Marla Frazee

Photo of Marla Frazee
Marla Frazee is the author-illustrator of A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, which received a Caldecott Honor Award and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, Roller Coaster, Walk On!, Santa Claus: The World's Number One Toy Expert, and The Boss Baby. She is also the illustrator of many books, including the Stars, Caldecott Honor-awarded All the World, The Seven Silly Eaters, and the acclaimed Clementine series written by .
 
She graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where she has also been teaching children’s book illustration for 20 years. She and her husband have three sons, a dog, and a cat. She works in a small studio cabin in their backyard under an avocado tree.


Author's Comment:
 
You’ve said you’d like your work to appear as “fresh as paint, but to have been around long enough to be a classic.” How do you accomplish this in your illustrations?

This is a hard question! No one has ever asked me that before.

I work on the book’s structure before I know what the content of each illustration will be. I think there was a formality to the classic books I admire and I try to riff on (or out-and-out rip off!) some aspect of that with each book. I never just wing it when it comes to structure – and I’m referring here to the pagination and layout of words and pictures within the picture book form. I plan it out, using the rhythm and meaning of the manuscript to dictate what the relationship between words and pictures should be on the page.

Nationality: American

Featured series by Marla Frazee


Clementine - Age 7 & up