about the book
“Cotton clouds. / Morning light. / Blue on blue. / White on white.” Simple rhyming couplets lead the reader through a family’s day on a pleasant New England seaside farm. It starts as mom hangs the wash on the clothes line, baby plays happily under a shady tree, and older daughter joyously jumps rope.
“Clouds swell, / Winds blow bolder. / Weather changes, / Air grows colder.” A thunderstorm is coming and the day changes quickly. As the father leads the spooked horses to the barn, the children and mother head indoors.
“Thunder! Lightning! / Raging, roaring. / Rain on rain on rain is pouring.” While huge black clouds dance with lighting and wind gusts, the little girl and her dog hide beneath their bed covers.
What happens when the worst is over and their very exciting day ends?
Soft-hued scratchboard and watercolor illustrations embellish this picture book glimpse at the rhythm of life and nature.
about the author
The joy of writing sort of snuck up on Dianne White. Growing up, she never once thought of becoming an author. Her sister was the family’s story teller and Dianne was just an average student writer.
It was her fifth-grade teacher who ignited the spark. Mrs. Clark loved poetry and had her students memorize lines. The next year, Mademoiselle Green, a French teacher, awoke Dianne’s life-long passion for foreign languages, the sounds of words, and the rhythms of speech. Two years later, the family moved halfway around the world, and Dianne attended schools in the Philippines and Hong Kong!
Ten years passed and Dianne earned a degree in French and Spanish, followed by teaching credentials and a master’s degree in Language and Literacy as well as writing for Children and Young Adults. That was followed by marriage, raising three boys, and teaching in a bilingual elementary school for 25 years.
One day, she had her students describe the sounds of a thunderstorm and decided to challenge herself to write a picture book about the subject. She wanted a book that would help kids love language. Thirteen years later, she approached a publisher with the manuscript for Blue on Blue. The little girl who never planned on being an author wrote an award-winning book that was quickly added to several best children’s book lists!
Two years ago, Dianne retired from teaching to write full time. She now makes her home in Gilbert, Arizona.
Sources:
Author website
Author spotlight: Arizona Central
about the illustrator
Beth Krommes is the 2009 Caldecott winner for her illustration of Susan Marie Swanson’s The House in the Night. So when Dianne White approached an editor and they hired Beth to illustrate her very first book, Dianne was ecstatic!
For book illustrations, Beth uses a scratchboard and watercolor technique that is a little primitive and folk artsy. It also gives a lot of detail. She often has to use a magnifying glass as she works. For her fine art pieces she turns to oils and wood engraving. Often her book illustrations will inspire fine art pieces. After illustrating Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow, she did a series of paintings which featured the native plants she researched for the book.
Beth has two work spaces in her three-story modern home. One is a tiny upstairs balcony where she does her scratchboard work and office jobs. The other is a space on the first floor, where she does her painting, wood engraving, and framing. She has to be super organized, since there are a lot of steps between the two work areas!
Though Beth now lives in Petersborough, New Hampshire, with her husband Dave, daughters Olivia and Marguerite, and cat, Harry, she grew up in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. She always loved art and believes having a sister eleven years younger inspired her love of illustrated picture books.
Beth earned a bachelor’s in painting from Syracuse University. She also studied at London’s St. Martin’s School of art and received a master’s in Art Education from the University of Massachusetts. She started out teaching art in public schools, managing a handcraft shop, and as an art director for a computer magazine. She began illustrating children’s books in 1999 and she was 43 when the first book she designed was published. She’s been busy illustrating children’s book ever since!
Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator interview: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Illustrator video interview: Eric Carle Museum
Also by Beth Krommes:
Before Morning by Joyce Sidman. HMH Books for Young Readers. December 2015.
Swirl by Swirl : Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011.
The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2008.
Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow by Joyce Sidman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2006.
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