FOR KIDS ONLY
New books, author events aim at young readers
Ross Van Dusen has been happily creating art since he was 7. As an adult, he’s had solo art exhibits in New York and Los Angeles and group shows in Albuquerque and on both coasts. But his day jobs have mainly been in the advertising business. After retiring as creative director of a major advertising firm’s office in San Francisco, he and his wife, Jean, moved to Albuquerque. Here, he’s been mostly combining art and writing.
Now at age 80, Van Dusen is the author/ illustrator of a number of children’s picture books, including a science series. The latest one is “What Makes the Lightning?” He’s also got a coloring book, “Color Jason and His Funny Machines,” which has art from the science series. Van Dusen is busy writing and illustrating a third book in his Zu-Zu McBlueberry adventure-fairy tale series and has published the first volume in a planned “Crock-A-Dog” series.
They’re for kids starting at “age 3, 4 and for parents reading to them,” Van Dusen said. “The books help to connect ideas. In kindergarten and first grade is when they start to learn to read and appreciate a story, and when their minds are really open to accepting an imaginary world.”
He’s also written 10 lighthearted novels. There’s more from the inexhaustible Van Dusen: He’s repurposing some of his old paintings on canvas as new collages.
Van Dusen will sign “What Makes the Lightning?” and other books from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, at Treasure House Books & Gifts, 2012 S. Plaza NW, Old Town, and at 2 p.m. Dec. 9 at op.cit.books in Santa Fe’s DeVargas Mall,
Jan Brett, an internationally known children’s picture book author/illustrator, has always wanted to do her own version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Her new book, “The Mermaid,” takes place in the tropical coral waters off Okinawa, Japan.
In Brett’s fairy tale, Goldilocks is a mermaid and the three bears are octopuses. She had considered recasting the bears as sharks, or manatees, or even walruses before deciding on octopuses.
Brett said in a phone interview that at her two New Mexico events — in Santa Fe and in Albuquerque — she will give presentations “especially for the children. Some like to draw, some like to write, or some love books. I’ll make it an art lesson for them. And I’ll talk about how I get the idea for a story and about ‘The Mermaid.’ ”
She’ll also share some of her secrets as an illustrator. Like this one: “If you start to draw and the picture is weird and you’re not happy with it, put it up to a mirror. If you see it backwards, you will spot any strange proportions you may not have noticed. And it’s also brandnew,” Brett said.
“I love children’s books,” she said. “They capture a sense of wonder for the reader. Kids have a nonstop craving and curiosity about life.”
Brett is on a coast-to-coast bus tour promoting her new book. The tour starts near her Massachusetts home and ends in California.
At 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 7, she will give a presentation at the Main Santa Fe Public Library, 145 Washington Ave. For more information, call Bee Hive Books at 505-780-8051. Later the same day — at 5 p.m. — she will give a presentation for kids at the Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain NW. For more information, call Bookworks at 344-8139. Brett’s books will be available for autograph and purchase at the events. Both events are free.