Beverly Cleary Author Study: The Art of Ramona Quimby

This is an involved look at the various illustrations that have been used in the Ramona Quimby series. Louis Darling is who I started with, so his illustrations are my favorite. He illustrated many of Cleary's books, including Henry's series and the first two Ralph books. In fact, he only illustrated the first two Ramona books before he died. There are some interesting letters between Darling and Cleary at the end of this book. I like getting a glimpse of their partnership, especially considering they only met in person once!

Alan Tiegreen took over after Darling's death; I remember him for Pee Wee Scouts just as much as Ramona. I'm not as familiar with the two later illustrators because I already had my copies of the books, but I liked comparing and contrasting their styles and reading about their approaches. There was also some interesting information about JoAnn Scribner's covers; I had wondered why they had unique cover art for many of the books instead of just picking an interior illustration for the cover!