeting a host of sophisticated city-dwelling animals before returning to his comfortable woodland home in Maine.
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The humorous "Monster" stories by Virginia Mueller have also been enhanced by Munsinger's artwork. In full-color illustrations, the illustrator portrays green-furred, toothsome young Monster in a variety of childlike situations and makes the setting particularly monster-like: the Monster family has carnivorous Venus fly-traps instead of regular houseplants, and their antimacassars are made of spider webs! In Monster and the Baby Monster tries to quiet his baby sister with a game of building blocks, but discovers that she is only happy when the buildings crash to the ground. In A Playhouse for Monster, which also features Munsinger's art, the young creature thrills to having a place all his own, until he realizes that sharing his new playhouse with friends is far more fun. A Halloween Mask for Monster finds the furry green creature donning fearsome masks that look like human children—and scaring everyone in his family—until he decides that the masks are truly too scary and his own face will do just fine. A Publishers Weekly reviewer praised Mueller's story, noting that it is "made more agreeable because of Munsinger's goodnatured pictures." Other "Monster" stories featuring Munsinger art include Monster Can't Sleep, Monster's Birthday Hiccups, and Monster Goes to School.
Munsinger's most prolific working relationship has been with author Helen Lester. Beginning with Lester's 1983 picture book The Wizard, the Fairy, and the Magic Chicken, the two have joined forces on numerous stories filled with a whimsical humor that often borders on zany. Beginning their collaboration with the story of a competition between three sorcerers, Lester and Munsinger produced a sequel, The Revenge of the Magic Chicken, which reunites Chicken with his magical friends, a wizard and a fairy. "The text's humor gets the full treatment in Munsinger's raucous art," noted Ilene Cooper, reviewing the appealing picture book for Booklist.
Several books featuring a penguin named Tacky have also hatched from the creative collaboration between Munsinger and Lester. While most penguins try hard to fit in with their formally attired fellows, in Tacky the Penguin readers meet a free spirit. Unlike the properly bow-tied Angel, Goodly, Lovely, and friends, Tacky wears gaudy, rumpled Hawaiian-print shirts, making him a bit of a stand-out around the Arctic Circle. However, when Tacky encounters a band of penguin- snatching hunters, his crazy antics and outrageous garb confound the men so much that they question whether these birds are penguins after all. Three Cheers for Tacky finds the nonconformist penguin making a muddle of his team's cheer routine for the Penguin Cheering Contest, although ultimately the out-of-step penguin becomes the highlight of what would otherwise have been a forgettable competition. Athletic training takes a backseat to doughnuts, late-night television, and other lazy habits in Tacky and the Winter Games, which finds the penguin taking a less-than-stellar role in the annual penguin games. Booklist reviewer Kathryn Broderick praised Munsinger's "slyly humorous watercolors" and called Three Cheers for Tacky "a funny, funny picture book," while Carolyn Phelan wrote in the same periodical that with Tacky and the Winter Games "Lester and Munsinger create a winning combination of action, detail, and understated wit."
Lester and Munsinger have also worked together on several other picture books for young children, many of which feature animal characters. In A Porcupine Named Fluffy a prickly young porcupine earns the nickname "Fluffy," despite the fact that his "fluff" consists of sharp, barbed quills. Only after Fluffy meets a young rhinoceros with an equally silly name—Hippo—does he begin to think of his name as a source of fun. In Me First portly Pinkerton Pig learn a lesson about being
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pushy via Munsinger's brightly hued watercolor art, and an opposite dilemma—about a young hippopotamus who takes everything too seriously—is profiled in lighthearted fashion in Hurty Feelings. Listen, Buddy features a hare whose mind is wandering in the clouds instead of focusing on what people are telling him, while a rodent with a severe speech impediment stars in the popular picture book Hooway for Wodney Wat. "Munsinger's expressively drawn pictures … wring out every funny nuance," noted Ilene Cooper in a Booklist review of A Porcupine Named Fluffy, while Julie Roach wrote in School Library Journal that the watercolor illustrations for Hurty Feelings "bring the tale to life, making Lester's creatures all the more entertaining and enjoyable."
Although animals figure most prominently in Munsinger's drawings, human children take center stage in several books. In Lester's It Wasn't My Fault, a young boy is always quick to blame something else for his own actions, while Deborah Lee Rose's Birthday Zoo finds a more upbeat fellow enjoying a special party given by the inhabitants of a local zoo. A spoiled girl who utters the foolish wish that she be transformed into a flower is featured in another book by Lester, Pookins Gets Her Way, which contains illustrations that are "full of mischief," according to a Publishers Weekly critic. Princess Penelope's Parrot introduces readers to yet another spoiled child, this time a princess whose nasty words come back to haunt her during her birthday party, when a parrot who refused to speak to her suddenly begins mimicking the girl's mantra—"Gimme, Gimme, Gimme"—in earshot of the wealthy prince Penelope was hoping to impress. The author's "spoiled-brat princess is perfectly embodied in Munsinger's … illustration," asserted Janice M. Del Negro in a review of Princess Penelope's Parrot for the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.
While Munsinger concentrates mainly upon illustrating picture books for young children, she has also done artwork for children's textbooks, designed greeting cards, and contributed illustrations to Cricket magazine. Her media of choice continue to be Indian ink and crow quill pens, to which she often adds watercolor washes. "The aspect of illustration that most interests me is development of the characters," Munsinger once explained to SATA. "I feel humor and expression add to a character's appeal and aid in telling a story." While Munsinger enjoys drawing all sorts of characters, she admits to a special affection for drawing animals. Fortunately for her, that affection has translated itself into talent. As a Publishers Weekly contributor noted in discussing her illustrations for William Wise's poetry collection Zany Zoo: "When it comes to imagining anthropomorphized animals, [Munsinger] … has few peers. No matter what species she puts her pen to, the result is [both] … touching and tickling."
Biographical and Critical Sources
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 1986, Ilene Cooper, review of A Porcupine Named Fluffy, pp. 1223-1224; December 1, 1986,
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Barbara Elleman, review of Hugh Pine and the Good Place, p. 582; February 1, 1987, Denise M. Wilms, review of Rabbit Goes to Night School, p. 842; April 1, 1988, review of Underwear!, p. 1352; March 1, 1990, Ilene Cooper, review of The Revenge of the Magic Chicken, p. 1344; October 1, 1992, Annie Ayres, review of Me First, p. 336; February 15, 1994, Kathryn Broderick, review of Three Cheers for Tacky, pp. 1092-1093; October 15, 1995, Hazel Rochman, review of Listen, Buddy, p. 412; September 1, 1999, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Gator Halloween, p. 145; November, 15, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of Don't Need Friends, p. 635; March 15, 2000, review of Hooway for Wodney Wat, p. 1346; August, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of God Bless America, p. 1966; September 15, 2002, Cynthia Turnquest, review of Birthday Zoo, p. 242; October 1, 2002, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Hunter's Best Friend at School, p. 334, and Kathy Broderick, review of Tackyocks and the Three Bears, p. 337; September 15, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Something Might Happen, p. 246; December 1, 2004, Jennifer Mattson, review of Beatrice Doesn't Want To, p. 661; September 1, 2005, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Hunter and Stripe and the Soccer Showdown, p. 119, and Carolyn Phelan, review of Tacky and the Winter Games, p. 120; April 15, 2006, Jennifer Mattson, review of Zany Zoo, p. 55; September 15, 2006, Ilene Cooper, review of Batter up Wombat, p. 68.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April, 1988, review of Tacky the Penguin, p. 159; March, 1990, review of The Revenge of the Magic Chickens, pp. 168-169; April, 1996, review of Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight, p. 273; January, 1997, Janice M. Del Negro, review of Princess Penelope's Parrot, p. 179.
Horn Book, March-April, 1987, Karen Jameyson, review of Hugh Pine and the Good Place, p. 214; May-June, 1987, Hanna B. Zeiger, review of Rabbit Goes to Night School, pp. 328-329; November-December, 1992, Carolyn K. Jenks, review of Me First, pp. 716-717; July-August, 1995, review of Listen, Buddy, p. 485; September, 2001, review of Score One for the Sloths, p. 576; November-December, 2001, review of A Stormy Ride on Noah's Ark, p. 736; November-December, 2002, Mary M. Burns, review of Birthday Zoo, p. 738; May-June, 2004, Roger Sutton, review of Snakes!, p. 313.
Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2002, review of Tackylocks and the Three Bears, p. 1037; May 1, 2004, review of Snakes!, p. 442; July 1, 2004, review of Hurty Feelings, p. 632; July 1, 2005, review of Hunter and Stripe and the Soccer Showdown, p. 734; August 15, 2005, review of Seven Spunky Monkeys, p. 917; October 15, 2005, review of Tacky and the Winter Games, p. 1141.
Publishers Weekly, September 19, 1980, review of Hugh Pine, p. 161; May 27, 1983, review of Duck Goes Fishing, p. 68; April 25, 1986, review of A Porcupine Named Fluffy, p. 73; August 22, 1986, review of A Halloween Mask for Monster, p. 93; February 27, 1987, review of Pookins Gets Her Way, p. 163; May 8, 1995, review of The Tale of Custard the Dragon, p. 295; February 13, 2005, review of Bunny Tails, p. 76; February 27, 2006, review of Zany Zoo, p. 60.
School Library Journal, December, 1985, review of A Playhouse for Monster, pp. 109-110; August, 1987, review of Pookins Gets Her Way, p. 70; March, 1988, Lori A. Janick, review of Underwear!, p. 172; April, 1988, Bonnie Wheatley, review of Tacky the Penguin, p. 82; October, 1992, George Delalis, review of Me First, p. 91; May, 1994, Donna L. Scanlon, review of Three Cheers for Tacky, p. 98; November, 2000, Martha Link, review of Tacky and the Emperor, p. 126; October, 2001, Robin L. Gibson, review of Score One for the Sloths, p. 123; December, 2001, Kathy Piehl, review of A Stormy Ride on Noah's Ark, p. 104; September, 2002, Melinda Piehler, review of Hunter's Best Friend at School, p. 190; September, 2003, Be Astengo, review of Something Might Happen, p. 183; August, 2004, Linda Staskus, review of The Teeny Tiny Ghost and the Monster, p. 104; September, 2004, Blair Christolon, review of Hunter and Stripe and the Soccer Showdown, p. 169; October, 2004, Julie Roach, review of Hurty Feelings, p. 12; November, 2004, Wanda Meyers-Hines, review of Beatrice Doesn't Want To, p. 113; September, 2005, Linda Staskus, review of Seven Spunky Monkeys, p. 176; August, 2006, Piper L. Nyman, review of Zany Zoo, p. 100; October, 2006, Lynn K. Vanca, review of Batter up Wombat, p. 116.