The Silver Lining

 It's STILL snowing around here in blogland and I'm happily frolicking in the frosty e-hills of Robert's Snow: Blogging for a Cure. Wee!

 I'm very excited to introduce to you the illustrator of one of my six year old daughter's favorite books, MINE! MINE! MINE! ( by cyber-friend, Shelly Becker)--Hideko Takahashi! If you haven't noticed Hideko's style already, she's definitely the cuteness maven of children's literature. And hence my daughter's absolute adoration! (And mine!)  


Grace Lin emailed Hideko, asking her to make a Robert's Snow for Cancer Cure snowflake, and here it is entitled, Snow Day Fun!:







Do you recognize the little kids riding the sled? It's none other than the main characters in SNOW DAY by Lynn Plourde. I love the blue sky on one side and the pink dusk on the other, similar to the circular events of the story. 

 When Hideko got her snowflake, she thought of SNOW DAY immediately. "There's a scene in that book where two siblings are sledding. I changed it a little to use for the front of the snowflake and on the back, I painted a new image with a snowman and sled tracks in the dusk as the children have left on their way home."

Beautiful!

When Grace Lin mentioned Robert's Snow, Hideko had a friend who was fighting cancer. "I was very happy to do something for Cancer Cure. Fortunately, my friend got well and I hope more people can survive cancer."

Hideko is originally from Osaka, Japan where she first learned to love illustration. She studied under a Japanese painting artist as a child and then moved to the United States in 1990 to study illustration at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. "When I was in art school, I enjoyed assignments of illustrating stories and thought it would be fun to do it as a pro." And pro she is! Look at all her books!

Interestingly, she recently illustrated a story set in Japan. It will be coming out in 2008 by Henry Holt. "The author wrote it, inspired by a true story that happened in WWII. I did a lot of historical research to be accurate and created realistic images different from the cute round faces and distorted perspectives I usually do." Her first book project was entitled, BEACH PLAY by Marsha Hayles. It came out by Henry Holt in 1998. 

Hideko has more in the pipeline as she is working on a set of board books for toddlers. Aww...

With all that talent and all that work, she also has a whole bunch of spunk! When I asked her to tell me something no one would know about her, she stated (with an impish grin, I'm sure), "Hmm...that's a good question because as soon as I tell it, it is no longer something no one would know!"

Funny, isn't she? Tee hee!

But she was sweet enough to let us in on her secret! "I work at home watching TV, and it often helps me come up with images." Hey, she sounds a lot like my teenagers! HA! Maybe that's a good sign that one will become a famous illustrator like Hideko Takahashi. 

Hideko's snowflake will be available for auction on November 19th! So don't forget to bookmark the page and get your auction button fingers limbered up for the big event!

Make sure you visit the other blogs swishing in the snow today:

• Susan Miller at Your Neighborhood Librarian
  
• Ellen Beier at What Adrienne Thinks About That
  
• Judith Moffat at Jo's Journal
  
• Wendell Minor at Wild Rose Reader