Beaty, Andrea

views updated

Beaty, Andrea

Personal

Born in IL.

Addresses

Home—Chicago, IL. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Children's book author.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Awards, Honors

Barbara Karlin Honor grant for picture-book writing, 2006, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, for When Giants Come to Play; Parents' Choice Silver Honor, and Time magazine Top Ten Children's Book, both 2007, both for Iggy Peck, Architect.

Writings

When Giants Come to Play, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, Abrams (New York, NY), 2006.

Iggy Peck, Architect, illustrated by David Roberts, Abrams (New York, NY), 2007.

Cicada Summer (middle-grade novel), Amulet Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Dr. Ted, illustrated by Pascal Lemaître, Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Firefighter Ted, illustrated by Pascal Lemaître, Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York, NY), 2009.

Hush, Baby Ghostling, illustrated by Pascal Lemaître, Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York, NY), 2009.

Master Ted, True Artiste, illustrated by Pascal Lemaître, Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York, NY), 2010.

Sidelights

Born and raised in the Midwest, Andrea Beaty instills each of her picture books with a sense of fun and whimsy. In addition to the simple, rhyming texts she has created to entertain young children in books such as When Giants Come to Play, Iggy Peck, Architect, and Dr. Ted, Beaty also addresses older readers in Cicada Summer, a novel for middle graders in which a preteen deals with the guilt she feels over her brother's death.

Beaty's first picture book, When Giants Come to Play, focuses on a day of fun as Anna finds traditional games such as hide and seek and jump rope taking on a new twist when two giants are her playmates. Playing a game of catch, for example, is particularly exciting for Anna when she serves as the ball and is tossed from giant to giant. Praising When Giants Come to Play in School Library Journal, Sally R. Dow dubbed Beaty's book "a delightful romp, full of imagination, told in lyrical prose." In Booklist, Randall Enos made particular note of the illustrations by Kevin Hawkes, which Enos described as softly toned and portraying the giants with a "slight resemblance to [American film comedians] Laurel and Hardy." The author uses an "economical and straightforward text," noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor, concluded of the book that "Beaty's language and Hawkes's pictures make it enormously appealing."

In her second award-winning picture book, Iggy Peck, Architect, Beaty and illustrator David Roberts team up to focus on a little boy whose only joy is building things. Iggy does not need wooden blocks, or Legos or any other toy in order to indulge in his favorite pastime; he can build using anything at hand. A problem comes in second grade, however, when his teacher Miss Greer puts the kibosh on construction. During a school fieldtrip that takes Miss Greer's class to a park where a faulty footbridge strands the group on a small island, Iggy's talent proves invaluable: he creates a suspension bridge with roots, string, and assorted scrounged objects and helps the group return safely home. "Youthful irreverence and creativity find a champion in this tale," noted a Publishers Weekly contributor, concluding of Iggy Peck, Architect that "the structured rhymes and controlled illustrations fit the architectural theme" of Beaty's tale. Margaret R. Tassia wrote in School Library Journal that Roberts' cartoon drawings "capture the emotion and action of [Beaty's] … imaginative story."

In an interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith for Cynsations online, Beaty noted of her childhood: "Our mother was a voracious reader and filled our house with books so when I wasn't on an adventure or blowing soda out my nose from laughing too hard, I was reading. I had about a hundred things I was going to be when I grew up: spy, detective, arctic explorer, interpreter for the U.N., pirate, English veterinarian, head of the CIA, pool shark….

"I think the great thing about being a writer is that I can still be all of those things if I just keep writing! I guess I've already been a giant, an architect, and a bear doctor! What's next?"

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2006, Randall Enos, review of When Giants Come to Play, p. 65.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of When Giants Come to Play, p. 113.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2006, review of When Giants Come to Play, p. 781; September 15, 2007, review of Iggy Peck, Architect.

Publishers Weekly, October 23, 2006, review of When Giants Come to Play, p. 49; November 26, 2007, review of Iggy Peck, Architect, p. 52.

School Library Journal, October, 2006, Sally R. Dow, review of When Giants Come to Play, p. 102; November, 2007, Margaret R. Tassia, review of Iggy Peck, Architect, p. 86.