Ross, Christine 1950–

Personal

Born May 21, 1950, in Wellington, New Zealand; daughter of Jim (an accountant) and Mary (a homemaker) Jarvis; married Graham Ross, April 22, 1978; children: Rebecca, Nicholas. Education: Received diploma from Wellington Polytechnic Design School. Hobbies and other interests: Yoga, learning cello.

Addresses

Home and office—Carrington, R.D. 1, Carterton, New Zealand.

Career

Learning Media, Wellington, New Zealand, art editor; freelance illustrator and writer.

Awards, Honors

Runner-up, Nomar Concours, 1980; second prize, AIM Children's Book Award, 1991, for Lily and the Bears; first prize, AIM Children's Book Award, and Russell Clarke Medal, both 1993, both for Lily and the Present.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Lily and the Bears, Heinemann Reed (Auckland, New Zealand), 1990, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1991.

Lily and the Present, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1992.

The Whirlys and the West Wind, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1993.

Author's works have been translated into Maori.

ILLUSTRATOR

Joan de Hamel, Hemi's Pet, Reed Methuen (New Zealand), 1985, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1987.

Margaret Mahy, Dragon's Telephone, Telecom (Wellington, New Zealand), 1994.

Get up, Get up, You Lazy Heads!, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1995.

Alan Bagnall, Dragon, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1995.

Diana Noonan, Cupboard Full of Summer, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1995.

Diana Noonan, Too Little, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1996.

Janine Scott, Mr Smarty Loves to Party, Murdoch Books (North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 1996.

Diana Noonan, Great Bean Race, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1996.

Linley Jones, P.S., I Love You, Gramps, Shortland (Auckland, New Zealand), 1997.

Joy Cowley, Off Goes the Hose!, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1997.

Joy Cowley, Escalator, Shortland (Auckland, New Zealand), 1997.

Joy Cowley, Clown in the Well, Shortland (Auckland, New Zealand), 1997.

Joy Cowley, Chicken for Dinner, Shortland (Auckland, New Zealand), 1997.

Rhymes with Hay, Lands End Publishing (Auckland, New Zealand), 1998.

Rhymes with King, Lands End Publishing (Auckland, New Zealand), 1998.

Charissa Sgouros, A Pillow for My Mom, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1998.

Jessica Wallace, Party Game, Lands End Publishing (Auckland, New Zealand), 1998.

Jessica Wallace, Weather, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1998.

Barbara Beveridge, Off Went the Light, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1999.

Marcia Vaughan, Pirate Pie, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1999.

Diana Noonan, Double Switch, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 1999.

Dot Meharry, My Best Bear, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2000.

Diane Foley, Morris Mouse, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2000.

(With Sherryl Jordan) Rose Fyleman and others, Mice, and Other Stories, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2000.

Anna Kenna, Knightly News, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2000.

Marcia Vaughan, Flutey Family Fruit Cake, Shortland (Auckland, New Zealand), 2000.

(With Clive Taylor and Nicolas van Pallant) Aileen Fisher and others, Bugs and Other Stories, Shortland (Auckland, New Zealand), 2000.

Sandra Iverson and others, Bake a Cake, and Other Stories, Shortland (Auckland, New Zealand), 2000.

Philippa Werry, My Little Sister, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2000.

Julie Ellis, Where Is Sam?, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2001.

Lesley E. Thompson and Karen Anderson, All about Me!, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2001.

Alan and Jill Bagnall, Let's See, Ling Lee, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2002.

Pauline Cartwright, Hidden Treasure, Learning Media (Wellington, New Zealand), 2002.

Diana Noonan, Auntie Rosie and the Rabbit, Scholastic New Zealand (Auckland, New Zealand), 2002.

David Booth, Molly Whuppie and the Giant: A Play Based on a Traditional Scottish Folktale, Pearson Longman (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2003.

Pam Holden, Quick Picnic, Red Rocket Books (Auckland, New Zealand), 2004.

Lucy Davey, Fifi la Belle, Scholastic (Auckland, New Zealand), 2005.

Sidelights

New Zealand illustrator Christine Ross has contributed her artwork to numerous picture books for young children as well as well as to readers for elementary-grade students. While much of her work has been for Learning Media, a publisher for whom she also serves as art editor, Ross has also created illustrations for stories by Charissa Sgouros, Diana Noonan, Margaret Mahy, and Lucy Davey. In Sgouros's A Pillow for My Mom, which focuses on a young girl who copes with her mother's serious illness by making a special pillow for the woman's hospital bed, Ross's gently colored, soft-edged drawings "capture the child's feelings of loneliness, powerlessness, and mourning." In Kirkus Reviews a writer also praised the book's art, noting that Ross effectively captures "all the vulnerability of the young girl's plight."

The second oldest of five children, Ross grew up with reading as a central part of her life. "My mother was a voracious reader and read to us a great deal," she once told SATA. "There were always plenty of books around—usually library books—and it was taken for granted that reading was a valuable thing to do." "When I was a child I drew every day," Ross added, "and when I ran out of paper I'd draw on the insides of opened-out cereal boxes or paper bags, anything I could get my hands on." These early love affairs have lasted into adulthood; "I have always loved books and things made of paper," the author/illustrator admitted. "Book shops, libraries, and art supply shops with their stacks of crisp, fresh paper and wonderful colored pencils and inks are some of my favorite places.

"By the age of six I decided to be either a writer or illustrator when I grew up, and through the rest of my childhood I always knew what I was going to be. It made life simple in many ways to be so single-minded! After I left school I went to the Design School in Wellington where I learned an enormous amount about drawing and designing. After leaving there and a brief stint at working in a library (which I loved), I was very lucky to get a job as an art editor at Learning Media, which puts out extremely good reading material for schools in New Zealand. A number of well-known New Zealand writers, like Margaret Mahy, have started their careers writing for this publisher."

Ross started her publishing career as an illustrator for Joan de Hamel's Hemi's Pet. "When illustrating I use pictures to extend the story." Ross explained to SATA. "I tell the reader what the people are like by how they look and where they live and what they wear. I like to think the reader could imagine climbing into the pictures and walking around through doors and into other rooms."

While working at Learning Media, Ross learned a lot about illustrating for children and ended up reading hundreds of children's stories. "Eventually because of this I felt that I understood how children's stories were constructed and that I could probably write one too," she once explained. "I have very vivid memories of being a child and of the books that were my favorites, like Babar the Elephant, and the 'Madeline' books. When writing and illustrating my own stories, my main purpose is to create a book that would have entertained me as a child."

Ross's first published book as both author and illustrator was the 1991 work Lily and the Bears, written for pre-school to second-grade children. In order to feel big and brave, little Lily puts on a bear suit every morning, growls at the grown-ups, and acts generally rude. However, it is Lily who gets a rude awakening one day when her class visits the zoo and she is mistakenly caged up with the real bears. Lily escapes, and the next day finds a new, though equally outlandish, way to be big and brave. A Kirkus Reviews critic cited the narrative in Lily and the Bears as being "brisk and pleasantly wry," while Hazel Rochman, writing for Booklist, praised Ross's "beautifully detailed, feathery colored drawings," which "combine just the right touch of the bizarre with the domestic."

Lily's adventures continue in Lily and the Present. Here, when Lily sees that her newborn baby brother has not received anything but the most practical of gifts, she decides he needs something "big and bright and beautiful." So off she goes to Bigg's Department Store, where, using the oft-heard phrase, "Charge it, please!" she buys her brother a crocodile, a chandelier, and a wedding cake. Unfortunately, none of these items will fit through the store's revolving doors. Forced to leave the admittedly inappropriate gifts in the store, Lily finds someone outside selling the perfect present: a balloon. A Kirkus Reviews critic noted that Ross achieves "the right balance between imaginative fantasy and satisfying realism" with illustrations that are "humorous and appealing."

Ross presents a mix of fantasy and realism in her 1993 tale, The Whirlys and the West Wind. Martha Topol, writing for School Library Journal, called the book an "innovative, fun story … with surefire child appeal." The story starts when the west wind blows up a storm, picks up Mr. and Mrs. Whirly, and blows them away, leaving the three young Whirlys to fend for themselves. Finding no help for children with wind-blown parents listed in the phone book, the youngsters decide to take care of themselves until their parents finally return.

Ross lives with her family in a rural area about sixty miles from Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. "We are surrounded by fields and trees," she once told SATA, "and if you look at the cover of The Whirlys and the West Wind, you will see the house I live in." Her advice to budding illustrators and authors: "Get lots of practice! Draw or write every day. It's like learning a musical instrument. It's not a gift that's handed out to you ready-made but takes a lot of work to get right."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Ross, Christine, Lily and the Present, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1992.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 1991, Hazel Rochman, review of Lily and the Bears, p. 1500; December 15, 1992, p. 747.

Children's Book Review Service, July, 1991, p. 149; January, 1994, p. 56.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 1991, review of Lily and the Bears, p. 538; October 15, 1992, review of Lily and the Present, p. 1315; August 15, 1993, p. 1079; April 1, 1998, review of A Pillow for My Mom.

School Library Journal, July, 1991, p. 63; November, 1992, p. 77; November, 1993, Martha Topol, review of The Whirlys and the West Wind, p. 90; May, 1998, Patricia Pearl Dole, review of A Pillow for My Mom, p. 125.