The Art of Ramona Quimby
by Anna Katz
Hardcover, 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 1452176957
Published by: Chronicle Books
Oh Ramona! How I love her so! If you talked to my 8 year old self, you would know that Beverly Cleary was my favorite author (along with Judy Blume) and that I loved reading the Ramona books, over and over. In fact, my daughter has my copy of Ramona The Brave from the 80's. There's something about the illustration style that takes me back to the carefree days of childhood. In the new book, The Art of Ramona Quimby by Anna Katz (published by Chronicle Books) you get an amazing collection that spans sixty five years of illustrations of Beverly Cleary's most famous girl.
I'm a huge fan of art books because I love to see the behind the scenes and artists' process. The book starts with a brief background of each of the five illustrators: Louis Darling, Alan Tiegreen, Joanne Scribner, Tracy Dockray and Jacqueline Rogers. It then goes in order of the Ramona book series starting with Beezus and Ramona and you are able to see how each illustrator interprets different scenes of the Ramona books as well as how the style of illustration feels more modern, adapting this classic character as time evolves. There are also essays from other children's book authors Annie Barrows (another favorite of mine) and Jacqueline Rogers.
Here are some interiors from The Art of Ramona Quimby:
The book also includes letters in the back Appendices between Beverly Clearly and illustrator Louis Darling in the 1950's. It's amazing to see the friendship and how they both work together to build and show the character of Ramona and Beezus, starting with the first book where Beezus and Ramona are introduced in the book, Henry Huggins. I love this letter showing how Ramona clearly rolls off the pen for Darling to illustrate because he sees "the courage and imagination with which she deals with her many problems..."
This is the only Ramona book that was saved from my collection as a kid. It's the version illustrated by Alan Tiegreen. Most of my books though were the ones illustrated by Joanne Scribner and were one of those classic Dell Yearling paperback books. I think my other books were so worn out and tattered my mom threw them away! It is so fun to see all the different Ramona drawings that all show her independent spirit!
This would make a great gift for the holidays! I for one plan to shop earlier and love giving books as gifts so don't forget to put this book on your holiday list.
Shop The Art of Ramona Quimby at Amazon
Review book provided by Chronicle Books.
