Yale Grad Who Took A Class With Maurice Sendak—

Caldecott-Winning Children’s Illustrator

Will Be In Newtown This Weekend

By Shannon Hicks

Paul O. Zelinsky, one of the most highly awarded children’s book illustrators working in the field of children’s literature, will be the guest of Booth Library Authors Fund on Sunday, June 10, at C.H. Booth Library in Newtown.

Mr Zelinsky will be in the library’s meeting room at 2 pm for a free program during which he will discuss and show some of his works. Artists, teachers, any adults interested in the world of children’s books, and high school and middle school students curious about the career realities of illustrating and publishing, are all invited to listen to and meet the artist.

(Please note, this is not a toddler story hour.)

Paul Zelinsky won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for Rapunzel, which he retold and illustrated for a 1997 Dutton Children’s Books release. Mr Zelinsky used his talents to retell the classic German folk tale and then illustrated each page of his book with sumptuous paintings in the style of a Renaissance master.

“He paints like an Old Master, using underpainting and glazing techniques,” Newtown resident and Booth Authors Fund founder Bruce Degen said this week. “These styles give an artist a real depth to their work. It’s what gives oil painting its depth and luminosity.

“Paul’s work is not slap-dash at all,” Mr Degen, who is also a highly respected children’s book author and illustrator, continued. “His is the kind that is really worked on. He does humorous and lighter pictures for some of his books [as opposed to the serious presentations in Rapunzel, Rumplestiltskin, and other books Mr Zelinsky has illustrated], but it is all done very seriously.”

Mr Zelinsky has done illustration work on a number of books by Beverly Cleary, including Dear Mr Henshaw, Runaway Ralph, Ralph S. Mouse, Strider, and The Mouse and the Motorcycle, for which he was co-illustrator. He has illustrated books by E. Nesbit, Mirra Ginsberg, and Rika Lesser, and also did the illustrations for The Random House Book of Humor for Children, a collection of 34 stories by everyone from Judy Blume and Richard Peck to Mark Twain.

Mr Degen and Mr Zelinsky met and became friends years ago, when both men were living in New York. Both became members of an informal group that called itself The CIA, or Children’s Authors & Illustrators.

“That was an informal group where we met monthly to discuss each other’s projects and the current events of the industry,” Mr Degen said. “It also formed a number of longstanding friendships.”

Perhaps because of the Degen-Zelinsky friendship, Mr Degen’s son Ben was used as a model by Mr Zelinsky when he was in seventh grade. Ben Degen (NHS ’94) was illustrated for the book The Enchanted Castle.

Using friends, and especially family members, has become common practice for Paul Zelinsky. Daughter Rachel was the model for the title character of Mr Zelinsky’s Rapunzel among other stories, and daughter Anna has also been used frequently as a model. Mr Zelinsky’s wife Deborah has also been used as a model for characters, perhaps most notably as the title character in the book Swamp Angel.

In Swamp Angel, Mr Zelinsky changed tactics, moving out of the Renaissance style painting into the folk art arena. The illustrations for the 1994 release were painted onto wood rather than canvas, “almost what itinerant American artists would have done,” Mr Degen pointed out. The style is reminiscent of what the contemporary Vermont-based painter Warren Kimble produces. The wood base offers a rougher surface for the paintings, and produces unexpected textures.

In addition to the ALA Caldecott Medal for Rapunzel, Mr Zelinsky has also been awarded three Caldecott Honors, for Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Swamp Angel.

The American Library Association’s Caldecott Medal, named in honor of the 19th Century illustrator Randolph J. Caldecott, was created in 1937 at the suggestion of Frederic G. Melcher. The award is presented to the artist “of the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children in the United States during the preceding year.” The award is presented to the artist of a book whether or not the illustrator is the author of the text.

“I don’t think anybody has won as many Caldecotts as he has,” Mr Degen said. “Most authors would be happy with one, and he has four!”

Sunday’s program is going to be a chance to engage in conversation, ask questions, and even express some ideas with a very talented illustrator.