Love, Judy (Judith Dufour Love)

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Love, Judy (Judith Dufour Love)

Personal

Married; husband's name Alan; children: Matt, Tom.

Addresses

Home and office—Belmont, MA.

Career

Illustrator.

Writings

ILLUSTRATOR

John and Cindy Trent, The Treasure Tree, Word (Dallas, TX), 1992.

John Trent, There's a Duck in My Closet!, Word (Dallas, TX), 1993.

John Trent, I'd Choose You!, Word (Dallas, TX), 1994.

John Trent, Spider Sisters, Word (Dallas, TX), 1996.

Ivon Cecil, Kirby Kelvin and the Not-Laughing Lessons, Whispering Coyote (Dallas, TX), 1998.

John Trent, The Two Trails: A Treasure Tree Adventure, Tommy Nelson (Nashville, TN), 1998.

The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry, C. Potter (New York, NY), 1999.

John Trent, The Black and White Rainbow, Waterbrook (Colorado Springs, CO), 1999.

Julie Danneberg, First Day Jitters, Charlesbridge (Watertown, MA), 2000.

Lois G. Grambling, The Witch Who Wanted to Be a Princess, Whispering Coyote (Watertown, MA), 2002.

(With Phil Bliss and Jerry Tiritilli) Silly Songs Sing-Along, Publications International (Lincolnwood, IL), 2002.

Matthew Gollub, Gobble, Quack, Moon, Tortuga (Santa Rose, CA), 2002.

Julie Dannenberg, First Year Letters, Charlesbridge (Watertown, MA), 2003.

Juanita Havill, The Blue Racer, Zaner-Bloser (Columbus, OH), 2004.

(Under name Judy Dufour Love) Larry Dane Brimner, Calamity Jane, Compass Point (Minneapolis, MN), 2004.

Lester L. Laminack, Jake's 100th Day of School, Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 2006.

Julie Dannenberg, Last Day Blues, Charlesbridge (Watertown, MA), 2006.

Lois G. Grambling, Can I Bring My Pterodactyl to School, Miss Johnson?, Charlesbridge (Watertown, MA), 2006.

Karen Jo Shapiro, I Must Go Down to the Beach Again, and Other Poems, Charlesbridge (Watertown, MA), 2007.

Eve Bunting, The Baby Shower, Charlesbridge (Watertown, MA), 2007.

Contributor of illustrations to Poetry Speaks to Children, edited by Elise Paschen, Sourcebooks (Naperville, IL), 2005.

ILLUSTRATOR; UNDER NAME JUDITH DUFOUR LOVE

Carol Bershad, The Changer and the Changed: A Working Guide to Personal Change, Management Sciences for Health (Boston, MA), 1983.

Karl Squier, Leapin' Lizzie, Lady of the Lake (Winchester, MA), 1985.

Jannette Kooy, Going Outside, SRA School Group (Santa Rosa, CA), 1994.

Funny Songs, Publications International (Lincolnwood, IL), 1994.

Barbara Beveridge, Honey, My Rabbit, SRA School Group (Santa Rosa, CA), 1994.

Sarah Toast, Duckling: At Home on the Pond, Publications International (Lincolnwood, IL), 1995.

JoAnn Early Macken, Cats on Judy, Whispering Coyote (Boston, MA), 1997.

Katherine Mead, The Missing Pet, Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 1998.

Sidelights

Judy Love (who also illustrates under the name Judith Dufour Love) has created artwork for dozens of books for children, including those by well-known authors such as Eve Bunting, Julie Danneberg, Larry Dane Brimmer, and Lois G. Grambling. In Love's illustrations for Grambling's The Witch Who Wanted to Be a Princess, the narrative's "matter-of-factness gets ratcheted up to slapstick" via Love's artwork, according to a Publishers Weekly contributor. Sally R. Dow, reviewing the same book for School Library Journal, wrote that "hilarious cartoonlike illustrations enhance this engaging story."

Love's illustrations are often noted for their comedic value. In Danneberg's First Day Jitters, Sarah imagines the worst things that could happen on her first day of school. Connie Fletcher wrote of the picture book in Booklist that "Love's ink-and-watercolor illustrations add humor to Sarah's fears." In School Library Journal, Adele Greenlee wrote that the book's "ink-and-watercolor illustrations are full of action and maintain the [author's] lighthearted tone." In First Year Letters, the teacher from First Day Jitters returns, charting the course for a new school year through letters from her students. "Love's uproarious illustrations are overflowing with comic touches," wrote a contributor to Kirkus Reviews, and in School Library Journal Piper L. Nyman remarked that Dannenberg's "vibrant colors and animated faces bring the barely controlled chaos to life." A further collaboration, Last Day Blues, prompted Carolyn Phelan to conclude in Booklist that the "comic exaggeration" in the book's "vivid, colorful illustration makes [Last Day Blues] … a lively choice for sharing."

Love also turns her attention to classroom activities in Jake's 100th Day of School, where her "richly realistic, abundantly detailed pencil, ink, and watercolor illustrations spill across the pages," according to Booklist critic Shelle Rosenfeld. In a review of Matthew Gollub's Gobble, Quack, Moon for Publishers Weekly, a contributor wrote that "Love's limber animal cast cavorts, squawks and munches feed with much enthusiasm," while Phelan maintained that Gollub's rhyming text is "expanded by the good-humored ink drawings, brightened with watercolor washes." In another illustration project, Eve Bunting's The Baby Shower, Ms. Brindle Cow and Mr. Bull receive numerous gifts from their animal neighbors in celebration of the calf the couple is expecting. Love's pictures provide "a charming complement to the gently plotted story," according to School Library Journal critic Maura Bresnahan.

Along with picture books, Love has contributed her artwork to adult nonfiction and poetry collections. Her work for Karen Jo Shapiro's poetry collection I Must Go Down to the Beach Again, and Other Poems prompted Kathleen Whalin to write in School Library Journal that "Love's black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings underscore the humor in each selection." Hazel Rochman, reviewing the same work for Booklist, similarly commented that Love's "black-and-white illustrations extend the nonsense" in Shapiro's entertaining verses.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 1998, John Peters, review of Kirby Kelvin and the Not-Laughing Lessons, p. 1630; March 15, 2000, Connie Fletcher, review of First Day Jitters, p. 1386; June 1, 2002, Carolyn Phelan, Gobble, Quack, Moon, p. 1737; February 1, 2003, Diane Foote, review of First Year Letters, p. 1000; December 15, 2005, Hazel Rochman, review of Can I Bring My Pterodactyl to School, Ms. Johnson?, p. 50; January 1, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Last Day Blues, p. 109; February 1, 2006, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of Jake's 100th Day of School, p. 56; February 15, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of I Must Go Down to the Beach Again, And Other Poems, p. 81.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2002, review of The Witch Who Wanted to Be a Princess, p. 881; December 15, 2002, review of First Year Letters, p. 1848; January 15, 2006, review of Last Day Blues, p. 82; December 15, 2006, review of I Must Go Down to the Beach Again, and Other Poems, p. 1272.

Publishers Weekly, April 1, 2002, review of Gobble, Quack, Moon, p. 81; June 3, 2002, review of The Witch Who Wanted to Be a Princess, p. 87.

School Library Journal, May, 2000, Adele Greenlee, review of First Day Jitters, p. 133; August, 2002, Sally R. Dow, review of The Witch Who Wanted to Be a Princess, p. 156; April, 2003, Piper L. Nyman, review of First Year Letters, p. 118; July, 2004, Lisa G. Kropp, review of First Day Jitters, p. 42; February, 2006, Genevieve Gallagher, review of Last Day Blues, p. 95; March, 2006, Marge Loch-Wouters, review of Can I Bring My Pterodactyl to School, Ms. Johnson?, p. 187, Grace Oliff, review of Jake's 100th Day of School, p. 196; February, 2007, Kathleen Whalin, review of I Must Go Down to the Beach Again, and Other Poems, p. 145; September, 2007, Maura Bresnahan, review of The Baby Shower, p. 158.