Jane Dyer

Jane Dyer (born 1949) is an American author and illustrator of more than fifty books, including Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Cookies series and Jeanne Birdsall's Lucky and Squash.

Background Dyer grew up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She used to teach, write, and illustrate textbooks before she began illustrating children's books full-time. She was encouraged to begin illustrating by her students and their parents.

In 2015, Dyer spoke at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts and read Lucky and Squash aloud as part of her talk on the art-making process for picture books.

Works Time for Bed (Mem Fox, 1997), illustrator All We Know (Linda Ashman, 2016), illustrator The House That's Your Home (Sally Lloyd-Jones, 2015), illustrator There's A Train Out for Dreamland (Frederich H. Heider, 2010), co-illustrator (with Brooke Dyer) Every Year on Your Birthday (Rose A. Lewis, 2007), illustrator Hurry! Hurry! Have You Heard? ( Laura Krauss Melmed, 2008), illustrator Wee Rhymes (Jane Yolen, 2013), illustrator Lucky and Squash (Jeanne Birdsall, 2012), illustrator Santa Claus and the Three Bears (Maria Modungo, 2013), co-illustrated with Brooke Dyer Cookies: Bite-Size Lessons (Amy Krouse Rosenthal, 2006), illustrator Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons (Amy Krouse Rosenthal, 2008), illustrator One Smart Cookie: Bite-Size Lessons for the School Years and Beyond (Amy Krouse Rosenthal, 2010), co-illustrated with Brooke Dyer Move Over, Rover! (Karen Beaumont, 2006) Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead (Ruth Krauss, 2007), illustrator Whose Garden Is It? (Mary Ann Hoberman, 2014), illustrator I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (Rose A. Lewis, 2000), illustrator A Woman For President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull (Kathleen Krull, 2006), illustrator Oh My Baby, Little One (Kathi Appelt, 2006), illustrator Cinderella's Dress (Nancy Willard, 2003), illustrator Babies on the Go (Linda Ashman, 2003), illustrator Good Morning, Sweeite Pie, and other Poems for Little Children (Cynthia Rylant, 2001), author and illustrator Little Brown Bear Won't Take a Nap! (2002), author and illustrator Little Brown Bear Won't Go to School! (2003), author and illustrator Little Brown Bear and the Bundle of Joy (2005), author and illustrator Sophie's Masterpiece: A Spider's Tale (Eileen Spinelli, 2004), illustrator Blue Moon Soup: A Family Cookbook (Gary Goss, 2013), illustrator When Mama Comes Home Tonight (Eileen Spinelli, 1998), illustrator Child of Faerie, Child of Earth (Jane Yolen, 1997), illustrator Animal Crackers: A Delectable Collection of Pictures, Poems, and Lullabies for the Very Young (1996), author Cracked Corn and Snow Ice Cream: A Family Almanac (Nancy Willard, 1997), illustrator The Snow Speaks (Nancy White Carlstrom, 1992), illustrator If Anything Ever Goes Wrong at the Zoo (Mary Jean Hendrick, 1996), illustrator The Random House Book of Bedtime Stories (2007), illustrator Talking Like the Rain: A Read-To-Me Book of Poems (X.J. and Dorothy Kennedy, 2002), illustrator The Girl in the Golden Bower (Jane Yolen, 1994), illustrator Piggins (Jane Yolen, 1992), illustrator Picnic With Piggins (Jane Yolen, 1993), illustrator Piggins and the Royal Wedding (Jane Yolen, 1989), illustrator

Reception of works Dyer has received multiple awards throughout her career, including two Parent's Choice Honor Books for Illustration awards. In a School Library Journal review of Lucky and Squash, Anne Beier of the Hendrick Hudson Free Library in Montrose, New York, praises Dyer's illustrations and states that Dyer's paintings of the titular dogs' faces are priceless, particularly in the scenes where they are looking at each other through the fence and those where they are in their owners' arms. Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews article calls the illustrations in this book charming and writes that they "have all the clever details that are Dyer's signature touch". Connie Fletcher of Booklist suggests that, apart from the "ominous grays and greens" in the illustrations of one scene, the pastel-colored illustrations in the book are evocative of 1940s picture postcards, which she considers "just right for such jolly capers".