Jan Brett

Hopefully, if you read children's literature (specifically picture books), you know the name Jan Brett. She is the author and illustrator of books such as Trouble with Trolls, The Mitten, Annie and the Wild Animals, Comet's Nine Lives, Gingerbread Baby, and The Umbrella, to name a few. What you might not realize is that she has an extensive website that is very educator friendly. There are activity pages, coloring pages, videos, games, recipes, projects, cards and envelopes, and of course, tons of beautiful artwork. In the activity pages section, she has a wealth of resources: alphabet pages, math pages, flash cards, bulletin board printables, High Frequency Word lists, etc.

Here are a few facts about her: (I found these listed on many different websites, too many to cite!)

• Each book begins with the art first.
• Jan likes to listen to audiobooks while drawing--usually thrillers!
• Each book takes about a year to complete. (Take a look at a single page of one, and you'll see why!)
• The pages of each book are not created in sequence (she saves the front materials and endpapers for last).
• Each book is carefully researched--she created The Umbrella after a trip with her husband to Costa Rica.
• Jan prefers to use her memories of a place to create her art, rather than relying on pictures.
  
• By the time she was six years old, she knew she wanted to be a children's book illustrator.
• She is known for very detailed drawings, with glimpses of what is to come in the side illustrations of each page.
  
• If you look carefully, you can often find a hedgehog hiding in the pages of each book!
  

(Click on this one to look at the details of the artwork.)