Ways of Telling: Fourteen Interviews With Masters of the Art of the Pict: Fourteen Interviews With the Masters of the Art of the Picture Book

by Leonard S. Marcus

A picture book is a dialogue between two worlds: the world of images and the world of words. This is a book of conversations about that beguiling dialogue. In fourteen extraordinary interviews, Leonard S. Marcus, award-winning historian, critic, and scholar of children's literature, draws on the depth of his own rare knowledge and insight to spark thoughtful, personal, and often humorous discussion with artists and writers who have made lasting contributions to the illustrated literature of childhood. Readers of this spirited collection will be rewarded with an appreciation of the hidden artistry and complex legacies that inform and animate the child-sized blocks of type and brilliant colors of a unique genre.

The conversations here present an exciting foray into the creative process. Along the way, in unusually candid exchanges, these picture book makers reveal their clear-sighted approaches, often hard-won, to life, art, and childhood. Ways of Telling will surprise and inspire artist, writers, and anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of a picture book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Art, Writing, Books About Books

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2002

About the author

Leonard S. Marcus is one of the world's leading writers about children's books and their illustrations. His many books include The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy; Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy; Dear Genius; and others. His essays, interviews, and reviews appear in the New York Times Book Review, among other publications. Leonard S. Marcus lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

[Dominika · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great picture book is some kind of magic. And the process behind the magic always fascinates me, so this book felt like it was specifically made for me.

Among my favorites was Iona Opie whom I'd never heard of before. To make a serious study of nursery rhymes your life's work with your spouse--how wonderful is that!?

And James Marshall sounded hilarious. His George and Martha stories have been some of my favorites since I discovered them as a teenager (which I feel like is some high praise for a picture book!)

On the miserable year he spent teaching before he turned to children's books he said, "Have you ever taught high school? You're constantly on from eight in the morning until three. You get so few breaks you're just about dead by the end of the day. I feel so sorry for schoolteachers. They somehow have to have more stamina than the rest of us. I think they become like cockroaches--after a certain point. NOTHING CAN DESTROY THEM."

Made me laugh and feel validated as a former high school teacher longing to quit and do some kind of solitary creative work.

The authors/illustrators interviewed here all got their start at a time when connections seemed easier to make, when social media wasn't a presence preying on the ambitions of artists and forcing them to keep up an online life in competition with one another, and when the picture book market was only starting to gain traction.

Leonard S. Marcus has compiled another book of interviews with more recent acclaimed picture book writers, so I'm curious to see how their emergence into the world of writing and illustrating for children differed from these early picture book creators.

[Rani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read about the craft and creative lives of:

Mitsumasa Anno

Ashley Bryan

Eric Carle

Tana Hoban

Karla Kusin

James Marshall

Robert McCloskey

Iona Opie

Jerry Pinkney

Maurice Sendak

William and Jeanne Steig

Rosemary Wells

Charlotte Zolotow

Great book on the difficult art of writing picture books.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an interesting and well-written read (transcribed interviews between Leonard S. Marcus and 14 illustrators of picture books) but likely most compelling to those readers interested in children's picture books or illustrations. Gave me new insight to the work of illustrators as well as a new way of thinking about some of my favorite children's picture books. Read for work and a children's picture book workshop I'll be attending.

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a lot of illustrations so not a reference book for craft. Great collection of interviews and behind the scenes chats with a lot of illustrators from the 50s to the 90s.

[Previous TCL Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of its format (interview) and because of its subject matter (a catalog of these interviews with some of the most talented and established authors/illustrators of modern children’s book literature). I often feel out-of-place when I see all of the slick young adult fiction (let alone juvenile fiction) that seems to be what the young masses demand these days (I was happy with the Anastasia Krupnik series growing up, for pete’s sake). As the young readers’ palettes have become more discerning (or more commercialized, too, perhaps), these interviews enabled me to better understand why classics are classics, especially within the picture book genre. From the keen minds and hands of those interviewed, works were produced which sought to be both artful and educational. Reading about Eric Carle’s formative years (in America, first, and then later during the late 30s and early 40s in Germany) and their lasting resonance on his work as a graphic artist and children’s book creator was interesting. Insights from James Marshall’s interview underscored for me and problematized the ever-present theme in many of our lives of how our town/country of origin shapes us. His work seems to try to answer, through its off-hand humor and idiosyncratic visual expressiveness, the question of whether we can ever really go home again. Even an artist’s work I do not care for, the later books of Tana Hoban, for instance, gains new relevance through these series of interviews. I came away with more respect for these men and women who aim, in artful ways, to communicate the truth and meaning of the human experience, often in terms of the every-day, to younger children. Commodified teenager vampire romances will certainly find audiences with today’s younger readers. But I hope that these classics (and the likes of Anastasia) will remain accessible; their innovation in terms of structure and form has created the bedrock of the genre’s canon upon which the teen vamps can now have play. But the subjects of these interviews demonstrate why and how the idea of the “new” becomes classicized until it becomes orthodoxy. Maybe the vampires will join them in the old guard one day, but I hope not.

Teton County Library Call No: J 741.64 MARCUS
Review written by: Brie Richardson

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

My journalism background and my passion for children's literature guaranteed that I would enjoy this book which consists of 14 interviews with noted writers and illustrators of picture books. The interviews are short but filled with great information about each subject's childhood and early influences. Sometimes they even delve into the creative process, allowing readers to peek inside the heads of these men and women and explore decisions they made while drawing an illustration or choosing what to leave in and what to leave out. Some even discuss the changes that have occurred in children's books during the last few decades, making this required reading for anyone who wants to understand more about this particular branch of publishing. By the end of the volume, it's hard not to notice the connections among certain authors and illustrators, many of whom worked together on various projects. There are interview with Mitsumasa Anno, Ashley Bryan, Eric Carle, Tana Hoban, Karla Kuskin, James Marshall, Robert McCloskey, Iona Opie, Helen Oxenbury, Jerry Pinkney, Maurice
Sendak, William Steig, Rosemary Wells, and Charlotte Zolotow. The most recent book by Marcus contains interviews with all of these plus seven more. Because this one was published in 2002, it seems a little bit dated ten years later; nevertheless, the literary nuggets it contains are certainly worth gleaning.

[Karen Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent for those who love children's literature

[Joann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful in preparing for the Wilder discussions

[Picture Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the interview with William Steig for my Picture Books as Sequential Art class and it was nice to get an insight into his mind and personality other than through his work.

[Sandy Brehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timeless, terrific conversations with some of the best author/illustrators ever.