YoungCanLit Who's Who: Illustrators R-Z, List II

This final list of youngCanLit illustrators will round out our lists nicely to 100+!

Erica Salcedo

Sampar

Roslyn Schwartz

Alan Silberberg

Sleepless Kao

Lisa Smith

Sydney Smith

Caroline Stellings

Todd Stewart

Jillian Tamaki

Christine Tripp

Anne Villeneuve

Frank Viva

Ange Zhang

Amei Zhao

So ends this sixth list of illustrators of youngCanLit.  I've included the artwork of some of their non-youngCanLit as well when I thought it would be worthwhile for readers to make the connection between artwork and artist.  Suffice it to say that the richness of illustrators and their works is immense and I could not do justice to that wealth.  I suspect that I will need to refresh these lists again in a few years.  But for now I hope this Who's Who of youngCanLit illustrators is enough to entertain and educate everyone a little.

Just a reminder that the other five lists are:

Illustrators A-G (April 9, 2013)
Illustrators H-Q (April 10, 2013)
Illustrators R-Z (April 11, 2013)
Illustrators A-G, List II (July 24, 2015)
Illustrators H-Q, List II (July 26, 2015)

See You Next Year

by Andrew Larsen

Illustrated by Todd Stewart

Owlkids Books

978-1-926973-99-9

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2015

I'll bet lots of families are already thinking about their summer plans, and many already know where and when they’ll be vacationing because it’s become an annual ritual.  It’s a ritual embedded in a known car trip, a familiar cottage à la motel, and a proverbial beach.

We’ve been coming to the same place every summer since I was little.
Nothing changes.
That’s why I like it. (pg. 8)

In See You Next Year, the intimacy of the location is only surpassed by the familiarity of the activities.  The very people may change from year to year but the sand-raking tractor, the umbrella-toting visitors, the evening concert at the gazebo bandstand and the beach bonfire are all the same.  However, a new friend,  not unexpected, adds some new milestones to the young girl’s summer.

The rhythm of Andrew Larsen’s text will easily transport older readers to summer holidays as children: the lapping of the waves on the beach, the pattern of the sea of umbrellas , the patter of that inevitable day of rain, the routine of waking, swimming, playing, staying up late and sleeping in.

And Todd Stewart, for whom this is his first picture book, captures the essence of those summer holidays with family in his retro art and minimal palette.  In illustrations in which he could have emphasized a myriad of colours across bathing suits, umbrellas, and blistering heat, Todd Stewart chooses eloquently to underscore the turquoise of the water, the sandy golds of the beach, the midnight blue of a clear sky, or the taupes of a rainy day inside.  It works so well.

I suspect Andrew Larsen may be recreating his own memories or sharing those of his own children.  Either way, summer will seem very familiar and too far in the future until it’s already gone, and a postcard and warm memories are all that are left.  Until next year.