HIT: Illustrators Who Hide Things

[Cathy Rae <crae@ptdprolog.net>]

This was fun to compile!  I did lots of cutting and pasting.  It often
required putting information from several people together to make a
complete answer for the illustrator.  Thanks to:  Elaine Rehm,
CAtkins, Faith Van Putte, Jennifer Brown, Susan Grigsby, Kendall
McCurdy, Cindy Mitchell, Nelsen Spickard, Dee Ann Merhoff, Kathy
Grout, Carolyn I Gundrum, Lawrence Newton, Anita Drain, Lisa Jessup,
Sarah C. Latcham, Jon Noble, Karen Ammirati, Debby Baumgartner, Jody
Newman, Mary P. Sundberg, Darla T. Minuth, A.D. Katzer, Pat Mathews,
Maureen S. Irwin, Laurie Woodfin, Nkellner, Esther Schnaidman, Mrs.
Harrow Strickland, Larraine Elcock, Mary Buitendorp, Jo Ann Loberg,
Beth McDonough, Helen Bicknell, Charlotte Snyder, Cindy Dobrez, Chris
Crouch, Nancy Stearns, Shari Menke.


HIT: Illustrators Who Hide Things

There is a white terrier (white dog with a black patch on one eye),
named Fritz, somewhere within Chris Van Allsburg's books.  The dog was
a character in his first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.  In one
book he is a puppet, in another, a pull toy, and in one book he is
the label of a bottle! (Mary Buitendorp noted: It was the dog of one
of his relatives.  I saw him several years ago in Grand Rapids, MI,
for an appearance in his home town and he had the dog with him.

Jan Brett hides a hedgehog in all her stories, sometimes one on each
page. Once it was the French name for hedgehog, usually it's a 'real'
or toy one.  Jan Brett always has some activity in her margins--some
more obvious than others.

Mercer Mayer has a cricket/grasshopper/mouse/spider in the
illustations of his Little Critter books.

Don and Audrey Wood put their son in every book.

Steven Kellogg usually hides Pinkerton in his illustrations.

Maurice Sendak always puts his scottish terrier, "Scottie," somewhere
in his books.

Marc Brown hides his children's names in his illustrations.  It
started with Tolon and Tucker and now includes his daughter Eliza.
Their friends names appear in some, too.

James Marshall hides the flag of Texas in his books.

Mark Buehner (Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm, A Job For Wittilda, My
Life With the Wave, etc.) hides animals in his illustrations.  Usually
you can always find a black cat, a dog, a rabbit and various other
animals.

We had Jerry Pallotta come last year and present his alphabet books
to us. He often has Ralph Masiello do his illustrations and Ralph
hides pictures of Jerry and others in his artwork. I don't remember
which of the books has the hidden photos but I think most of them do.

Graham Base - In Eleventh Hour there are interesting clues to help
solve the mystery of the story.  Anamailia is an alphabet book with
hundreds of pictures on each page for each letter. But also on each
page he has hidden a young boy in blue pants and a striped shirt
(its supposed to be him as a child).

Donald Crews hides the year the book was created in his books.  Look
on license tags, and other places.  Also, in _Night at the fair_-- he
has put a picture of himself in the book--looks just like the author
picture on the flap.

Anno's Journey--M. Anno--has lots of things to look for in his
illustrations, such as fairy tale characters. Anno's books (Anno's
Journey, Anno's USA, Anno's Italy) all have the man on a horse in
every scene along with lots of optical tricks, hidden paintings and
literary scenes.

Mike Wilks, whose books are puzzle type anyway (eg The Ultimate
Alphabet Book, the Ultimate Noah's Ark) always includes a picture of
himself and a snail in every picture. In the Ultimate Noah's Ark,
which has one picture broken up into a number of panels for the
illustrations, his picture is only in one panel, but the snail
is in every one.

I just saw Tim Egan speak on Saturday and he said he likes to hide
things in his illustrations. He hides different family names, spoofs
on famous art, etc.

Elaine Livermore has 4 books (Find the Cat (op), Looking for Henry ,
Follow the Fox, and Three Little Kittens) in which you have to search
for different things--but the books are similar in idea to the "I Spy"
books. (Still fun for kids.)

In Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, Goldbug is
hidden in every picture (2 page spread).

Ahlberg's Each Peach, Pear, Plum is yet another.  Fairy tale and
nursery rhyme characters hide on the pages.

In the Caldecott version of Rapunzel, the cat is on every page and it
grows as the book progresses.

Way Out in the Desert by Marsh and Ward. It's a counting book (7
scorpions, 8 somethings, 9 coyotes, etc.) with beautiful, bold
illustrations of the animals.   On each page, the number of animals is
hidden somewhere in the picture (on the 9 coyotes, one of the puppies'
tails curves into a very recognizable "9").  Also, the text
is rhyming and rhythmic.  "Way out in the desert ..." is spoken to the
cadence of  "Over in the meadow."  The text is factually accurate and
there is a glossary in the back of all the animals in the book.

Anthony Browne's PIGGYBOOK-- As you get deeper and deeper in the
story, more and more pigs are integrated into his pictures.

Trina Schart Hyman hides stuff in her pictures.  Sometimes it is
wildly inappropriate (King Stork).

The person who wrote TIME FOR BED and GOODNIGHT GORILLA, references
his other books in his pictures.

A nut is hidden in each illustration of Elephants Aloft
by Kathi Appelt, Keith Baker (Illustrator).

Look for a scarecrow hidden on each page of the Waltz of the
Scarecrows by Constance McGeorge.

Find Hilary Knight's Wallace in "Where's Wallace."

There is a mouse in all the colour illustrations in Goodnight Moon.
Also, the mouse moves all around the room, and the clock changes time
(it takes an hour to get that bunny settled down!)

Some Snug Slug has S shapes in the illustrations.

One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root, there is a branch with a leaf that
gets closer and closer to the duck until he is finally able to step on
it
and get out of the muck.  Phyllis Root herself pointed this out to me.

After many years of reading Caps for Sale one of the children said
"look at the big hand"  -- I had to take a second look and sure enough
the tree trunk looks very much like a hand.  I don't know if the
illustrator did this on purpose or not but it is definetly there.

 " The Biggest Best Snowman" by  Cuyler, has the animals roll the
snowball and it spells out snowman in the snow.

More adult is Al Hirschfield who hides his daughter's name-Nina-in his
media artwork for Broadway shows, etc.


--
**~|~**~|~**~|~**~|~**~|~**~|~**~|~**
Cathy Rae, Library Media Specialist
Harry S Truman Elementary School
1400 Gaskill Ave.
Allentown, PA   18103
crae@ptdprolog.net
crae@stsd.org

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