Goode, Diane 1949-

(Diane Capuozzo Goode)

PERSONAL:

Born September 14, 1949, in Brooklyn, NY; daughter of Armand R. (a dentist) and Paule Capuozzo; married David A. Goode (an author and professor), May 26, 1973; children: Peter. Education: Attended École des Beaux Arts, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1971-72; Queens College of the City University of New York, B.F.A., 1972.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—Watchung, NJ. E-mail—goodedog@mac.com.

CAREER:

Substitute teacher at public schools in New York, NY, 1972-73; children's book illustrator and writer, 1975—. University of California, Los Angeles, teacher of a studio workshop on children's book illustration, 1976-79; juror of competitions. Exhibitions: Work shown at Master Eagle Gallery, New York, NY, and represented in permanent collection of Kerlan Collection; exhibitor at museums, colleges, and libraries, including Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982, Denver Public Library, 1985, Krasl Art Center, 1987, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, 1991-92, and Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, 1998-2001.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Award for illustration, Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People, 1976, for The Selchie's Seed and Little Pieces of the West Wind, and 1979, for Dream Eater; Caldecott honor book award, American Library Association, 1983, for When I Was Young in the Mountains; Parents' Choice Award, 1985, for Watch the Stars Come Out, and 1986, for I Go with My Family to Grandma's; included in Redbook list of top ten children's picture books and named Reading Rainbow feature selection, both 1985, for Watch the Stars Come Out; included among best children's books of the year, Child Study Children's Book Committee, 1987, for I Go with My Family to Grandma's, and 1989, for I Hear a Noise; Storytelling World Award, 1998, for Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People; cited in picks of the list, American Bookseller, for Where's Our Mama?, Diane Goode's American Christmas, The Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales and Songs, Watch the Stars Come Out, and I Go with My Family to Grandma's; included among notable children's trade books in the field of social studies, National Council of Social Studies and Children's Book Council, for The Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales and Songs, Watch the Stars Come Out, I Go with My Family to Grandma's, and When I Was Young in the Mountains; notable book citation, American Library Association, for Tattercoats: An Old English Tale, Watch the Stars Come Out, and When I Was Young in the Mountains; Teachers' Choice award, National Council of Teachers of English, for Watch the Stars Come Out and When I Was Young in the Mountains; book of the year citation, Library of Congress, for When I Was Young in the Mountains; children's choice citation, International Reading Association and Children's Book Council, for The Unicorn and the Plow.

WRITINGS:

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Diane Goode's Little Library of Christmas Classics (contains The Nutcracker, Christmas Carols, The Fir Tree, and The Night before Christmas), Random House (New York, NY), 1983.

I Hear a Noise, Dutton (New York, NY), 1988.

The Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales and Songs, compiled by Ann Durell, Dutton (New York, NY), 1989.

Diane Goode's American Christmas, Dutton (New York, NY), 1990.

Where's Our Mama?, Dutton (New York, NY), 1991.

Diane Goode's Book of Silly Stories and Songs, Dutton (New York, NY), 1992.

Diane Goode's Christmas Magic: Poems and Carols, Random House (New York, NY), 1992.

The Little Books of Nursery Animals (contains The Little Book of Cats, The Little Book of Farm Friends, The Little Book of Mice, and The Little Book of Pigs), Dutton (New York, NY), 1993.

Diane Goode's Book of Scary Stories and Songs, Dutton (New York, NY), 1994.

Mama's Perfect Present, Dutton (New York, NY), 1996.

Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People, Dutton (New York, NY), 1997.

The Dinosaur's New Clothes, Blue Sky (New York, NY), 1999.

Cinderella, the Dog, and Her Little Glass Slipper, Blue Sky (New York, NY), 2000.

Tiger Trouble!, Blue Sky (New York, NY), 2001.

Monkey Mo Goes to Sea, Blue Sky (New York, NY), 2002.

Thanksgiving Is Here!, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.

Mind Your Manners!, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2005.

The Most Perfect Spot, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

ILLUSTRATOR:

Christian Garrison, Little Pieces of the West Wind, Bradbury (Scarsdale, NY), 1975.

Shulamith Levey Oppenheim, The Selchie's Seed, Bradbury (Scarsdale, NY), 1975, revised edition, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1996.

Christian Garrison, Flim and Flam and the Big Cheese, Bradbury (Scarsdale, NY), 1976.

Flora Annie Steele, Tattercoats: An Old English Tale, Bradbury (Scarsdale, NY), 1976.

(And translator) Madame de Beaumont, Beauty and the Beast, Bradbury (Scarsdale, NY), 1978.

Christian Garrison, The Dream Eater, Bradbury (Scarsdale, NY), 1978.

Emoeke de Papp Severo, translator, The Good-Hearted Youngest Brother, Bradbury (Scarsdale, NY), 1981.

Louise Moeri, The Unicorn and the Plow, Dutton (New York, NY), 1982.

Cynthia Rylant, When I Was Young in the Mountains, Dutton (New York, NY), 1982.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan, edited by Josette Frank, Random House (New York, NY), 1983.

Carlo Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Random House (New York, NY), 1983.

Amy Ehrlich, adaptor, The Random House Book of Fairy Tales, Random House (New York, NY), 1985.

Riki Levinson, Watch the Stars Come Out, Dutton (New York, NY), 1985.

Deborah Hautzig, The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet, Random House (New York, NY), 1986.

Riki Levinson, I Go with My Family to Grandma's, Dutton (New York, NY), 1986.

Julian Hawthorne, reteller, Rumpty-Dudget's Tower, Knopf (New York, NY), 1987.

(And translator) Charles Perrault, Cinderella, Knopf (New York, NY), 1988.

Noel Streatfeild, Ballet Shoes, Random House (New York, NY), 1991.

Noel Streatfeild, Theater Shoes, Random House (New York, NY), 1994.

Lloyd Alexander, The House Gobbaleen, Dutton (New York, NY), 1995.

Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses, Morrow (New York, NY), 1998.

Cynthia Rylant, Christmas in the Country, Blue Sky (New York, NY), 2002.

Margaret Wise Brown, Christmas in the Barn, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

Cynthia Ryland, Alligator Boy, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2007.

Also illustrator of many record album covers and book covers.

Watch the Stars Come Out was translated into Spanish.

SIDELIGHTS:

Diane Goode is an award-winning author-illustrator of children's books best known for her anthologies of folktales and songs. She has also paired her illustrations with the writings of other authors.

"When I was a child I loved books and art," Goode once told CA. "Reading allowed me to escape into the reality of others, and drawing let me create my own. My father was of Italian descent, and my mother was French. My brother and I enjoyed the richness of both cultures. We traveled to Europe every summer from the time we were infants, visiting family and the great cathedrals and museums of the world. These early impressions helped shape my appreciation for life and art. I was bedazzled by Michelangelo's ‘Descent from the Cross." Could marble be warm and luminous? Could monumental forms be at once tender and powerful? Man's creative ability seemed staggering. I saw the works of Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Botticelli, Lautrec, Monet, Manet, Cézanne, and all the great artists. I was awestruck. I was in love with art!

"I have been drawing ever since I can remember, but my formal education began at Queens College in art history. I soon switched to fine arts, where I tried my hand at everything: drawing, painting, sculpture, etching, and color theory. I took a year off to study in France. It was an artist's dream.

"After graduating, I taught high school for a year, putting together a portfolio at night. In my blissful ignorance of publishing, I had decided to illustrate children's books. It was just as well that I was so naive, or else I would have been too afraid to try. As luck would have it, I was contracted to illustrate my first picture book in 1973. I was twenty-four then and knew nothing at all about commercial art. Since I was living in California, my New York publisher taught me color separation over the phone!"

An early award-winner for Goode was The Selchie's Seed, by Shulamith Oppenheim. The success of that work acted as an encouragement to Goode in her craft and an entry to future illustrating for other authors and publishers. With the boxed set Diane Goode's Little Library of Christmas Classics, Goode lends her artist's vision to some of the most popular Christmas tales. "This small, gaily decorated slipcase holds four books that Goode has illustrated in extremely pretty, full-color, animated holiday scenes," noted a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. George A. Woods observed in the New York Times that the "star of this package … is Diane Goode, whose illustrations lend just the right accompanying note to each book."

Goode delights in retelling and illustrating oft-told tales and verses, and many critics delight in her resulting efforts. Her adaptation of Julian Hawthorne's Rumpty Dudget's Tower brought praise from Jeanne Marie Clancy in School Library Journal: "Goode's colorful cross-hatched illustrations for her adaptation enhance the story and capture the spirit of the characters, especially the mischievous Rumpty-Dudget." A Booklist reviewer commented that the "beauty and wit of Goode's well-composed artwork will draw readers into the rather old-fashioned tale." Horn Book contributor Margaret A. Bush concluded that Goode's "fine execution of both text and illustration breathes new life into the old story, making it freshly accessible as an old-fashioned fairy tale, eminently suited for reading aloud." Goode's illustrations have also been credited with attractively interpreting Robert Louis Stevenson's collection A Child's Garden of Verses. School Library Journal critic Robin L. Gibson observed that the artist "applies her characteristically charming illustrations to Stevenson's poems with appealing results." Gibson also noted that Goode "captures the exuberance of childhood in many pictures."

"All of my work is done on opaline parchment," Goode told CA. "I sketch lightly in pencil and use watercolors applied with very fine sable brushes. Sometimes I use color pencil with the paint to soften the atmosphere. I always begin with several rough dummies and then work on the individual pages, sketching very loosely and fast to establish movement and composition. I do these dozens of times, repositioning, enlarging, reducing, adding, and omitting. There are always hundreds of sketches for each book. It sounds tedious, but it is the most exciting part of creating the book."

Goode began creating her own self-illustrated books in 1988 with the publication of I Hear a Noise. A reviewer for Junior Bookshelf deemed the debut "a joyously funny book," summarizing: "In its high spirits, its high humour, the book is entirely original." Goode tells the story without narrative, employing only dialogue and artwork to address the familiar fear of bedtime fiends. Like many little boys, the hero, lying in bed, complains that he hears a noise. While his mother tries to comfort him, a green dragon swoops in, snatches them, and flies off with both in tow. Back at its castle, the monster's siblings argue over these human trophies. Until, that is, their mother steps in, insisting that the captives be returned to their home. "Goode … puts an amusing new twist on the well-worn subject of monsters at bedtime," noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A reviewer for Booklist called Goode's first book a "gloriously spine-tingling thriller." "Goode's engagingly expressive creatures …," concluded the critic, "will leave youngsters clamoring for yet one more read of this soft-edged, bedtime chiller."

After launching her writing career, Goode began focusing much of her creative energy on anthologies. She wrote and illustrated volumes of folktales and silly stories, and in Diane Goode's Book of Scary Stories and Songs she tackles tales featuring ghosts and goblins from around the world. Horn Book correspondent Nancy Vasilakis dubbed the book a "welcome addition to the Halloween or storytelling shelves." A Publishers Weekly reviewer, noting that the funny stories "are rather tame," assured readers that the book "will be appreciated more for its rich multicultural flavor than for its fright value." In Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People, the author-illustrator deals with the theme of the "triumph of a small but clever hero over a gigantic adversary," according to Booklist reviewer Julie Corsaro. Working once again with tall tales and folktales from around the world, Goode puts together a smorgasbord of stories. Corsaro noted that "Goode's elegant watercolors bring it all together, her appealing cartoon-style art displaying a penchant for the compelling contrast between big and small." A Publishers Weekly contributor felt that her stories of giants and little people added to Goode's "stable of stellar collections." "With this blithely spirited book," concluded the reviewer, "Goode has done it again … and that's no exaggeration."

Goode's French heritage and travels proved essential to the creation of two further books, Where's Our Mama and Mama's Perfect Present. In the first title, two children have become separated from their mother at the Gare d'Orsay train station in Paris. Aided by a kindly French gendarme, the brother and sister set out to find their beautiful mother, treking from one place to the next. The reader all the while sees the mother in one corner of a crowded page, and finally the children see her as well. Set earlier in the century, Where's Our Mama was written in tribute to Goode's own mother. A writer for Kirkus Reviews observed that the book is reminiscent of a Russian folktale and called it "a charming transformation of a story that deftly dramatizes the child's-eye view of a most important person." Horn Book contributor Mary M. Burns concluded her review by stating that "the book is as gallic as a shrug, as logical as Pascal, and as winning as a song by Maurice Chevalier. A witty, wonderful production. C'est magnifique!"

"Mayhem? Mais Oui! The rosy-cheeked children who searched Paris high and low in Where's Our Mama? are back," celebrated a Publishers Weekly review of Mama's Perfect Present. Now accompanied by their dachshund, Zaza, who leaves destruction in its wake, the siblings are searching for the perfect birthday gift for their beloved mother. Not surprisingly, each place they visit is also visited with chaos as a result of their rambunctious dog. A Publishers Weekly reviewer promised that this sequel "will leave young readers chuckling at Zaza's exploits and everyone else chuckling an appreciative ooh-la-la." Mary M. Burns observed in Horn Book: "This is a true picture story, with the understated text serving as a straight-faced, innocent commentary on the action, which is visualized through careful manipulation of line, deft shading, and delicate hatching." In a Booklist starred review, Ilene Cooper commented that "the story is clever and full of fun, but it is really the pictures that make this come alive."

In The Dinosaur's New Clothes, Goode gave a Hans Christian Andersen classic "a prehistoric makeover," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor. Goode parodies the original royals with a gaggle of pompadoured dinosaurs holding court at Versailles. In this palace, a Tyrannosaurus rex—king of all dinosaurs—stars as the clothes-horse emperor of Andersen's original. "It's all good silly fun," concluded the reviewer, "a light parody of Andersen's send-up of gullibility and greed."

Goode's often humorous work is grounded in a private life that provides the author with the necessary stability and lightness. "I've been married since 1973," Goode once told CA. "Our son Peter was born in 1978 and is a fine artist already. I often rely on him to read manuscripts for an opinion and critique of my work. He has helped me see the world through a child's eyes.

"We have lived in four states and have had many small pets along the way: parrots, love birds, hamsters, cats, and mice. We've settled in Watchung, New Jersey, and each day we are visited by wild deer, raccoons, rabbits, hedgehogs, a pheasant, and an owl. We now have a Welsh Corgi named Katie and a big yellow Lab named Jack. We love to travel in France, and we love to cook. I still read as much as I can. I listen to books on tape as I paint.

"Working in the field of children's literature has been a great joy. How lucky to be able to do the work I love and also contribute in some small way to the lives of our children. How lucky to find in my work the two things I've cherished since childhood: art and books."

More recently Goode told CA: "My books are usually characterized by delicate, detailed paintings. A few years ago my art director told me that she loved the rough preliminary drawings from my dummies and suggested that I use them as the final art for Monkey Mo Goes to Sea. I loved the idea. I always felt pure line captures energy and emotion like nothing else.

"Regardless of technique, I do intensive background research, at least six dummies, and countless preliminary drawings for every book. The trick is to keep the freshness of the original drawings as I work through revision after revision.

"I begin by laying out the text, quickly and roughly sketching the story from start to finish in one sitting. I then go back and work on individual pages, always relating each to the one before, the one following, and to the story as a whole. I do this on architect's tissue, and I tape the rough sketches to layout spreads that are painted on my studio walls. I can see the entire book at a glance, and I can easily play with the pagination by moving the taped pieces around.

"Still on the wall, I work the composition by tearing up and taping sections of the sketches to get the best balance between text and illustration. The text is also printed, cut out, and can be easily moved around the pages with tape. The play between text and illustration is critical. I try numerous layouts until I come to what I think gives me the best possible pacing for the story. Every time I think I have a viable dummy, I print out the version in dummy-book form to get a sense of turning the pages.

"After choosing the best dummy, I develop and finalize the individual illustrations in either pen and ink or pencil. I then print out the final line drawings on a heavy-stock watercolor paper. After experimenting with various color palettes, I hand-paint each one with gouache and watercolor.

"When you depend on pure line for expression, the slightest variation in length or thickness of the line of the mouth, the angle of an eyebrow, the sweep of a tail, the pose of a foot, changes the mood of the entire illustration. I often do the same small character over and over until the line is right, until I can just dash it off and it seems to come alive. My theme for this style is ‘less is more.’

"In a successful picture book, illustration and text should move together like perfectly attuned partners in a dance. The illustrations not only support, but can serve as a counterpoint to the text. If I've done it right, the effort should not be evident; it should look easy and natural. It's an exciting process."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 15, 1988, review of Rumpty Dudget's Tower, p. 862; December 1, 1988, review of I Hear a Noise, pp. 647-648; October 1, 1994, p. 321; July, 1996, Ilene Cooper, review of Mama's Perfect Present, p. 1824; September 15, 1997, Julie Corsaro, review of Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People, p. 237.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September, 1991, review of Where's Our Mama?, p. 10; December, 1996, review of Mama's Perfect Present, p. 136.

Five Owls, September-October, 1991, review of Where's Our Mama?, p. 9.

Horn Book, March-April, 1988, Margaret A. Bush, review of Rumpty Dudget's Tower, pp. 199-200; September-October, 1988, Margaret A. Bush, review of I Hear a Noise, p. 615; November-December, 1991, Mary M. Burns, review of Where's Our Mama?, pp. 727-728; September-October, 1992, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Diane Goode's Book of Silly Stories and Songs, p. 592; January-February, 1995, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Diane Goode's Book of Scary Stories and Songs, p. 75; November-December, 1996, Mary M. Burns, review of Mama's Perfect Present, pp. 723-724.

Junior Bookshelf, April, 1989, review of I Hear a Noise, p. 61; June, 1992, review of Where's Our Mama?, p. 102.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 1988, review of I Hear a Noise, p. 973; August 1, 1991, review of Where's Our Mama?, p. 1010.

New York Times, December 4, 1983, George A. Woods, review of Diane Goode's Little Library of Christmas Classics, pp. 77-79.

New York Times Book Review, April 19, 1992, review of Where's Our Mama?, p. 16; January 19, 1997, review of Mama's Perfect Present, p. 24.

Publishers Weekly, September 2, 1983, review of Diane Goode's Little Library of Christmas Classics, p. 80; July 29, 1988, Kimberly Olson Fakih and Diane Roback, review of I Hear a Noise, p. 230; June 29, 1992, review of Diane Goode's Book of Silly Stories and Songs, p. 61; September 7, 1992, Elizabeth Devereaux, review of Diane Goode's Christmas Magic, p. 67; July 4, 1994, review of Diane Goode's Book of Scary Stories and Songs, p. 60; September 2, 1996, review of Mama's Perfect Present, p. 129; July 28, 1997, review of Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People, p. 73; June 28, 1999, review of The Dinosaur's New Clothes, p. 78.

School Library Journal, January, 1988, Jeanne Marie Clancy, review of Rumpty Dudget's Tower, p. 66; February, 1989, Trev Jones, review of I Hear a Noise, p. 69; September, 1992, Heide Piehler, review of Diane Goode's Book of Silly Stories and Songs, p. 215; September, 1994, Beth Tegart, review of Diane Goode's Book of Scary Stories and Songs, p. 207; September, 1996, Wendy Lukeheart, review of Mama's Perfect Present, p. 178; November, 1997, Jeanne Clancy Watkins, review of Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People, p. 107; January, 1999, Robin L. Gibson, review of A Child's Garden of Verses, p. 121.

Washington Post Book World, February 9, 1992, review of Where's Our Mama?, p. 11.