Picnic With Piggins

Jane Dyer always wanted to be a teacher as far back as she can remember. Her mother was a kindergarten teacher and so she grew up in a house filled with art projects, music, and books. Jane laughs when she recalls the hours she spent playing school with her cat and dog. She would dress them in doll clothes and conduct classes in reading and writing.While she had little success with her earliest students, Jane went on to become an innovative and successful teacher. Art, music, and literature were incorporated into many of the activities of her kindergarten and second grade classes.Moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband while he attended graduate school, Jane found her first work in the world of publishing with the Boston Educational Research Company. She wrote and illustrated lesson activities for teachers to accompany a new reading program being developed for Addison-Wesley. But it was Jane's special gift for illustration that soon led to trade book work with numerous publishers.Today, Jane is widely recognized for her skill in telling the same tale as the author, while adding her own embellishments to every story. Her work ranges from the intricate detail and sophisticated humor of the Piggins series, to the lush, impressionistic style of My Father. Jane's work is a combination of imagination and research. She finds inspiration for her characters from family and friends, as well as from two cats and a dog named Woolly who share her home.Jane's original illustrations are exhibited and sold at galleries throughout the country. Her numerous awards and honors include two Parent's Choice Honor Books for Illustration and several Notable Children's Trade Book citations.Jane and her daughters love rainy days to draw, to read, and to daydream. This rainy day enchantment is apparent in Jane's luminous illustrations for Talking Like the Rain, a poetry collection by X.J. and Dorothy Kennedy, which Publisher's Weekly called, "Unusually striking...Dyer's vibrantly colored detailed illustrations (are) some of this gifted artist's finest work." Her whimsical and charming illustrations also grace the pages of Animal Crackers: A Delectable Collection of Pictures, Poems, and Lullabies for the Very Young. With selections ranging from Mother Goose classics to contemporary poems, this enchanting anthology celebrates the special times of a child's first years.Jane lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, Tom, and their daughters, Brooke and Cecily.Yolen, Jane is the author of 'Picnic With Piggins' with ISBN 9780152615352 and ISBN 0152615350.