Pass It Down: Five Picture Book Families Make Their Mark

Creativity and talent run in the family
Our families help shape who we are - what we look like, what we like to eat, even what our strengths and abilities are. So when a parent is a renowned children s book author or illustrator, creative ability may be part of an amazing legacy.

Leonard S. Marcus introduces readers to five best-selling and awardwinning families with talent that spans the generations. By opening up these family albums - sharing personal memories, scrapbooks, book dummies, model shots, and final art - Marcus chronicles the way books come into being, the way artists are nurtured and grown, and the way where we come from influences who and what we become.

Leonard S. Marcus, one of the most respected authorities on children s book history in the country, has created an essential resource for every parent, child, teacher, and book collector.

Publishers Weekly

Leonard S. Marcus previously profiled a quintet of famous picture-book collaborators in his Side by Side: Five Favorite Picture-Book Teams Go to Work (PW's starred review said, "Readers may well end up appreciating their favorite picture books more, for the energy and ingenuity it takes to create them"), which is now available in a paperback edition ($11.95 ISBN 978-0-8027-9616-5). In a companion of sorts, Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Families Make Their Mark, Marcus explores creativity in the genes of the Crews family, the Hurds, the Myerses, the Pinkneys and the Rockwells. Early influences (the home of Donald Crews's grandmother, which winds up in Bigmama's) and early drafts (a typed-out front page for Little Dog, Dreaming "by Edith Thacher Hurd, Thacher Hurd, Clement Hurd"), an editorial letter, a sketch and watercolor painted by Brian Pinkney with father Jerry as his model, add to the candor of the text. The narrative consists largely of parent-child conversations that Marcus captures so effortlessly it feels like readers are eavesdropping. (Walker, $19.95 56p ages 8-12 ISBN 978-0-8027-9600-4; Jan.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

LEONARD S. MARCUS is one of the children's book world's most respected and versatile writers, historians, and critics, and has been a contributor and editor for numerous publications. Most recently, Leonard has been named the literary director of Night Kitchen Radio Theater for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. He holds degrees in history from Yale and poetry from the University of Iowa Graduate Writers' Workshop. He and his wife, the picture-book artist Amy Schwartz, live with their son Jacob in Brooklyn, New York.

www.leonardmarcus.com