Portis, Antoinette

Personal

Married Michael Portis; children: Sasha. Education: University of California, Los Angeles, B.F.A. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, hiking, crossword puzzles.

Addresses

Home and office—Studio City, CA.

Career

Author and illustrator. Formerly worked as a graphic designer and advertising art director; Disney Consumer Products, former creative director.

Awards, Honors

Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book designation, and Notable Children's Book designation, both American Library Association, and New York Public Library One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing designation, all 2007, all for Not a Box.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Not a Box, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

Not a Stick, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2008.

Sidelights

Antoinette Portis is the author and illustrator of two children's books that have been cited for their simplicity and their ability to inspire a child's creativity. Recalling that, in her own childhood, the simplest of toys could often generate the greatest amount of fun, Portis captures the vividness of a child's imagination in Not a Box, which School Library Journal critic Kate McClelland deemed "a paean to the time-honored imaginative play of young children."

Incorporating simple, heavy line drawings, Not a Box depicts a young bunny who in a game of make believe transforms a large cardboard box into everything from a burning building to a race car to a rocket ship. In his increasingly insistent response to mundane questions regarding his activities in and around the box, the bunny gives the terse reply echoed in the title of Not a Box. Calling Portis's picture-book debut a "celebration of the humble cardboard box" done in "minimalist" fashion, a Publishers Weekly contributor predicted that, while "readers won't abandon their battery-charged plastic toys,… they might join in a game of reimagining everyday objects." Gillian Engberg was more confident of the story's influence, writing in Booklist that the "visual messages about imagination's power" in Not a Box "will easily draw young children, who will recognize their own flights of fantasy." "Brimming with imagination and as close as you can get to the fun of playing with an empty box yourself without actually having one at hand,… Not a Box will resonate with both parents and children," concluded Imperfect Parent online interviewer Amy Brozio-Andrews.

Similar to Not a Box, Not a Stick once again mines the world of a child's imagination as a small pig with a small stick in hand transforms itself into everything from an orchestra conductor to a dragon-slayer to a fisherman. While noting that Portis's second picture book echoes the theme of its predecessor, a Kirkus Reviews writer concluded that Not a Stick "has enough charm and understated pizzazz to allow its creator to work her magic one more time."

Asked by a Powell's Books online interview what inspired her to write for children, Portis explained: "I write books for kids because when I was a kid, they [books] were central to my life. Reading was my most favorite thing in the world. I always wanted to be part of that alchemy. To make something that would be part of children's memories the way so many books are a part of mine."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of Not a Box, p. 53.

Horn Book, January-February, Christine M. Heppermann, review of Not a Box, p. 60.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006, review of Not a Box, p. 1225; November 15, 2007, review of Not a Stick.

New York Times Book Review, April 15, 2007, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Not a Box, p. 19.

Publishers Weekly, November 27, 2006, review of Not a Box, p. 49.

School Library Journal, January, 2007, Kate McClelland, review of Not a Box, p. 100.

ONLINE

Imperfect Parent Web site,http://www.imperfectparent.com/ (June 15, 2008), Amy Brozio-Andrews, review of Not a Box.

Powell's Books Web site,http://www.powells.com/ (June 15, 2008), interview with Portis.