Root, Kimberly Bulcken

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Root, Kimberly Bulcken

Personal

Married Barry Root (an illustrator); children: Janna, Samuel, Benjamin.

Addresses

Home—Quarryfield, PA.

Career

Illustrator.

Awards, Honors

Notable Book for Children selection, American Library Association (ALA), for Hugh Can Do; Best Illustrated Book selection, New York Times, for When the Whippoorwill Calls; Notable Book for Children selection, ALA, for The Toll-bridge Troll.

Writings

ILLUSTRATOR

Roger B. Goodman, A Bed for the Wind, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1988.

Selma G. Lanes, reteller, Windows of Gold and Other Golden Tales, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1989.

Gerald Milnes, Granny, Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes, Knopf (New York, NY), 1990.

Judith Gorog, In a Messy, Messy Room, Philomel (New York, NY), 1990.

Eric A. Kimmel, reteller, Boots and His Brothers: A Norwegian Tale, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1992.

Jennifer Armstrong, Hugh Can Do, Crown (New York, NY), 1992.

Carol Greene, Beggars, Beasts, and Easter Fire, Lion Publishing (Batavia, IL), 1993.

Patricia Lakin, The Palace of Stars, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1993.

Mary Lee Donovan, Papa's Bedtime Story, Knopf (New York, NY), 1993.

Reeve Lindbergh, If I'd Known Then What I Know Now, Viking (New York, NY), 1994.

Ellin Greene, reteller, Billy Beg and His Bull: An Irish Tale, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1994.

Candice F. Ransom, When the Whippoorwill Calls, Tambourine Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Margaret Hodges, reteller, Gulliver in Lilliput: From Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1995.

Patrica Rae Wolff, The Toll-bridge Troll, Browndeer Press (San Diego, CA), 1995.

Alice McLerran, The Year of the Ranch, Viking (New York, NY), 1996.

Judith Gorog, In a Creepy, Creepy Place and Other Scary Stories, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

Margaret Hodges, The True Tale of Johnny Appleseed, Holiday House (New York, NY), 1997.

Deborah Hopkinson, Birdie's Lighthouse, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1997.

Lady Borton, Junk Pile!, Philomel (New York, NY), 1997.

Alison Cragin Herzig, Bronco Busters, Putnam (New York, NY), 1998.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Understood Betsy, Holt (New York, NY), 1999.

Maxine Rose Schur, The Peddler's Gift, Dial Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Rafe Martin, The Storytelling Princess, Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.

Margaret Hodges, reteller, The Wee Christmas Cabin, Holiday House (New York, NY), 2001.

Robert D. San Souci, The Birds of Killingworth: Based on a Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dial Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Roni Schotter, In the Piney Woods, Melanie Kroupa Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Jean Whitehouse Peterson, Don't Forget Winona, Joanna Cotler Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Yona Zeldis McDonough, The Doll with the Yellow Star, Holt (New York, NY), 2005.

Amy Littlesugar, Clown Child, Philomel (New York, NY), 2006.

Susan Fletcher, Dadblamed Union Army Cow, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

Sidelights

Kimberly Bulcken Root is an award-winning illustrator of children's books. One of her early efforts, Granny, Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes by Gerald Milnes, contains more than fifty poems from the Appalachian region. Root's watercolor illustrations "extend the action, exuberance and high spirits of the rhymes," noted a contributor to Publishers Weekly. The artist also drew praised for her contributions to Eric A. Kimmel's retelling Boots and His Brothers: A Norwegian Tale. Root's deeply shadowed, brooding illustrations, reminiscent of Henrik Drescher …, add welcome theatrics" to the work, a contributor in Publishers Weekly remarked.

Root has more recently provided the artwork for Jennifer Armstrong's debut picture book, Hugh Can Do, about a cheerful lad who overcomes a series of challenges to earn his fortune. Here the illustrator "handsomely alternates small spots of Hugh dashing about his tasks with emotive, full-page scenes," noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer. A young boy recounts his father's disastrous yet comical attempts at home repair in Reeve Lindbergh's If I'd Known Then What I Know Now. The lyrical narrative "is eminently readable, and Root makes hay with it, producing a collection of wonderfully exaggerated, sophisticated illustrations," another Publishers Weekly critic remarked.

In Candice F. Ransom's When the Whippoorwill Calls, a family of tenant farmers is uprooted from its home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. According to Booklist critic Julie Yates Walton, "Root's delicate, muted watercolor illustrations exude nostalgia and deepen the pathos" of Ransom's tale. The Toll-bridge Troll, a humorous story by Patricia Rae Wolff, concerns a clever youngster's scheme to outwit a demanding troll. "Root's attractive pen-and-watercolor paintings gracefully blend quaint and contemporary elements," Leone McDermott stated in Booklist, and a contributor in Publishers Weekly commented that the "visual eccentricities help the reader believe in the fantastical world so deftly created here."

Set in Arizona in 1919, Alice McLerran's The Year of the Ranch focuses on a family of homesteaders who must cope with sandstorms and rattlesnakes. "Root's watercolors capture the vibrant and ever-changing palette of bright stars and sumptuous sunsets found in the desert landscape," a Publishers Weekly reviewer observed. During a wild storm, a youngster keeps the oil lamps burning when her father falls ill in Birdie's Lighthouse, a work by Deborah Hopkinson. Fine, meticulous strokes and a preponderance of shadowy blues and grays give Root's pen-and-ink and watercolor pictures the look of etchings," noted a critic in Publishers Weekly.

In Junk Pile!, a story by Lady Borton, a shy little girl uses her knowledge of car parts to make a new friend. "Root's line-and-watercolor illustrations perfectly express the intricate glory of the junkyard stuff," observed Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman. A quiet cowboy shows a trio of roughnecks how to tame a pony in Alison Cragin Herzig's Bronco Busters. Root's "snapshots of the bronco-busting business in a dusty Wild West palette fairly burst out of their oval," a Publishers Weekly contributor stated.

In The Storytelling Princess, a work by Rafe Martin, a spunky princess who refuses to participate in an arranged marriage disguises herself as a sailor and finds true love. "Watercolor-and-pencil illustrations in subtle hues with highlights of gold and red cleverly capture the nature of the characters and the essence of the action," wrote School Library Journal critic Starr LaTronica.

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A fable with an environmental theme, Robert D. San Souci's The Birds of Killingworth: Based on a Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow concerns the misguided efforts of colonial villagers to destroy the birds that damage their crops. According to School Library Journal contributor Nancy Palmer, Root's pictures "are full of watery color and period detail, enriching the natural setting and tempering the cautionary tale with humor and humanity."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1994, Carolyn Phelan, review of Billy Beg and His Bull: An Irish Tale, p. 1264; April 15, 1995, Leone McDermott, review of The Toll-bridge Troll, p. 1508; April 15, 1995, Hazel Rochman, review of Gulliver in Lilliput: From Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, p. 1500; September 15, 1995, Julie Yates Walton, review of When the Whippoorwill Calls, p. 176; July, 1996, Susan Dove Lempke, review of The Year of the Ranch, p. 1830; June 1, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Birdie's Lighthouse, p. 1718; April 15, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Junk Pile!, p. 1433; July, 1997, Carolyn Phelan, review of The True Tale of Johnny Appleseed, p. 1820; September 15, 1998, Kay Weisman, review of Bronco Busters, p. 237; October 1, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of The Peddler's Gift, p. 375; July, 2003, Carolyn Phelan, review of In the Piney Woods, p. 1898.

Publishers Weekly, November 16, 1990, review of Granny Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes, p. 58; Feb 10, 1992, review of Boots and His Brothers: A Norwegian Tale, p. 80; June 29, 1992, review of Hugh Can Do, p. 62; March 22, 1993, review of Papa's Bedtime Story, p. 78; September 13, 1993, review of The Palace of Stars, p. 132; May 9, 1994, review of If I'd Known Then What I Know Now, p. 71; March 6, 1995, review of Gulliver in Lilliput, p. 69; April 17, 1995, review of The Toll-bridge Troll, p. 57; June 10, 1996, review of The Year of the Ranch, p. 98; February 10, 1997, review of Junk Pile!, p. 83; April 14, 1997, review of Birdie's Lighthouse, p. 74; September 21, 1998, review of Bronco Busters, p. 84; September 27, 1999, review of The Peddler's Gift, p. 52; June 25, 2001, review of The Storytelling Princess, p. 72; April 15, 2002, review of The Birds of Killingsworth: Based on a Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, p. 63; November 25, 2002, review of In the Piney Woods, p. 67.

School Library Journal, September, 2001, Starr LaTronica, review of The Storytelling Princess, p. 199; August, 2002, Nancy Palmer, The Birds of Killingworth: Based on a Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, p. 168; April, 2003, Jane Marino, review of In the Piney Woods, p. 137.