RICHARD SCARRYA U T H O R / I L L U S T R A T O R S T U D Y

R A C H E L L A V E Y

R E 3 2 4 0 N O R A V I N E S

Born June 5, 1919 in Boston, MA to John James and Barbara Scarry

1938-1941: After graduation, Scarry in encouraged to apply for business school, where he studies for less than a year. After dropping out, Scarry receives acceptance into the Boston School of Fine Arts

1941-1946: Scarry joins the Army, eventually completing Officer Candidate school and applying for art director in North Africa and Italy, drawing maps and designing graphics

1946: Finds work in New York with Golden Press as a commercial artist after illustrating for the children’s book The Boss of the Barnyard

Marries Patricia Murphy, another children’s book author, on September 14, 1949

Scarry continues to illustrate for other children’s authors for several years until he begins to write and illustrate his own books

1963: Scarry’s first break out success is published, Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever

1969: Scarry, wife, and son Huck move to Gstaad, Switzerland

March 14, 1994: an animated children’s series based off of the world and books created by Scarry premieres, The Busy World of Richard Scarry

Dies April 30, 1994 of heart attack in Gstaad, Sweden at the age of 74.

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BIOGRAPHY

Scarry and wife Patsy, 1951

Scarry, cir. 1990

GENERAL GENRE, CONCEPTS, THEMESTeaching Books

Scarry wrote a large number of picture books. Scarry’s books were usually written around a subject: Holidays, Words, Numbers/Counting

• Scarry generally uses his books to teach children about a subject. The books may include pictures of words with their definitions, visual demonstrations of numbers, or a tour through the town with quick sentences describing jobs in a community.

• Scarry’s books have even been fashioned into readers to help teach reading in younger grades.

Scarry: “I would say [I am a] fun-man disguised as an educator…Everything has an educational value if you look for it. But it’s the fun I want to get across.”

Story Books, Mystery Books, and More• Scarry also tried his hand at almost every type of book.

Scarry wrote his own story books, and rewrote classic stories in his own style. When puzzle or “rainy day books” rose in popularity, Scarry also published some of his own works in that genre. He wrote a good amount of mystery books, and eventually created his own touch and feel books, scent books, and other interactive books.

CONTROVERSY and ISSUES ADDRESSED

Violence

• Many have questioned the use of “violent images” in Scarry’s work: flaming buildings, car accidents and exploding cakes may commonly appear among the illustrations• Considerations:• Plays into use of animals: rather than a human mom with

an exploding cake, a cat mom makes the situation more farcical rather than dangerous.

Scarry: “…it’s not true violence, it’s fun…The only thing that really suffers is dignity.”

Gender and Race

• Some have criticized Scarry’s work for a slight gender bias. Women characters perform tasks at home, while workers such as mechanics, fire fighters and truck drivers tend to be male.• Considerations: • Writing Period 1940s-1970s• social patterns

Scarry did not see his books in this fashion

More recent releases of Scarry’s work may include edits of character clothing or gender: a girl doing a more masculine job, women with clothing other than dresses or skirts

Scarry: “Children can identify more closely with pictures of animals than they can with pictures of another child.”

Changing Times

WHAT MAKES HIS WORK DISTINCTIVERichard Scarry’s created a world that would be fun and educational for kids to

read about. The characters in his books are productive, friendly citizens that help teach kids about the world around them. There isn’t usually a

plot, but rather short stories of scenes. The word busy occurs in many of his titles and is a great way to describe his work. The pages of Scarry’s books have colorful, full illustrations that usually contain a whole scene

within it’s pages: multiple characters interact within multiple situations on a single page. The drawings are very interactive within themselves: if an

apple cart spills over on one page, you’ll likely see apples spill into the rest of the scene.

Scarry also uses animals exclusively as his characters. Scarry uses a wide range of animals as well, from cats and dogs, to sharks and hippos. His

animals, however, rarely show their animal qualities. They dress, behave and speak like people. When they do, its usually to provide circumstantial

humor, not to make them seem more animalistic. Rather than writing stories about animals, he drew stories about people with animals acting them out. Scarry creates a cast of recurring characters that the audience

follows and looks for within the book and it’s pages.

WRITING AND ARTISTIC STYLE

• Busy, Colorful and Simple Drawings• Scarry’s drawings themselves are very bright and usually simple. He used many bold

colors and liked sharp black outlines. When he painted in the book, we went by color so that the colors would remain consistent.

• Move from painting in full color to the use of “blueboarding”• Illustrations first done in black line (ink or pencil); photographed, film postives are

transferred to an illustration board; painted over by color; printed with black lines reprinted on top

• “Scarry Red”

• Personification of Animals

• Use of Comedy• Situational comedy

• Simple, Bold Text• Scarry preferred to let pictures tell the story and often

wrote in the text after all the illustrations were done. The text in his books were usually used to describe what the pictures were meant to display. Text was still also use to add to the story, describing the situations, providing definitions or making a humorous comment on the scene nearby.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

Edgar Allen Poe Special Award from the Mystery Writers of America (The Great Steamboat Mystery), 1976

LEGACYDuring the 1980s and 90s, many of Scarry’s Best Ever stories were converted into short animated programs. On March 14, 1994, an animated series based on Richard Scarry’s world premiered. The Busy World of Richard Scarry would continue for 3 more years, delighting children and bringing life to Scarry’s unique illustrations and stories.

• Scarry would write over 300 books that would be translated into 41 languages.

• Huck Scarry, Richard Scarry’s son, also become an illustrator and author for children’s books.

LESSON IDEA: RICHARD SCARRY’S BUSY, BUSY TOWN

Summary: Richard Scarry’s Busytown is busy indeed! Scarry takes us on a trip through bustling busy town and educates us on all the different kinds of jobs there are in a town. Lumberjacks and pilots, teachers and students, adults and kids in the home: every group is shown actively working to make their homes, schools and towns run.

Teaching Idea: First GradeSocial studies in first grade has a strong emphasis on family and community.

Some competency goals from the NC Standard Course of Study include applying economic concepts to school and the community, how different cultures work to earn money, understanding the roles of individuals and leaders in the community. Students could use the book to identify various jobs people may work in order to earn money. They can use the section on home to identify jobs at home and what role they play in their own home. Using the school section, students can look at and relate to different jobs in school. Perhaps they could create jobs for the classroom and run them, or could list ways of helping at home and try to do them for one week. They could ask their parents what they do for a living and do a report describing their job. You could possibly even run a mini-job fair or have parents come in and talk about their jobs to the students.

NOTABLE BOOKS

Series“Richard Scarry’s”

“Best Book Ever”

“Busytown”

Richard Scarry’s Best Holiday Books Ever

Step-into-Reading

10 MOST WIDELY HELD BOOKS IN LIBRARIES

Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever

Richard Scarry’s Best Counting Book Ever

Please and Thank You Book

What Do People Do All Day?

The Best Mistake Ever! And other stories

Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever

Find Your ABC’s

Richard Scarry’s Great Big Schoolhouse

Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever

Other Notable BooksBusy, Busy TownThe Great Steamboat MysteryBest Storybook EverWhat Do People Do All Day?Best Rainy Day Book EverBest First Book Ever

Scarry himself wrote over 300 books total. Stories by his wife and son are also published under the “Richard Scarry’s series.”

REFERENCESBiography

Retan, Walter and Risom, Ole. The Busy, Busy World of Richard Scarry. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997. Print.

Websites

Pace, Jonathan. “Returning to Busytown: Remembering Richard Scarry.” The Huffington Post. December 20, 2010. Web. March 18, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-new-york-public-library/returning-to-busytown-rem_b_802778.html

“Meet The Writers: Richard Scarry.” Barnes and Noble. 2012. Web. March 18, 2012.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?cid=311409

“Richard Scarry Fundamentals.” www.spidra.com. February 3, 2002. Web. March 18, 2012. http://www.spidra.com/scarry.html

“Scarry, Richard.” World Cat Identities. 2010. Web. March 18, 2012.

http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-46225

“The Very Busy World of Richard Scarry.” IMDb.com. 2012. Web. March 18, 2012

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179558/

“Richard (McClure) Scarry (1919-).” Something about the Author. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 75. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. p163-170.

Wade, Lisa. “Social Change and Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever.” The Society Pages. September 22, 2010. Web. March 28, 2012.