Meet the illustrator Jan Brett

A book illus­trated by Jan Brett is many things: Vivid, rich, lavish; filled with attention to detail; often humorous. Indeed, each page created by this artist is so lush with colorful objects, 

large and small, that it tells an entertaining story by itself. Nocloo

This week my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything shared her post about an animal called a Honey Badger. I had never heard of this large, nocturnal mammal that lives in Africa, Iran, India and Pakistan. In her post she also mentioned a picture book about the Honey Badger by Jan Brett. I have seen other books illustrated by Jan Brett. Her work is so decorative and appealing so naturally I thought I would try to find her book entitled Honey...Honey...Lion! I guess I was not surprised to discover that in my part of Sydney Australia the local public library network only have one book illustrated by Jan Brett and it is not this one. Then I looked at a couple of Australian online book sellers and while they do have some of her titles many are (I have talked about this previously) extremely expensive. Of course, this book and many others illustrated by Jan Brett will be in the school library of my blogger friend!

Honey Honey Lion is available as a board book and in paperback. 

Author blurb:  In Africa the honeyguide and the honey badger are partners: The honeyguide finds the honeycomb and the honey badger cracks it open with its strong claws.  They share the sweetness, and that is the way it has always been. But this day, greedy Badger gulps down all the honey!  Honeyguide is not happy.  As the news spreads from animal to animal, Honeyguide hatches a plan.   The next day she leads Badger off on a rollicking chase, but this time Badger is in for a not-so-sweet surprise!

Her first two books were Fritz and the Beautiful Horses and Annie and the Wild Animals. She is known in particular for her illustrations of Scandinavian characters and settings. 

Bookseller blurb for Fritz and the Beautiful Horses: Fritz was not beautiful. He didn't have a braided mane or a glossy coat. He couldn't prance with long, graceful strides like the elegant horses who carried lords and lovely ladies to the city-a city that allowed only the most beautiful horses within its walls. The citizens laughed at the short-legged pony's attempts to be like their own horses. But Fritz was dependable and hard-working. He proved to the citizens that there are things more important than being beautiful. He earned a special place for himself in the walled city just as he'll earn a special place in every reader's heart.

Read more here

While always maintaining the same recogniz­able style of illustration, Brett has remained true to each story’s individual traits, such as nation­ality, class, time period, and character. She is known in particular for her illustrations of Scandinavian characters and settings. For her fairy tales She has carefully clothed her subjects in an accurate rendition Of traditional folk Cos­tume, Often including jewelry, braid, embroi­dery, lace, feathers, and other finery when ap­propriate. Dramatic backgrounds filled with tapestries; variegated outdoor landscapes., and complex architectural structures frequently re­flect a specific setting or theme, but fade at mo­ments of high drama in favor of close-ups or sil­houettes.

Here is a partial list of her books:

• Fritz and the Beautiful Horses (Houghton Mifflin, 1981)
• Annie and the Wild Animals (1985)
• The Twelve Days of Christmas (Dodd, Mead, 1986)
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1987)
• The First Dog (1988)
• The Mitten: a Ukrainian folktale (1989)
• The Wild Christmas Reindeer (1990)
• The Owl and the Pussycat (1991)
• Berlioz the Bear (1991)
• Christmas Trolls (1993)
• Trouble with Trolls (1994)
• Town Mouse Country Mouse (1994)
• Armadillo Rodeo (1995)
• Comets Nine Lives (1996)
• Gingerbread Baby (1997)
• The Hat (1997)
• The Night Before Christmas (1998)
• Daisy Comes Home (2002)
• Hedgie’s Surprise (2002)
• Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve? (2002)
• On Noah’s Ark (2003)
• The Umbrella (2002)
• Honey, Honey, Lion! (2005)
• Hedgie Loves to Read (2006)
• Hedgie Blasts Off! (2006)
• The Three Snow Bears (2007)
• Gingerbread Friends (2008)
• The Easter Egg (2010)
• The 3 Little Dassies (2010)
• Home for Christmas (2011)
• Mossy (2012)
• Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella (2013), an adaptation of Cinderella
• The Animals’ Santa (2014)
• The Turnip (2015), an adaptation of the Russian folk story The Gigantic Turnip
• Gingerbread Christmas (2016)
• The Mermaid (2017), an under the sea version of Goldilocks and The Three Bears
• The Snowy Nap (2018)
• The Tale of the Tiger Slippers (2019)
• Cozy (2020)
• The Nutcracker (2021)
• Cozy in Love (2022)

Alice in a Winter Wonderland will be published in the US this week.

From Wikibooks:

Jan was born on December 1, 1949 in Hingham, Massachusetts. She lives in the seacoast town of Norwell in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up.

“When I was I child, I decided to be an illustrator. I spent many hours reading and drawing. I remember the special quiet of rainy days, when I felt that I could enter the pages of beautiful picture books. Now I try to re-create that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real”

She uses water colors and paints with small brushes. It takes Jan about an hour to paint one inch of her picture, and about two days to complete a page. Her book, The Mitten, took four months to complete, while The Wild Christmas Reindeer took five months.

Jan Brett is famous for not only her illustrations, but also for the detailed borders on her pages. Within these borders are illustrations that often decorate and enrich the story. When Jan has “too many ideas”, she uses the borders to provide more meaning to the story.

"From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books."