More on Matching Text with Illustrations

By the author, Jim Doti


I love Lisa’s depiction of Jimmy and his mom in her “hat room.”  The second scene in this room is of critical importance to the book, since Jimmy came up with the idea of raising his arm during the play by observing and copying his mom’s actions.  To make the scene more interesting, Lisa shows Jimmy’s mom working on a blue hat.  That shouldn’t go unnoticed in the text.  So I added:  “As Jimmy’s mom listens, she works on adding a blue bow to decorate a hat she is finishing up.”

For his first attempt at using verve on stage, Lisa depicts Jimmy stretching his arms out from his sides as he says his line, “Now that’s a goob idea.”  The stage setting Lisa designed includes a stove with a fire in the hearth.  Since Jimmy’s hand appears to be close to the burning stove, I felt it was necessary to add text to remind young readers that it wasn’t a real fire:  “She is stirring a pot of pretend soup on top of a stove that has flames painted on it to look like a real fire.”

The last full illustration celebrating the success of the play at Jimmy’s home is priceless.  Lisa definitely did her homework and showed some classic 50s-style furniture and paintings.  I told Lisa that I could even see the pulsation in her rendering of a Mark Rothko painting.

There is a lot of action going on in this scene.  I asked Lisa to add steam coming up from the meat pies that Nonna is carrying into the room to match the text’s “…Nonna carrying a platter piled high with piping hot meat pies.”

The last sentence in the story connects little Blackie with the festivities, “Yipping happily, little Blackie sings right along.”

Lisa’s original illustration showed Blackie off to the side.  I felt that Blackie should be more prominent to add to the overall festive spirit.  That’s when Lisa came up with the ingenious idea of placing a dancing Blackie right in the middle of the circle of dancing and singing elves.

The final letter “From Jimmy to You” did not originally have any illustration.  There was also a closing letter “From Jimmy to You” in
A Christmas Adventure
that was not illustrated.

But as I read the opening line in this book’s letter, “There they are—those big scary doors,” I felt that the reader was signaled to look for those doors.  That’s why Lisa added an image of the doors above the letter.