Featured Authors or Illustrators are selected each month and archived here. Check back often to find more suggestions for great reading.
To view previous months, please click on the dates below:
November 2009
John Burningham
Brief Biography
John Burningham was born in Surrey, England in 1936. He studied at the Central School of Art in the 1950s and then worked designing posters for London Transport and the British Transport Commission. He spent a year working on an animated puppet film in the Middle East before becoming a writer and illustrator of children's books. His first book Borka: The Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers won the 1963 Kate Greenaway Medal (the British equivalent of America's Caldecott Medal for children's book illustration). Burningham won a second Kate Greenaway Medal in 1970 with Mr. Gumpy's Outing. John Burningham lives in Hampstead with his wife, author/illustrator Helen Gillian Oxenbury. John Burningham has written and/or illustrated more than 60 children's Books.
Mr. Gumpy's Outing (1970)
When Mr. Gumpy decides to go out for a boat ride, everyone wants to come along. The kind Mr. Gumpy allows them to come provided they each behave: the children mustn't squabble, the rabbit mustn't hop, the cat mustn't chase the rabbit nor the dog tease the cat. The other farm animals also come along: pig, calf, sheep, chickens and goat. They go along quite happily, until the goat kicks, starting off a chain reaction which leads to the breaking of every provision and the ultimate tipping of the boat. Mr. Gumpy's cheerful acceptance of the inevitability followed by tea and an invitation to a ride another day makes for a fun and happy tale.
Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car (1973)
When Mr. Gumpy decides to go for a ride in his lovely new red car, of course, everyone else wants to come along. Mr. Gumpy gladly lets them join him on his drive, warning them "it will be a squash." The day progresses nicely, until rain leads to the car being stuck in the mud. Each creature has a reason not to help push the car out of the mud, but Mr. Gumpy's days have a way of turning out happily. As much fun as Mr. Gumpy's Outing with added mud.
Would You Rather (1978)
John Burningham puts his readers' imaginations to work, asking them a serious of ^"would you rather questions" accompanied by his humorous illustrations, beginning with "Would you rather your house were surrounded by water, snow, or jungle?" and ending with "Would you rather live with. . . a gerbil in a cage? A fish in a bowl? A parrot on a perch? A rabbit in a hutch? A dog in a kennel? Or perhaps you would rather just go to sleep in your own bed!" This picture book is wonderfully interactive, giving opportunity for all the listeners to express and discuss their own preferences about where to live, the best places to be lost, what disgusting foods they'd prefer to eat, and what they might be willing to do to make a couple bucks.
It's A Secret (2009)
John Burningham delves into the secret lives of Cats. Marie Elaine wonders where cats go at night. Late one night, she discovers her own cat, Malcolm, dressed up and ready to go out. Marie Elaine begs to go along. Soon Malcolm, Marie Elaine, and her next door neighbor, Norman, are traversing the city to attend a secret rooftop cat party.
John Patrick Norman McHennessy: The Boy Who Was Always Late
(originally published in 1987, reprinted in 2008)
(One of The Children's Bookstore Staff's Favorite Picture Books of 2008)
John Patrick Norman McHennessy always set off in time to learn, unfortunately something unusual always happened to him on the way—crocodiles, lions, and tidal waves, but his professor never believed him and punished him for telling lies. This fun story is an excellent example of the subversive in children's picture books.
Time to get out of the bath, Shirley (1978)
Shirley's mother has just gotten Shirley into the bath. As Shirley's mother does mother things: tells Shirley she should bathe more often and reminds her not to leave the soap in the tub and crawls around picking up Shirley's discarded clothing, Shirley has a wonderful adventure. She rides her rubber ducky down the bathtub drain and out through a sewer into a river, jumps into a tree to save herself from a waterfall, is rescued by a knight and taken to the castle where she meets the king and queen. They spy her abandoned rubber ducky in the river and the king and queen blow up their own rubber duckies and the three of them go out to play on the water together.
Come away from the water, Shirley (1977)
Shirley and her parents go to the beach for a day, but it is far too cold for swimming. As Shirley's mother's monologue goes on through the day, Shirley meets a dog, rows out to the ocean in a boat, is captured by pirates, steals their treasure map and escapes, discovers buried treasure and rows back home again just in time for she and her parents to go home together.
Several other John Burningham books to look at: Aldo, Avocado Baby, Courtney, Granpa.