Louis Darling:
Alan Tiegreen:
Tracy Dockray
Who is your favorite Ramona illustrator?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Ramona Illustrators
The first two Ramona novels, Beezus and Ramona and Ramona the Pest were illustrated by Louis Darling. The other Ramona novels, Ramona the Brave, Ramona and Her Father, Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona Forever, and Ramona's World, were illustrated by Alan Tiegreen. These are the preferred illustrations. Those are the original illustrators. The new books feature the illustrations of Tracy Dockray throughout the entire series.
Louis Darling:
Alan Tiegreen:
Tracy Dockray
Who is your favorite Ramona illustrator?
Louis Darling:
Alan Tiegreen:
Tracy Dockray
Who is your favorite Ramona illustrator?
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10 comments:
I've not seen those new ones before. Yuck! They are so modern looking, which not a good thing.
I've been known to say this before on my blog, but I hate (lot's of emotion here) when the original illustrations are replaced in classic children's literature. The pictures are just as important as the text, imo. They might as well mess around with the text too.
So, yeah, I like the original illustrations the best and especially Louis Darling's.
I like Lois Darling's the best. Probably because they were the first ones I saw!
Alan Tiegreen you rock best illustrations yet
What Nicola said, I second that. The newer ones are absolutely inappropriate. They take a way from all of the old world charm of the books. They'd be better in some modern series, but they need to stay the hell out of Beverly'd books.
I grew up on Alan Tiegreen's illustrations so he's definitely my favorite!
I liked Lois Darlings illustrations too but Harpers wanted to update the series to attract younger readers, which we aren't.
I think getting a book series new readers is the key aim here. Not pleasing grown ups.
As for Alan Tiergreen, I always thought his nose on Ramona looked like the tail that sticks up on the back end of a baked chicken.
I am so glad I found this blog just so I could comment on this topic! I am actually younger (17) but I grew up with the Alan Tiegreen illustrations which I think match Ramona's personallity perfectly. I agree with other comments that the new illustrations are terrible, modern, and have no business being in the Beverly Cleary books! They are modern and give the impression that Ramona is a little snob. Maybe that's what the publishers want her to look like. I also heard that Beverly Cleary did not like the way that Ramona or Beezus were portrayed in the new movie. It's sad when they have to change things. Well, I guess that's all, but I like the two older illustrations the best!!!
I'm 35 and I read Ramona the Pest with Louis Darling's illustrations. So it has nostalgic charm for me- I love them. But I also love Tracy Dockery's new illustrations! and so does my 9 yr. old son, who has read all the Ramona and Henry Huggins books multiple times. When I was a kid I read Ramona with Alan Tiegreen's illustration and I couldn't stand them then or now (I just re-read the whole series). Why do Ramona and Beezus have to be so ugly to be down to earth? Tracy Dockery really captured the sweetness of Beverly Cleary's characters, just like Louis Darling did. Dockery gets my vote!
The other illustrators are good, but I'm going to have to go with Darling's if only for nostalgic reasons.
I only just found out about this "crime", the replacing of the Louis Darling illustrations with some "updated" ones. (The latter books, the ones published post-Darling, who died in 1970, I give a pass to.) I was APPALLED. That original Ramona, scowling, untidy, with a jump-off-the-page directness were WONDERFUL. And as it being necessary to have the pictures modernized to appeal to today's kids - balderdash! Even reading them as a boy in the early 70s I recognized the pics as already properly belonging to a different era - but IT DIDN'T MATTER. Those original illustrations were perfect, as was the Darling/Cleary marriage. The illustrations of the subsequent editions are innocuous, bland, anodyne, and tepid. There, have I made my sentiments quite clear? :)
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