Pass It Down

Marcus, Leonard. Pass It Down: Five Picture Book Families Make Their Mark. New York:Walter and Company. 2007. ISBN-100-8027-9600-1



Summary:
This book relates the stories of five families who have impacted the world of picture books, and how the parents impacted the lives of their children to become writer or illustrators of picture books. Families included are: Crews, Hurd, Myers,Pinkney, and Rockwell.

Analysis:
The collection of biographies in this book is wide ranging, in that the stories of the authors' lives are very different, but they also relate to one another so closely that the biographies of the children who became authors/illustrators seem almost like overlays of one another.

Review:
"Marcus's writing is, as usual, tight but lively, and each chapter is liberally laced with photographs, preliminary sketches, and final art. The book will be of interest to those readers who enjoy getting behind the scenes of the books they love."

School Library Journal

Enrichment Activity:
A great activity after reading this book to children would be to read and display the books that the featured authors and illustrators worked on. A class of students could easily spend a day reading about an author or illustrator family, and reading a book or two by that author/illustrator, and then trying out the techniques that were used to create the images in the book (painting vs collage. . . ).