Jan+Brett

= Illustrator Study: Jan Brett = Jan Brett is an author/illustrator who is familiar to many young children. This project will enable children to become more familiar with books written and illustrated by Jan Brett, other books retold and illustrated by her and those books that she illustrated only. Students will familiarize themselves with the characters and events in her books, this further developing their reading, writing and listening skills. Jan Brett is known for the borders that surround the pages of her books. As she has explained, she has so many ideas for the illustrations that they spill over onto the borders, so the reader is treated to more designs and information along the edges of the book pages. Many of Jan Brett’s stories fall into the genre of picture books. Some of her books, which she has retold and illustrated, are also considered folktales, such as “The Mitten” and “Gingerbread Baby.” These books are also great to introduce during lessons on traditional literature. Scholastic December 01, 1949 Hingham, Massachusetts, United States of America “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. As a student at the Museum School in Boston, I spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. It was overwhelming to see room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain. I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting. Illustrating children's books always seems like a big adventure because as an artist I must explore and give thought to my subject — an artist needs to know everything about their subject. I try to get a feel for the country and times my characters live in, and I get many ideas from traveling to different countries, where I research the architecture and costumes that appear in my work. After a trip to Norway, I was inspired to write three books! I've found that the details and the odd little things one notices help make a story convincing. In my mind, the story comes alive. And for me, the best part about telling a story is drawing the pictures.” With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan Brett lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts with her husband, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Buffy, her //pet hedgehog.// The Easter Egg-- 2010 Jan Brett’s Snowy Treasury-- 2009 Gingerbread Friends-- 2008 Hedgie Blasts Off! -- 2006  The Umbrella-- 2004 Daisy Comes Home-- 2002 Christmas Treasury-- 2001 Hedgie’s Surprise! -- 2000 The Hat-- 1997 // Comet’s Nine Lives ////--// 1996 // Armadillo Rodeo // //--//1995 // Christmas Trolls ////--// 1993 // Trouble with Trolls ////--// 1992 // Berlioz the Bear ////--// 1991 // The Wild Christmas Reindeer ////--// 1990 Annie and the Wild Animals-- 1985 Fritz and the Beautiful Horses --1981
 * Read Mini Autobiography: **
 * Born: **
 * Books Written and Illustrated by Jan Brett **

The Three Snowy Bears-- 2007 Honey…Honey…Lion! --2005 On Noah’s Ark-- 2003 Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve? -- 2002 Gingerbread Baby-- 1999 Town Mouse, Country Mouse -- 1994 // The Mitten // //--//1989 Beauty and the Beast-- 1989 // Goldilocks and the Three Bears ////--// 1987
 * Books Retold and Illustrated by Jan Brett **

// The Night Before Christmas ////--// 1998 // The Owl and The Pussycat ////--// 1991 Happy Birthday Dear Duck-- 1988 // The Twelve Days of Christmas ////--// 1986 Scary, Scary Halloween-- 1986 Mother’s Day Mice-- 1986 Noelle of the Nutcracker --1986 Valentine Bears-- 1983 St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning-- 1980 Tons of great activities are available at Jan Brett’s website: http://www.janbrett.com/ Some questions to ask: What does an illustrator do? Where do they get their ideas? What materials do they use to make the pictures? Do you know any other illustrators? Look around the room and think of any other illustrators we have talked about in the past. Can an illustrator be an author too? Next, brainstorm using chart paper, any describing words or sentences the students can think of when they hear "Jan Brett." Idea from Alicia Tomas (Jan Brett Piggybacks) ** 1. ** Say that we will be doing an Illustrator Study on Jan Brett and that we will be looking at one of her earliest published works. ** 2. ** Show the cover of "St. Patrick's Day in the Morning" and ask students to tell what they think of right away when they see the illustration on the cover. ** 3. ** Next, take a picture walk through the story, asking for any comments about the illustrations. ** 4. ** Discuss the difference between one person being the author and the illustrator, and two people doing separate jobs. ** 5. ** When the story is over, pass out 1 copy to each group of 4 students and magnifying glasses to share. Have students write down describing words for the illustrations. Repeat this same activity with one of Jan Brett's more recent books. ** 6. ** Compare the describing words for the pictures we saw under the magnifying glasses with the words we came up with before reading the story. Talk about where other Jan Brett books take place and show places like Norway, Denmark, and Africa on the world map. Then show Ireland and talk about the climate there compared with some of the other places in Jan Brett's books. 1. Start by reading “The Mitten to the class. 2. Make predictions as you read, “Who do you think will fit in the mitten? Do you think the bear will fit in the mitten?” 3. Have students make and cut out mittens and gloves out of construction paper, have students pick their favorite and write their name down. 4. Using the mittens and gloves, make a graph of who likes mittens and who likes gloves. 5. Extension: Read “The Mitten” by Vera Trembach. Discuss the similarities and differences between the two stories using a Venn diagram. 6. Extension: Read “The Hat” by Jan Brett. Ask the students what special things we should look for in Jan Brett stories (pictures around the pages). Make a Venn diagram comparing the animals in the two stories. (Idea from Lisa Murphy) 1. Read the story __The Mitten__ by Jan Brett. ‘  2. Have students choose their favorite part of the story and draw a picture, using wax crayons. 3. For the border, in order to integrate with math as well as to model Jan Brett's technique of using borders, students must design a winter border with a pattern. 4. The pattern is to be more difficult than an abab pattern. Brainstorm winter symbols (such as snowmen, snowflakes, hockey sticks, mittens, snow hats, etc.) 5. Once the crayon pictures are complete, with the hint to color in spaces and color fairly dark, the students paint over their artwork with a solution of Epson salt stirred into warm water. 6. To spruce up the bulletin board the children had fun making snowflakes. 7. Have the students write about what is happening in the picture and why they chose this to be their favorite part. 1. Read numerous Jan Brett Books (choose from the list above). 2. Students will each choose their favorite book and complete a book report about their chosen book. 1. Book Title:______________________________________ 2. Author:________________________________________ 3. Illustrator:_____________________________________ 4. Publisher:______________________________________ 5. Year Published:__________________________________ 6. Dedication:_____________________________________ 7. Characters: ·  _____________________________________________   ·   _____________________________________________   ·   _____________________________________________   ·   _____________________________________________    8. Beginning: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. Ending: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. Problem: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 11. My Favorite Part: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Illustrator Study Home Page
 * Books Illustrated by Jan Brett **
 * Activities: **
 * __ Saint Patrick’s Day in the Morning  __**
 * __ The Mitten  __**
 * __ Crayon Resist with Epson Salt Bulliten Board   __**
 * Illustrator Study **