Currey, Anna

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Currey, Anna

Personal

Born in Norfolk, England; married; children: Elinor, Pamela. Hobbies and other interests: Sculpture, print-making,

Addresses

Home—England.

Career

Illustrator and author of children's books.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Tickling Tigers, Barron's Educational (Hauppauge, NY), 1996.

Barnaby's Surprise, Piccadilly Press (London, England), 1997.

Albertine, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1997.

Truffle's Christmas, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Truffle Goes to Town, David Bennett (St. Albans, England), 2002.

Jasper's Bath, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2004.

ILLUSTRATOR

Diane Wilmer, Mr Pepino's Cabbage, Collins (London, England), 1989.

Toby Forward, Storm Magic, Simon & Schuster (London, England), 1991.

Kaye Umanksy, Sophie and Abigail, Gollancz (London, England), 1995, Good Books (Intercourse, PA), 2004.

Kaye Umanksy, Sophie in Charge, Gollancz (London, England), 1995, Good Books (Intercourse, PA), 2005.

Kaye Umanksy, Sophie and the Mother's Day Card, Gollancz (London, England), 1995, Good Books (Intercourse, PA), 2005.

Kaye Umanksy, Sophie and the Wonderful Picture, Gollancz (London, England), 1995, Good Books (Intercourse, PA), 2004.

Vivian French, Squeaky Cleaners in a Hole!, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1996.

Vivian French, Squeaky Cleaners in a Tip!, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1996.

Vivian French, Squeaky Cleaners in a Stew!, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1996.

Vivian French, Squeaky Cleaners in a Muddle!, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1996.

Maurice Jones, Welcome Home, Little Bear, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1997, Barron's (Hauppauge, NY), 1998.

Alison Green, editor, Macmillan Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems, foreword by Roger McGough, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 1998.

Rose Impey, TJ's Sunflower Race, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1999.

Rose Impey, TJ's Accident, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1999.

Rose Impey, TJ and the Baby Bird, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1999.

Rose Impey, TJ and the Great Snail Show, Hodder Children's (London, England), 1999.

I Want Another Little Brother: Poems about Families, notes by Pie Corbett, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 1999, Puffin (New York, NY), 2001.

Pop Goes the Weasel: Nonsense Rhymes, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 1999.

If You Should Meet a Crocodile: Poems about Wild Animals, Macillan Children's (London, England), 1999.

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: Action and Counting Poems, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 1999.

Scharlotte Rich, Who Made the Wild Woods?, WaterBrook (Colorado Springs, CO), 1999.

Mary Hoffman, reteller, Macmillan Treasury of Nursery Stories, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 2000.

Cock a Doodle Do!: Farmyard Poems, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 2000.

Mary Hoffman, reteller, The Gingerbread Man and Other Stories, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 2001.

Mary Hoffman, reteller, Puss in Boots and Other Stories, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 2001.

Miriam Moss, I Forgot to Say I Love You, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 2003, published as Don't Forget I Love You, Dial (New York, NY), 2004.

Julia Donaldson, One Ted Falls out of Bed, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 2004, Holt (New York, NY), 2006.

Julia Donaldson, Rosie's Hat, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 2005.

Donna Jo Napoli, The Wishing Club: A Story about Fractions, Holt (New York, NY), 2007.

Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen, Corkscrew Counts: A Story about Multiplication, Holt (New York, NY), 2008.

Miriam Moss, Bedtime, Billy Bear!, Macmillan Children's (London, England), 2007, published as A Babysitter for Billy Bear, Dial (New York, NY), 2008.

Sidelights

Born in Norfolk, England and raised in Ireland, Anna Currey spent much of her childhood drawing the animals she found around her home. As an adult, she exercises her native artistic talent by illustrating children's books for writers such as Mary Hoffman, Julia Donaldson, Rose Impey, Kaye Umansky, and Donna Jo Napoli. In Booklist Hazel Rochman commented of the artist's work for Napoli's The Wishing Club: A Story about Fractions that "Currey's soft-toned ink-and-watercolor illustrations show the complex number patterns in small diagrams." Reviewing the same title, a Kirkus Reviews critic praised the artist for her ability to "capture the wonder and puzzlement in the children's faces as they ponder their wishing star."

Currey's collaborations with Donaldson include One Ted Falls out of Bed, a counting book in which the objects being counted were described in Kirkus Reviews as "large and easy for young listeners to spot and count." Marge Loch-Wouters commented of the same work in School Library Journal that "the toys in the airy illustrations that sweep across the pages are packed with personality."

Currey joins Miriam Moss to produce the picture books Don't Forget I Love You and A Babysitter for Billy Bear. A critic for Publishers Weekly noted that Currey's images for the first-named title depict "a timeless, idealized world, but includes enough familiar details to make the story feel contemporary." Similarly, a contributor to Kirkus Reviews described Currey's illustrations for A Babysitter for Billy Bear as "instantly recognizable to young readers; homey kitchen scenes and the wild disarray of Billy's bedroom are familiar landmarks."

Umansky is a popular author in her native England, and Currey has illustrated several of her humorous picture books featuring a friendly character named Sophie. The artist's illustrations for Sophie and the Wonderful Picture were described by Ken Marantz in School Arts as "light-hearted," while Sophie and the Mother's Day Card features what a Kirkus Reviews critic described as "soft-focus watercolor-and-ink illustrations [that] are an excellent match to the tone and setting of the text."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 1996, Ilene Cooper, review of Tickling Tigers, p. 432; September 15, 2000, Kathy Broderick, review of Truffle's Christmas, p. 247; January 1, 2005, Terry Glover, review of Don't Forget I Love You, p. 878; June 1, 2006, Kathy Broderick, review of One Ted Falls out of Bed, p. 80; June 1, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of The Wishing Club: A Story about Fractions, p. 87.

Canadian Review of Materials, September 17, 1999, review of The Macmillan Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems.

Horn Book, July-August, 2006, Kitty Flynn, review of One Ted Falls out of Bed, p. 424.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2003, review of Don't Forget I Love You, p. 1453; May 15, 2005, review of Sophie and the Mother's Day Card, p. 360; May 15, 2006, review of One Ted Falls out of Bed, p. 516; June 15, 2007, review of The Wishing Club.

New Statesman, December 4, 1998, review of The Macmillan Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems, p. 62.

Publishers Weekly, February 22, 1999, review of Who Made the Wild Woods?, p. 85; September 25, 2000, Elizabeth Devereaux, review of Truffle's Christmas, p. 68; December 15, 2003, review of Don't Forget I Love You, p. 46; May 22, 2006, review of One Ted Falls out of Bed, p. 50.

School Arts, October, 2004, Ken Marantz, review of Sophie and the Wonderful Picture, p. 66.

School Library Journal, October, 2000, review of Truffle's Christmas, p. 58; February, 2004, Marianne Saccardi, review of Don't Forget I Love You, p. 120; June, 2006, Marge Loch-Wouters, review of One Ted Falls out of Bed, p. 110; September, 2007, Mary Jean Smith, review of The Wishing Club, p. 172.

Times Educational Supplement, November 20, 1998, review of The Macmillan Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems, p. 11.