Whatley, Bruce 1954-

Personal

Born 1954, in Wales; married Rosie Smith (an author); children: Ben, Ellyn. Education: Manchester Polytechnic, B.A. (illustration), 1975; study toward Ph.D.

Addresses

Home and office—New South Wales, Australia.

Career

Author and illustrator. Worked in advertising as an art director in London, England, 1775-80, and Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Awards, Honors

Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Notable Picture Book designation, 1993, for The Ugliest Dog in the World; CBCA Picture Book of the Year award shortlist, 1993, for Looking for Crabs, and 2003, for The Diary of a Wombat; CBCA Picture Book of the Year Honor designation, 1998, for Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Looking for Crabs, Angus & Robertson (North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia), 1992.

The Ugliest Dog in the World, Angus & Robertson (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1992.

I Wanna Be Famous, Angus & Robertson (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1993.

The Magic Dictionary, Angus & Robertson (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1993.

The Magnetic Dog, Angus & Robertson (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1994.

(With Rosie Smith) Whatley's Quest, Angus & Robertson (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1994.

(With Rosie Smith) Tails from Grandad's Attic, Angus & Robertson (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 1996.

(And adaptor) Betty MacDonald, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Won't-Take-a-Bath Cure, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

(And adaptor) Betty MacDonald, The Won't-Pick-up-Toys Cure, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Rosie Smith) Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

My First Nursery Rhymes, HarperFestival (New York, NY), 1999.

The Flying Emu, Koala Books (Mascot, New South Wales, Australia), 1999.

The Boing Boing Races, Koala Books (Mascot, New South Wales, Australia), 1999.

Elvis Presley's The First Noel, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Rosie Smith) Captain Pajamas, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Rosie Smith) Little White Dogs Can't Jump, Angus & Robertson (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 2001.

Wait! No Paint!, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

Cowboy Pirate, HarperCollins (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 2001.

(With Gary Crew) Quetta, Lothian (South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 2002.

Dragons of Galapagos, Lothian (South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 2003.

(With Gary Crew) Lantern, Hatchette (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2005.

The Watchmaker Who Saved Christmas, Random House Australia (Milsons Point, New South Wales, Australia), 2006.

(With Rosie Smith) The Adventures of Danny da Vinci and the Giant Horse of Milan, ABC Books (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2007.

ILLUSTRATOR

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, arrangers, The Teddy Bears' Picnic, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

Clement C. Moore, The Night before Christmas, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

Jerry Garcia, There Ain't No Bugs on Me, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

Jerry Garcia, What Will You Wear, Jenny Jenkins?, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.

Rolf Harris and John D. Brown, Six White Boomers (with recording), Margaret Hamilton Books (Hunters Hill, New South Wales, Australia), 2001.

Cecil Frances Alexander, All Things Bright and Beautiful, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

Jackie French, Diary of a Wombat, Clarion (New York, NY), 2002.

Gene Autry, Here Comes Santa Claus, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

Maribeth Boelts, Lullaby Lullabook, HarperFestival (New York, NY), 2002.

Jackie French, Too Many Pears!, Star Bright Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Margie Palatini, The Perfect Pet, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Emily Brenner, On the First Day of Grade School, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

Jackie French, Pete the Sheep-Sheep, HarperCollins (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 2004, Clarion (New York, NY), 2005.

John Rox, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

Beth Raisner Glass and Susan Lubner, Noises at Night, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2005.

Jackie French, The Secret World of Wombats, Angus & Robertson (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 2005.

Gary Crew, Pig on the Titanic: A True Story!, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

A.B. Banjo Paterson, Mulga Bill's Bicycle, and Other Classics, ABC Books (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2005.

Jackie French, Josephine Wants to Dance, HarperCollins (Pymble, New South Wales, Australia), 2006.

Nette Hilton, The Smallest Bilby and the Midnight Star, Working Title Press (Kingswood, South Australia, Australia), 2006.

Susan Lubner, Ruthie Bon Bair, Abrams (New York, NY), 2006.

Nette Hilton, The Smallest Bilby and the Easter Games, Working Title Press (Kingswood, South Australia, Australia), 2007.

Sidelights

Although artist Bruce Whatley could not read until he was ten years old, that did not stop him from building a successful career as an author of children's books such as Whatley's Quest, Wait! No Paint!, and The Watchmaker Who Saved Christmas. Immigrating to Australia with his family when he was a young boy, Whatley spent time working in the United Kingdom and the United States before settling in New South Wales, Australia, with his wife and coauthor, Rosie Smith. While he still struggles with reading, he has developed a passion for telling stories. "I mainly like to make people laugh," he explained on the HarperCollins Web site. "I like to entertain but subtly take the reader somewhere unexpected. You can't beat a good twist at the end, and I strive to make those last few pages a total surprise."

A collaboration with Smith, Whatley's Quest features hidden pictures that go with each letter of the alphabet. The book contains no text; instead, "readers" are encouraged to create their own stories using the images found on each page. Whatley and Smith include a sample story on the book's dust jacket that serves as a guide for readers inexperienced at mining story ideas. Whatley's Quest "is a treat for the eye and a most satisfactory launching pad for literacy," concluded a Publishers Weekly contributor, and Stephanie Zvirin wrote in Booklist that the coauthors' "oversized picture book certainly isn't a traditional ABC." Noting that the book is among his own favorites, Whatley added on the HarperCollins Web site that Whatley's Quest "is a journey through the alphabet in search of a hidden treasure: the ability to read." "It was the hardest story to write, and yet it has no words," he added.

For Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase Whatley and Smith draw on such well-known classic detective films as The Maltese Falcon, creating an entertaining mystery for young readers. "Artfully strewn with inventive details," Whatley's illustrations "evoke a bygone film era," according to a contributor for Publishers Weekly. In Captain Pajamas, another Whatley-Smith collaboration, Brian is convinced that aliens are invading his home town. To stop the advancing menace, the rambunctious boy assumes the persona of Captain Pajamas, Defender of the Universe. "Lots of sly details make this a book kids can look at more than once—and giggle at each time," wrote Irene Cooper in her Booklist review.

One of Whatley's solo efforts, Wait! No Paint!, is a fractured-fairytale version of the Three Little Pigs saga. While some elements will be familiar, the real story is that the illustrator, known as the Voice, has run out of red paint. He attempts to use several different colors to paint the poor pigs before deciding they should be characters in a different story all together. "The book will be of great help in starting discussions on what an illustrator does," commented Debbie Stewart in School Library Journal. Discussing another of Whatley's solo efforts, the nonfiction Dragons of Galapagos, Kathryn Kosiorek noted in School Library Journal that his "representational style is bold," and serves up an effective match for the "spare, descriptive text" used to describe the journey of a Galapagos dragon to safe hatching grounds.

Along with his self-illustrated and coauthored works, Whatley has provided illustrations for a number of texts by other writers using his characteristic variety of mediums: gouache, pen and ink, and watercolor. He teamed up with fellow Australian Jackie French on a number of books, among them Diary of a Wombat and Too Many Pears! The former is told through the voice of a wombat as he explains his daily routine. Noting that the wombat diarist is captured in many distinct poses, a Publishers Weekly critic praised Whatley for his ability to "give … the star expressive eyes without anthropomorphizing her." A Kirkus Reviews contributor felt that the illustrations "provide the perfect counterpoint to French's deadpan narration." In Too Many Pears!, Pamela the cow eats so much of the sweet fruit that her owners worry that there will be no pears left for them to eat. Young Amy comes up with a solution: give Pamela all the pears she wants and hope she will become bored with them. According to Maryann H. Owen, writing in School Library Journal, the "facial expressions on humans and cow are priceless." Another collaboration between French and Whatley, Pete the Sheep-Sheep, is a story about learning to accept others' differences … including their haircuts. "Most of the fun in the ink-and-watercolor drawings comes from the expressions on the sheeps' faces," Ilene Cooper noted in Booklist, echoing the opinion of several other critics.

Whatley worked with well-known Australian writer Gary Crew in producing Pig on the Titanic: A True Story. A passenger named Edith Rosenbaum carries her musical toy pig onto the doomed Titanic ocean liner, and through Edith readers learn the story of those who survived that ship's tragic fate. "Whatley's realistic watercolors showcase the grandeur and opulence of the doomed ship," wrote Grace Oliff in her School Library Journal review. A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented on "Whatley's crisply detailed constructions," and a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that the illustrator "lavishes attention on every inch of the scenes."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1995, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Whatley's Quest, p. 158; February 1, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of My First Nursery Rhymes, p. 997; August, 1999, Ilene Cooper, review of There Ain't No Bugs on Me, p. 2060; September 1, 1999, Susan Dove Lempke, review of The Night before Christmas, p. 148; May 15, 2000, Irene Cooper, review of Captain Pajamas, p. 1750; August, 2001, Helen Rosenberg, review of Wait! No Paint!, p. 2133; October 1, 2002, Carolyn Phelan, review of Here Comes Santa Claus, p. 328; July, 2003, Helen Rosenbert, review of The Perfect Pet, p. 1898; August, 2004, Jennifer Mattson, review of On the First Day of Grade School, p. 1947; June 1, 2005, Julie Cummins, review of Pig on the Titanic: A True Story!, p. 1820; January 1, 2006, Ilene Cooper, review of Pete the Sheep-Sheep, p. 112.

Horn Book, September, 2001, review of Wait! No Paint! p. 580; January-February, 2006, Kitty Flynn, review of Pete the Sheep-Sheep, p. 68.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2002, review of Here Comes Santa Claus, p. 1615; March 15, 2003, review of The Perfect Pet, p. 475; July 15, 2003, review of Diary of a Wombat, p. 963; June 1, 2004, review of On the First Day of Grade School, p. 534; March 1, 2005, review of Pig on the Titanic, p. 285; October 1, 2005, review of Noises at Night, p. 1080; November 1, 2005, review of I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, p. 1196; September 15, 2006, review of Ruthie Bon Bair, p. 960.

New Yorker, November 27, 1995, review of Whatley's Quest, p. 98.

Publishers Weekly, September 4, 1995, review of Whatley's Quest, p. 68; July 29, 1996, review of The Teddy Bears' Picnic, p. 41; April 14, 1997, review of Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase, p. 74; May 10, 1999, review of There Ain't No Bugs on Me, p. 67; May 17, 1999, review of Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase, p. 81; September 27, 1999, reviews of The Night before Christmas, p. 53, and Elvis Presley's The First Noel, p. 54; June 19, 2000, review of Captain Pajamas, p. 78; July 21, 2003, review of Diary of a Wombat, p. 193; April 11, 2005, review of Pig on the Titanic, p. 55; August 1, 2005, review of Noises at Night, p. 64.

School Library Journal, January, 1996, JoAnn Rees, review of Whatley's Quest, p. 98; July, 2001, Debbie Stewart, review of Wait! No Paint!, p. 91; October, 2002, Maureen Wade, review of Here Comes Santa Claus, p. 56; May, 2003, review of The Perfect Pet, p. 128; August, 2003, Gay Lynn Van Vleck, review of Diary of a Wombat, p. 128; November, 2003, Mary- ann H. Owen, review of Too Many Pears!, p. 93; January, 2004, Kathryn Kosiorek, review of Dragons of Galapagos, p. 107; July, 2004, Lisa Gangemi Kropp, review of On the First Day of Grade School, p. 68; May, 2005, Grace Oliff, review of Pig on the Titanic, p. 80; November, 2005, Grace Oliff, review of Pete the Sheep-Sheep, p. 90.

ONLINE

AustList, http://www.austlist.edu.au/ (February 23, 2007), "Bruce Whatley."

Department of Education and Training of the Government of Western Australia Web site,http://www.det.wa.edu.au/ (February 23, 2007), "Bruce Whatley."

HarperCollins Web site,http://www.harpercollins.com/ (February 23, 2007), "Bruce Whatley."

Lateral Learning Speaker's Agency Web site,http://www.laterallearning.com/ (February 27, 2007), "Bruce Whatley."