6th January Bean Day (Part 4) Jonathan Bean

Jonathan Bean is an author illustrator based in Pennsylvania in the US. Until his picture book Building Our House, I hadn't noticed his illustrations in other authors books, but after doing a search I realised I already had books in my library with his illustrations, even one by an Australian author, Wendy Orr's novel,  Mokie and Bik Go to Sea. Lynne Jonell's series of novels about Emmy had been popular with a small group of good readers and I loved their covers, but hadn't 'twigged' to the fact that Jonathan was the illustrator. Last year I added Deborah Underwood's Bad Bye, Good Bye and At Night which I really love and thus got a new appreciation of Jonathan Bean's work. I am now off to buy his newest title This is My Home, This is My School. Very few of the students I teach would know about homeschooling so I'm sure this book will lead to some interesting discussion.

When I do displays in the library I always 'go off on tangents' so sometime this year as part of the International Year of Pulses, Jonathan Bean will have his own display as an 'author/illustrator to watch'!