About the Author

With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."

As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. "It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain," she says. "I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting."

Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books."

Reviews

"Brett gives her trademark, exquisitely detailed art a Western flair..." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Brett (The Wild Christmas Reindeer; Trouble with Trolls) here gives her trademark, exquisitely detailed art a Western flair as she sets this endearing tale "deep in the heart of Texas hill country." "Don't go gettin' distracted on me," a mother armadillo cautions Bo, one of her four young 'uns. Undeterred, the ever-curious Bo follows a lizard down to the creek just as young Harmony Jean slides down the bank, trying to scuff up her brand-new "pointy-toed, high-heeled, hand-tooled chili-pepper red boots with fancy cutwork, tall tops, and a Curly H brand." Bo (who, like all armadillos, can't see very well) mistakes the boots for a shiny red armadillo, whom he greets with a friendly "Howdy." Impeccably reproducing the design, stitching and trims of Western clothing, border panels follow Bo's brothers and Ma as they search for their weak-eyed wanderer. He, meanwhile, is having the time of his life at the Curly H rodeo, where he rides on the back of Harmony Jean's horse, munches on a jalapeño pepper under a table and kicks up his heels at a barn dance-all in the company of his new "friend." The high-spirited hero and action-filled art will please the author/artist's many fans. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

"Brett gives her trademark, exquisitely detailed art a Western flair..." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)