{Jan Brett

Berenice Soto, Kayleen Muchler, Devin Wilson, Rebecca Johnson

In her studio…

Jan Brett has always wanted to be an illustrator to make images and ideas in her mind a reality.

“When I was I child, I decided to be an illustrator. I spent many hours reading and drawing. I remember the special quiet of rainy days, when I felt that I could enter the pages of beautiful picture books. Now I try to re-create that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real.”

She has 3 kids (all grown): one is a scientist, one is a Captain in the Marines and the other is an art historian.

Chickens, hedgehogs and horses are her favorite animals.

Illustrating is her passion and she can't stop herself from drawing. 

She does not particularly enjoy writing and sets a timer for an hour when she has to.

Loves the winter because the snow transforms everything familiar and "the birds look like jewels."

She doesn't have a TV. She claims to never have writer's block because she

just has so many ideas that she can't focus.

Her Life

 Today she and her husband live near Norwell, Massachusetts and she raises chickens and ducks. She also has a hedgehog named Buffy.

She loves her chickens and has multiple varieties. Total she has about 60 chickens. She also has about 10 ducks.

She has such a love and appreciation for them that she incorporates them into her books and spends a lot of her time with them.

She takes her chickens to shows all around the country and she also gives presentations to children about how to care for them.

Jan participates in 4-H and shares how to prepare her chickens for shows.

Most of her chickens she gets through bartering. The chickens that aren't fit for shows, she sells for $15. For Jan, the chickens calm her down and she spends time with them

before she works.

Hobbies

She attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts where she took odd jobs from painting restaurant names to painting ladies' pocket books.

She got into her first book deal by familiarizing publishers with her portfolio. The result of this was her artwork being published in a book called Woodland Crossings written by another author.

After success as an illustrator an editor persuaded her to write and illustrate children's books. Her first work was published in 1981: Fritz and the Beautiful Horses.

Her books including Fritz and the Beautiful Horses contain two stories in one book. The borders surrounding the pictures hold clues to what is going to happen next in the story.

Early Career

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4taOAFR2POg

She has written and illustrated many of her own books Daisy comes home Hedgie’s surprise

She has retold and illustrated many books Goldilocks and the three bears Town mouse, country mouse

She has illustrated several books by other authors The owl and the pussycat

Her Passion

When she has an idea for a book, she has to go find out everything she can

This means that she has chickens in her backyard and has own 3 hedgehogs over the years

She has also traveled to many places from the Arctic Circle to Africa

Writing

She begins with light pencil sketches and then uses watercolors when illustrating.

She is well known for her special borders, which are characterized in all of her books. These borders provide hints towards what will happen next, and also add depth to the entire experience.

These elaborate illustrations are very involved in each book. She mainly uses animals in her stories, and tries to portray settings that she has personally experienced.

Illustrating

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQkQjs3KPU

Point of view- 1st person Setting- Winter, on a mountain Characters- Treva (the girl), Tuffi (the dog) and 5 trolls Theme- Trolls are not good things to mess with Plot- Treva and Tuffi try to climb the mountain, but

keep getting waylaid by trolls who want the dog. By keeping a cool head and tricking the trolls, Treva is able to escape them and she and Tuffi get safely down the other side.

Trouble With Trolls

Point of View: Third Person Setting: Cloud Forest in Costa Rics Characters: Carlos, his father, a frog, tapir, toucan,

kinkajou, quetzal, monkey, jaguar, and a hummingbird. Theme: Things are not always as they seem. Plot: Carlos goes into the rainforest to look at animals

and to explore. He decides to climb a tree, leaving his umbrella behind. Soon after, a frog hops into the umbrella to claim it as his home. Through a wild series of event, all of the animals are in that small umbrella. When a hummingbird lands on it, the entire umbrella sinks into a puddle, forcing all of the animals to get out and find somewhere else to go. After a rather unadventurous day, Carlos finds nothing and goes home with no knowledge of this event.

The Umbrella

Point of View: Third Person Setting: Santa's Winterfarm Characters: Teeka, Santa, Reindeer (Bramble, Heather, Windswept, Lichen,

Snowball, Crag, Twilight, and Tundra) Theme: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Plot: Santa has asked Teeka, a little girl who lived in the Artic in the shadow

of Santa's Winterfarm, to prepare the reindeer for the Christmas Eve flight. So, Teeka goes out into the tundra to search for the reindeer to bring them back in for training. Soon she finds Bramble and Heather, Windswept and Lichen, Snowball and Crag, and Twilight and Tundra and brings them all back to the Winterfarm. She puts them all in the barn, in different stalls, and leaves them for the night. The next morning it is chaos because none of them were near their favorite friend. When she finally gets them settled down she grooms them. After grooming she takes them outside for training which also turns into a disaster. They all run wild and get into all sorts of trouble. At the end of the disaster training she decides she's going to train a new way. With the new training, with a soft voice and gentle touch instead of yelling, the reindeer trained much easier. It was all well from there on out.

Wild Christmas Reindeer

Point of View: Third Person Setting: Africa Characters: Mimbi, Pimbi, and Timbi Theme: Working hard will pay off in the end. Plot: This is about three sisters who have to

move out of their house. Each builds their own home (grass, sticks, stone). In the end, the one with the stone house is protected from the eagle who is trying to eat them.

The Three Little Dassies

"Bursting with energy and fine detail... playful and funny, with a valiant female protagonist, this is a first-rate read, wintertime or anytime." - Booklist, starred review. (Trouble with Trolls)

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Trolls-Jan-Brett/dp/0698117913/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361410031&sr=1-7&keywords=Jan+Brett#reader_0698117913

"This playful retelling is certain to become a favorite." - Booklist

"A truly delightful book." - Children's Book Review Service Both of these are for Town Mouse Country Mouse

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Town-Mouse-Country-Jan-Brett/dp/069811986X/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361410031&sr=1-9&keywords=Jan+Brett#reader_069811986X

 

Criticisms

"Jan Brett's full-color artwork sparkles in intricate detail across every page of this exceptional picture book about Fritz, a sure-footed pony who finally gets the chance to shine in his own best way." - Publisher's Weekly (Fritz and the Beautiful Horses

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Fritz-Beautiful-Horses-Sandpiper-Books/dp/0395453569/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361410031&sr=1-12&keywords=Jan+Brett#reader_0395453569

"The magnificent illustrations make this book worth owning." - American Bookseller ("Pick of the Lists")

"A nice bit of imagining, and no one can say it didn't happen." - The New Yorker

Both of these are from The First Dog Source:

http://www.amazon.com/First-Dog-Jan-Brett/dp/0152276513/ref=sr_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361410505&sr=1-18&keywords=Jan+Brett#reader_0152276513

http://thecabin.net/stories/010601/fea_010601003.shtml (livingthecountrylife.com) united.k12.il.us/jeyler/personal/

jbrettauthorstudyjeyler.pdf

Sources