Blitt, Barry

Personal

Male.

Addresses

Home and office—Riverdale, CT. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Graphic artist and illustrator.

Member

Society of Illustrators.

Awards, Honors

Cover of the Year designation, Magazine Publishers of America, 2006; Gold Award, National Design Awards, 2006.

Writings

ILLUSTRATOR

Jim Mullen, Baby's First Tattoo, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.

Geoffrey Kloske, Once upon a Time, the End: Asleep in 60 Seconds, Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2005.

Jonah Winter, The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven, Schwartz & Wade Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of illustrations to periodicals, including Entertainment Weekly, Child, New York Times, New Yorker, and Chicago Tribune.

Sidelights

Award-winning artist Barry Blitt has created illustrations for numerous newspapers and magazines, including the New Yorker, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Times. With Baby's First Tattoo he moved into the picture-book arena, where he has also achieved success. In addition to his illustration debut, a collaboration with writer Jim Mullen, Blitt has worked with authors such as Geoffrey Kloske and Jonah Winter.

Blitt's illustrations for Winter's biographical picture book The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven was acknowledged by several critics for its humorous depiction of the life of seventeenth-century composer Ludwig van Beethoven. In his tongue-in-cheek quasi-documentary, Winter explores why the musical genius moved in and out of so many residences during his lifetime. Noting that Blitt adds to the text's humor through his illustrations, Hazel Rochman wrote in Booklist that the artist's pen-and-water color images "extend the great parody of the tormented-genius stereotype" and that audiences will "relish the humor." A Kirkus Reviews critic acknowledged Blitt's ability to recreate the nuances of the composer's epoch, noting that he "deftly capture[s] Beethoven-era Vienna and his increasing frenzy brought on by deafness." In School Library Journal Joy Fleishhacker concluded that Blitt's "cartoon illustrations depict the frazzled-looking composer and play up the text's humor."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of Once upon a Time, the End: Asleep in 60 Seconds, p. 42; August 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven, p. 79.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December, 2005, review of Once upon a Time, the End, p. 189; November, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven, p. 150.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2005, review of Once upon a Time, the End, p. 1029; August 15, 2006, review of The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven, p. 854.

Library Media Connection, January, 2007, Carl A. Harvey II, review of The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven, p. 70.

Publishers Weekly, October 17, 2005, review of Once upon a Time, the End p. 66; July 17, 2006, review of The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven, p. 157.

[Image not available for copyright reasons]

School Library Journal, October, 2005, Lauralyn Persson, review of Once upon a Time, the End p. 116; October, 2006, Joy Fleishhacker, review of The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven, p. 130.

ONLINE

Barry Blitt Home Page,http://www.barryblitt.com (December 23, 2007).

Children's Bookwatch Web site,http://www.midwestbookreview.com/ (October 1, 2005), review of Once upon a Time, the End; (December 1, 2006) review of The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven.