Maione, Heather (Heather Harms Maione)

Personal

Married Robert F. Maione.

Addresses

Home and office—Laurel Hollow, Long Island, NY.

Career

Illustrator.

Awards, Honors

American Library Association Notable Book designation, 2008, for Remembering Mrs. Rossi by Amy Hest.

Illustrator

(Under name Heather Harms Maione) David A. Adler, Wacky Jacks, Random House (New York, NY), 1994.

(Under name Heather Harms Maione) David A. Adler, Onion Sundaes, Random House (New York, NY), 1994.

(Under name Heather Harms Maione) David A. Adler, Lucky Stars, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

(Under name Heather Harms Maione) Alice Low, Stories to Tell a Six Year Old, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.

(Under name Heather Harms Maione) David A. Adler, Magic Money, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

(Under name Heather Harms Maione) Kathryn Cristaldi, Princess Lulu Goes to Camp, Grossett & Dunlap (New York, NY), 1997.

(Under name Heather Harms Maione) Johanna Hurwitz, Summer with Elisa, Morrow Junior Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(Under name Heather Harms Maione) Johanna Hurwitz, Russell's Secret, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

Patricia Lakin, Subway Sonata, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2001.

Donna Jo Napoli, Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2005.

Donna Jo Napoli, Sly the Sleuth and the Sports Mysteries, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2006.

Donna Jo Napoli, Sly the Sleuth and the Food Mysteries, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2007.

Amy Hest, Remembering Mrs. Rossi, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

Margery Cuyler, Princess Bess Gets Dressed, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2009.

Sidelights

Heather Maione is a children's book illustrator who is known for her gestured pencil-and-ink drawings and her engaging watercolor art. Beginning her illustration career creating art for several books by David A. Adler, Maione has gone on to collaborate with writers such as Joanna Hurwitz, Cargery Cuyler, Donna Jo Napoli, and Amy Hest. Reviewing Russell's Secret, a picture book by Hurwitz, Booklist contributor Shelle Rosenfeld wrote that Maione's "bright, cartoonlike illustrations supply details and create scenes children will recognize from their past and present," while a Kirkus Reviews writer cited the illustrator's "delicate and effective pen-and-wash" art.

Maione's ink "drawings … add to the fun of spending time with Hurwitz's believable, thoroughly likable characters," wrote Ellen Mandel in a review of the beginning reader Summer with Elisa, and in Kirkus Reviews a contributor noted of Napoli's Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries that "Maione inks plenty of lighthearted illustrations … for this engaging series opener." Turning to watercolor, her "lively color illustrations suit the [city] setting" of Patricia Lakin's Subway Sonata, according to School Library Journal contributor Catherine Threadgill. Reviewing the story, which focuses on the many ways people can express their creativity, Threadgill added that Maione and Lakin's "creative collaboration makes a nice statement." In Kirkus Reviews a writer praised "Maione's … delicate pen-and-wash illustrations," which effectively "depict the creative process of the four artists" in Lakin's tale.

Named an American Library Association Notable Book, Remembering Mrs. Rossi features a sensitive story by Hest in which a young girl must learn to deal with the death of her mother, a school teacher. As eight-year-old Annie and her widowed father work through their sadness, they are aided by the affectionate recollections collected by the children in Mrs. Rossi's sixth-grade class. As father and daughter slowly develop a new family dynamic, "Maione's ink sketches highlight the tender affections between the two as they struggle to move forward," according to Booklist critic Kay Weisman. Calling the book "a tender treatment of loss and recovery," a Kirkus Reviews writer concluded of Remembering Mrs. Rossi that "Maione's ink-and-black watercolors delicately illustrate" a young girl growing during a "difficult year."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2000, Ellen Mandel, review of Summer with Elisa, p. 240; January 1, 2002, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Russell's Secret, p. 866; March 1, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries, p. 1198; January 1, 2007, Kay Weisman, review of Remembering Mrs. Rossi, p. 102; May 1, 2007, Gillian Engberg, review of Sly the Sleuth and the Food Mysteries, p. 49.

Horn Book, May-June, 2007, Robin Smith, review of Remembering Mrs. Rossi, p. 283.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2001, review of Subway Sonata, p. 1294; October 1, 2001, review of Russell's Secret, p. 1425; January 15, 2005, review of Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries, p. 124; December 15, 2006, review of Remembering Mrs. Rossi, p. 1269; March 1, 2007, review of Sly the Sleuth and the Food Mysteries, p. 228.

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School Library Journal, October, 2001, Catherine Threadgill, review of Subway Sonata, p. 123; January, 2002, Gay Lynn Van Vleck, review of Russell's Secret, p. 102; November, 2005, Pat Leach, review of Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries, p. 102; May, 2006, Diane Eddington, review of Sly the Sleuth and the Sports Mysteries, p. 96; March, 2007, Linda Ward-Callaghan, review of Remembering Mrs. Rossi, p. 173; June, 2007, Debbie Whitbeck, review of Sly the Sleuth and the Food Mysteries, p. 117.