-
SHIP THIS ITEMTemporarily Out of Stock Online
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Gracefully written and beautifully illustrated, this moving tale of a stray dog who finds a new home is based on a true story. Like the family in the book, children are bound to fall in love with the irresistible stray. Funny, poignant, and satisfying, The Stray Dog is being published on the 50th anniversary of the first children's book written and illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Marc Simont.
About the Author:
Marc Simont received a Caldecott Honor in 1950 for Ruth Krauss's The Happy Day and won the Caldecott Medal in 1957 for A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry. In addition to illustrating books by James Thruber and Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's easy-to-read mysteries about Nate the Great, he has illustrated Karla Kuskin's The Philharmonic Gets Dressed and Bette Bao Lord's In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. Mr. Simont lives in West Cornwall, CT.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781591129394 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Live Oak Media |
| Publication date: | 05/28/2004 |
| Series: | Picture Book Readalong in Spanish Series |
| Pages: | 1 |
| Product dimensions: | 10.90(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d) |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Age Range: | 4 - 7 Years |
About the Author
When he was nineteen, Mr. Simont settled in America permanently, determined to support himself as an artist. His first illustrations for a children's book appeared in 1939. Since then, Mr. Simont has illustrated nearly a hundred books, working with authors as diverse as Margaret Wise Brown and James Thurber. He won a Caldecott Honor in 1950 for illustrating Ruth Krauss's The Happy Day, and in in 1957 he was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his pictures in A Tree is Nice, by Janice May Udry.
Internationally acclaimed for its grace, humor, and beauty, Marc Simont's art is in collections as far afield at the Kijo Picture Book Museum in Japan, but the honor he holds most dear is having been chosen as the 1997 Illustrator of the Year in his native Catalonia. Mr. Simont and his wife have one grown son, two dogs and a cat. They live in West Cornwall, Connecticut. Marc Simont's most recent book is The Stray Dog.
Marc Simont was born in 1915 in Paris. His parents were from the Catalonia region of Spain, and his childhood was spent in France, Spain, and the United States. Encouraged by his father, Joseph Simont, an artist and staff illustrator for the magazine L'Illustration, Marc Simont drew from a young age. Though he later attended art school in Paris and New York, he considers his father to have been his greatest teacher.
When he was nineteen, Mr. Simont settled in America permanently, determined to support himself as an artist. His first illustrations for a children's book appeared in 1939. Since then, Mr. Simont has illustrated nearly a hundred books, working with authors as diverse as Margaret Wise Brown and James Thurber. He won a Caldecott Honor in 1950 for illustrating Ruth Krauss's The Happy Day, and in in 1957 he was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his pictures in A Tree is Nice, by Janice May Udry.
Internationally acclaimed for its grace, humor, and beauty, Marc Simont's art is in collections as far afield at the Kijo Picture Book Museum in Japan, but the honor he holds most dear is having been chosen as the 1997 Illustrator of the Year in his native Catalonia. Mr. Simont and his wife have one grown son, two dogs and a cat. They live in West Cornwall, Connecticut. Marc Simont's most recent book is The Stray Dog.
Interviews
An Interview with Marc Simont
Q: Can you tell us the story of how The Stray Dog came about and why you were compelled to make it into a book?
A: I showed a copy of The Philharmonic Gets Dressed to my friend, Reiko Sassa, the librarian at Japan Society. There is a dog in the book which reminded her of her family pet, a stray they picked up in the public park. The account she gave was a natural for a kid's book and I encouraged her to write it up. After a year in the hands of a Japanese publisher her manuscript was returned. We agreed I should have a go at it. When the publisher to whom I offered it seemed determined to sit on it forever, I decided to show it to HarperCollins, and in little over a week, The Stray Dog was in the works.
Q: Describe the process of creating The Stray Dog? Did the words or the pictures come first? Did elements of the story change as you worked on the book?
A: As I was working on the color dummy, it occurred to me that this simple story of a family and a dog could be told without words. The wordless dummy idea was met with polite resistance by the editor, but by then I had developed the pictures to the point where a minimal amount of text was sufficient to round out the story.
Q: Which was more difficult -- writing or illustrating the story of The Stray Dog? You have written and illustrated The Stray Dog, but you have also illustrated many books, such as A Tree Is Nice by Janie May Udry and The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin. How does illustrating your own work versus someone else's compare?
A: The work involved in developing illustrations for a text is the same whether the story someone else's or mine. Where I see a potential problem is when a writer has to turn the text over to someone else to do the pictures. It's a bit like giving up a pet you can no longer care for; all you can do is hope the new owner will love it and treat it well.
Q: Can you tell us about one of your favorite books and why it is especially meaningful for you?
A: There are many wonderful books out there. One of my favorites is Peach Boy, a Japanese folktale illustrated by Suekichi Akaba. I admire the way Akaba fills the page, his use of color, his sensitive portrayals, humor, and his masterful handling of watercolor.
Q: You have illustrated many kinds of children's books, from picture books like The First Christmas to novels like In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. What are some of the differences in illustrating a picture book versus a novel?
A: With the very young you can let your imagination run free, and they'll stay with you. If you try that with young adults they're apt to tell you you're getting off the subject.
Q: What are the different techniques you have used over the years?
A: There was a time when, for economic reasons, most illustrations were limited to two to three colors. The artist prepared his own color separations, which were superimposed as in a woodblock printing. I liked working with separations, but now the four-color method of reproduction is very good, and economical, and watercolor has become my medium of choice.
Q: You've worked on a great variety of projects calling for different styles of art. Is there a medium or a type of art you'd like to try, or a kind of book or text or story you would like to illustrate?
A: An illustrator is one who complements the text with pictures. A text I have followed for years is the daily newspaper. Now and then the news has conjured up an image which I will draw and fax to my local weekly paper as a "cartoon to the editor." After more than 40 years these drawings have accumulated and I'll have to do something with them...either a bonfire or a book.
Q: It has been said you have "a remarkable ability to connect with the child reader." Why do you think that is? What makes children's books so special to you?
A: Ursula Nordstrom, a prime mover of children's books, who didn't go to college or have any special training, was once asked about her qualifications. "I'm an ex-child," she said. Not letting the child in us get away altogether keeps open a line of communication as we get older.
Q&A courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers