Thomas, Jan 1958-

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Thomas, Jan 1958-

Personal

Born 1958.

Addresses

Home—Sorroco, NM.

Career

Writer and illustrator.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

What Will Fat Cat Sit On?, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2007.

A Birthday for Cow!, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2008.

In the Doghouse, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2008.

Rhyming Dust Bunnies, Atheneum (New York, NY), 2008.

Sidelights

Author and illustrator Jan Thomas is the creator of a series of picture-book tales about farmyard friends. In What Will Fat Cat Sit On?, the farmyard animals are less concerned about where Fat Cat will sit than who will wind up beneath him! A Publishers Weekly critic found the book to be "a rollicking and highly promising debut," while a contributor to Kirkus Reviews dubbed it

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a volume that "toddlers and new readers will reach for again and again." Blair Christolon commented in School Library Journal on the tale's "well-paced, laugh-out-loud humor."

Familiar characters return in A Birthday for Cow! and In the Doghouse. Pig and Mouse bake a cake for Cow in A Birthday for Cow!, while they try to keep Duck from adding an unwanted turnip to the recipe. Thomas's "riotous read-aloud is guaranteed to have them rolling in the aisles," wrote a contributor to Kirkus Reviews. G. Alyssa Parkinson noted in School Library Journal that Thomas's "whimsical story" is "told in simple language." Mouse, Duck, and Pig find themselves entering new territory when cow kicks a ball far afield in In the Doghouse. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted of the same book that Thomas's "successful use of repetition [is] … realized through succinct sentences," making In the Doghouse approachable for new readers.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2007, review of What Will Fat Cat Sit On?; March 1, 2008, review of A Birthday for Cow!; August 1, 2008, review of In the Doghouse.

Publishers Weekly, September 10, 2007, review of What Will Fat Cat Sit On?, p. 59.

School Library Journal, December, 2007, Blair Christolon, review of What Will Fat Cat Sit On?, p. 101; June, 2008, G. Alyssa Parkinson, review of A Birthday for Cow!, p. 114.