Kadair, Deborah Ousley

views updated

Kadair, Deborah Ousley

Personal

Married; children: Gregory, Alex. Education: College of the Midland, associates degree; Louisiana State University, B.A.

Addresses

Home—Baton Rouge, LA.

Career

Illustrator. Formerly worked as an elementary school educator.

Member

Golden Key Honor Society, Phi Alpha Theta.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

There Was an Ol' Cajun, Pelican (Gretna, LA), 2002.

Grandma's Gumbo, Pelican (Gretna, LA), 2003.

ILLUSTRATOR

Johnette Downing, Today Is Monday in Louisiana, Pelican (Gretna, LA), 2006.

Johnette Downing, Down in Louisiana: Traditional Song, Pelican (Gretna, LA), 2007.

Sidelights

Although Deborah Ousley Kadair has lived in Georgia, Texas, and Nebraska, it was the time she spent in Louisiana that inspired her career as a children's book author. The focus of the self-illustrated children's books There Was an Ol' Cajun and Grandma's Gumbo, Louisiana, also served as the inspiration for two books Kadair illustrated, both of which were written by Louisiana singer/songwriter Johnette Downing.

Kadair based her first self-illustrated title, There Was an Ol' Cajun, on the familiar rhyme "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly." The idea to give the story a Louisiana focus came when her Cajun husband swallowed, not a fly, but a gnat. The main character in Katair's tale swallows bayou animal after bayou animal until it finally faces off against an alligator with no intention of being swallowed. "Kadair offers up a story of wily humor that begs to be read—with a Cajun inflection, of course," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Judith Constantinides, writing in School Library Journal, called There Was an Ol' Cajun a "fine, humorous version of an extremely popular tale."

The text of Grandma's Gumbo contains a rhyming description of the process of making a popular Louisiana meal. Told from the perspective of three grandchildren helping their grandmother create the dish, the story offers a catchy refrain that may encourage young readers to chant along. Sean George, writing in School Library Journal, cited in particular Kadair's "stylized, naïve collage illustrations."

Working as an illustrator, Kadair has contributed her signature cut-paper collages to Johnette Downing's Today Is Monday in Louisiana. Each of the images in this book shows a traditional Louisiana dish, and "Kadair's trademark collages illustrate close-ups of each new food," according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor. In Publishers Weekly a critic noted of the illustrations that

"they prove to be a tasty medium for conveying the mouthwatering flavors." According to School Library Journal reviewer Judith Constantinides, "the simplicity of Kadair's bold, bright collages fits the text perfectly." Kadair's second collaboration with Downing, Down in Louisiana: Traditional Song, features pictures of animals native to Louisiana. On her home page, Downing wrote of her collaborator's work that Kadair's "illustrations are just delightful."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006, review of Today Is Monday in Louisiana, p. 1069.

Publishers Weekly, March 4, 2002, review of There Was an Old Cajun, p. 79; October 16, 2006, review of Today Is Monday in Louisiana, p. 52.

School Library Journal, December, 2002, Judith Constantinides, review of There Was an Old Cajun, p. 98; February, 2004, Sean George, review of Grandma's Gumbo, p. 115; December, 2006, Judith Constantinides, review of Today Is Monday in Louisiana, p. 96.