Johnson, Steve 1960-

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Johnson, Steve 1960-

Personal

Born 1960, in MN; married Lou Fancher (a writer and illustrator). Education: School of Associated Arts (St. Paul, MN), B.F.A.

Addresses

Home—Moraga, CA. E-mail—fancher@dancingpeople.com.

Career

Commercial artist and illustrator. Freelance illustrator, with wife, Lou Fancher, beginning 1986; pre-production set and character designer for animated films, including Toy Story, 1995, and A Bug's Life, 1998.

Awards, Honors

(With Lou Fancher) International Reading Association Childrens Book Award 1989 for No Star Nights by Anna Smucker; Minnesota Book Award for Children's Books, 1992, for The Salamander Room, by Anne Mazer; gold medal, Society of Illustrators, 1993, for Up North at the Cabin by Marsha Wilson Chall; Minnesota Book Award for Children's Books finalist, 1993, for Up North at the Cabin 1996, for Cat You'd Better Come Home by Garrison Keillor, 1997, for My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss, 1998, for The Lost and Found House by Michael Cadnum, 1999, for Coppelia by Margot Fonteyn, 2002, for both The Day Ocean Came to Visit by Diane Wolkstein and Silver Seeds by Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer; Nestlé Children's Book Prize shortlist, 2005, for The Dancing Tiger by Malachy Doyle.

Illustrator

WITH WIFE, LOU FANCHER

Anna Smucker, No Star Nights, Knopf (New York, NY), 1989.

Douglas Hill, Penelope's Pendant, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1990.

Anne Mazer, The Salamander Room, Knopf (New York, NY), 1991.

Jon Scieszka, The Frog Prince Continued, Viking (New York, NY), 1991.

Marsha Wilson Chall, Up North at the Cabin, Lothrop, Lee & Shephard (New York, NY), 1992.

B.G. Hennessy, The First Night, Viking (New York, NY), 1993.

Sarah S. Kilborne, Peach and Blue, Knopf (New York, NY), 1994.

Garrison Keillor, Cat, You Better Come Home, Viking (New York, NY), 1995.

Dr. Seuss (pseudonym of Theodore Geisel), My Many Colored Days, Knopf (New York, NY), 1996.

Michael Cadnum, The Lost and Found House, Viking (New York, NY), 1997.

Margot Fonteyn, Coppélia, Harcourt Brace (San Francisco, CA), 1998.

Lou Fancher, The Quest for the One Big Thing, Disney Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Craig Kee Strete, The Lost Boy and the Monster, Putnam's (New York, NY), 1999.

Janet Schulman, adaptor, Felix Salten's Bambi, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1999.

Lois Duncan, I Walk at Night, Viking (New York, NY), 2000.

Alice Hoffman, Horsefly, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.

Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer, Silver Seeds: A Book of Nature Poems, Viking (New York, NY), 2001.

Diane Wolkstein, The Day Ocean Came to Visit, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 2001.

Margaret Wise Brown, Robin's Room, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2002.

Louise Erdrich, The Range Eternal, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2002.

Mary Pope Osborne, New York's Bravest, Knopf (New York, NY), 2002.

Lou Fancher, adapter, The Velveteen Rabbit; or, How Toys Become Real (based on the story by Margery Williams), Atheneum (New York, NY), 2002.

Mavis Jukes, You're a Bear, Knopf (New York, NY), 2003.

Kathleen Krull, The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew up to Become Dr. Seuss, Random House (New York, NY), 2004.

Dori Chaconas, Momma, Will You?, Penguin (New York, NY), 2004.

H.L. Panahi, Bebop Express, Laura Geringer Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Malachy Doyle, The Dancing Tiger, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.

Karen Hill, All God's Creatures, Little Simon (New York, NY), 2005.

Lou Fancher, Star Climbing, Laura Geringer Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Dan Gutman, Casey Back at Bat, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2007.

Margie Palatini, The Cheese, Katherine Tegen Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Diane Wright Landolf, What a Good Big Brother!, Random House (New York, NY), 2008.

Warren Hanson, Bugtown Boogie, Laura Geringer Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Stephen Mitchell, reteller, The Ugly Duckling, Candlewick Press (New York, NY), 2008.

Maya Angelou, Amazing Peace, Random House (New York, NY), 2008.

Diane Wright Landolf, What a Good Big Brother!, Random House (New York, NY), 2009.

Sidelights

For Sidelights, see entry on Lou Fancher.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 1, 1996, Hazel Rochman, review of My Many Colored Days, p. 510; October 15, 1998, Carolyn Phelan, review of Copélia, p. 416; December 1, 2000, Connie Fletcher, review of Horsefly, p. 721; April 15, 2002, Kay Weisman, review of Robin's Room, p. 1406; July, 2002, Ilene Cooper, review of New York's Finest, p. 1847; December 1, 2003, Louise Brueggemann, review of You're a Bear, p. 684; February 15, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Star Climbing, p. 101; January 1, 2007, GraceAnne A. De-Candido, review of Casey Back at Bat, p. 114.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, March, 2004, Krista Hutley, review of The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew up to Become Dr. Seuss, p. 284.

Horn Book, November-December, 1993, Mary M. Burns, review of The First Night, p. 724; November-December, 2002, Roger Sutton, review of New York's Bravest, p. 737.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2002, review of New York's Bravest, p. 951; August 15, 2002, review of The Range Eternal, p. 1222; September 15, 2002, review of The Velveteen Rabbit, p. 1389; December 15, 2003, review of The Boy on Fairfield Street, p. 1451; April 15, 2005, review of The Dancing Tiger, p. 472; June 1, 2005, review of Bebop Express, p. 642; February 15, 2006, review of Star Climbing, p. 182.

New York Times Book Review, November 21, 1999, Elizabeth Spires, review of Bambi.

Publishers Weekly, September 20, 1993, review of The First Night, p. 37; November 7, 1994, review of Peach and Blue, p. 77; May 8, 1995, review of Cat, You Better Come Home, p. 294; October 13, 1997, review of The Lost and Found House, p. 74; November 16, 1998, review of The Quest for the One Big Thing, p. 77; January 10, 2000, review of I Walk at Night, p. 67; August 13, 2001, review of The Day Ocean Came to Visit, p. 311; May 20, 2002, review of Robin's Room, p. 65; June 24, 2002, review of New York's Bravest, p. 56; September 9, 2002, review of The Range Eternal, p. 67; January 23, 2006, review of Star Climbing, p. 206.

School Library Journal, April, 1999, review of The Quest for the One Big Thing, p. 94; August, 2001, Margaret A. Chang, review of The Day Ocean Came to Visit, p. 174; October, 2002, Susan Oliver, review of The Range Eternal, p. 104; December, 2003, Laura Scott, review of You're a Bear, p. 118; January, 2004, Anne Chapman Callaghan, review of The Boy on Fairfield Street, p. 119; November, 2004, Rebecca Sheridan, review of Momma, Will You?, p. 94; July, 2005, Grace Oliff, review of The Dancing Tiger, p. 88; April, 2006, Susan Weitz, review of Star Climbing, p. 105; January, 2007, Marilyn Taniguchi, review of Casey Back at Bat, p. 94.