The Mitten: a Ukrainian folktale (1989) issued as a board book in 1996.The Twelve Days of Christmas ( Dodd, Mead, 1986), an edition of the English song published 1780.Fritz and the Beautiful Horses (Houghton Mifflin, 1981).For almost every listing she identifies a specific setting such as Salzburg, Austria, for her first book as a writer, Fritz and the Beautiful Horses (1981), and Novgorod, Russia, for her recent adaptation Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella (2013). On AugJan Brett married bassist Joseph Hearne, a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1962.īrett maintains a list of books online that may be complete for her original writings and adaptations. For a few years she continued to work with other writers, especially Eve Bunting, but she has rarely done so since 1990. Beginning with Annie and the Wild Animals (Houghton Mifflin, 1985) she created numerous picture books as writer and illustrator. That one was the self-illustrated picture book Fritz and the Beautiful Horses, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1981. Its catalog covers 13 books she created from 1978 to 1984, all but one as an illustrator with another writer. The Library phoned her that September and learned that she would be using her maiden name thereafter. īrett's earliest book in the Library of Congress online catalog was published by Atheneum Books in 1978 under her married name: Woodland Crossings, with 43 pages of text by Stephen Krensky and drawings by Jan Brett Bowler. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists.' She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and now travels extensively to research architecture and costume for her books. She decided to be an illustrator as a child and recalls, 'I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. She has adapted or retold traditional stories such as the Gingerbread Man and Goldilocks and has illustrated classics such as ' The Owl and the Pussycat'.īrett was born and still lives in Massachusetts.

Her titles include The Mitten, The Hat, and Gingerbread Baby. Her colorful, detailed depictions of a wide variety of animals and human cultures range from Scandinavia to Africa. Jan Brett (born December 1, 1949) is an American illustrator and writer of children's picture books.

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