The Halloween Queen is here! Click on the cauldron to see the book come to life.
Halloween is coming!
Christmas is Coming!
Don't worry, this website is updated often--so come back soon for more!
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home-sweet-home @TheresaSmythe.com
THE CRITICS AGREE: EVERYBODY LOVES SNOWBEAR!!!
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"Expertly crafted cut-paper collages illustrate this simple roundup of holiday delights. Each page represents a day in December as Snowbear, a fuzzy white polar bear, prepares for the holidays and enjoys winter activities. On the first day he writes Santa; on the third day he hangs Christmas lights and so on. There's plenty of playtime too. On day ten he brings out his toy trains, and on day thirteen he sleds with his animal pals, who all join him on the twenty-fifth for presents and celebration. Skillfully combining textured and patterned papers, Smythe creates vivid, detailed scenes of Snowbear at work and play that capture both the joyful, energetic bustle and the deep coziness of the season, and his simple, direct words are just right for reading aloud. Merry and bright holiday fare that young children may want to return to throughout the year."
-----BOOKLIST |
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"If only we could all be as organized as Snowbear. He gets his Christmas want-list ready on the first day of December (I like a bear who understands priorities); on the second he gets out his woolens, the third sees him stringing the lights along the roof...and after setting out the cookies for Santa and the reindeer on the twenty-fourth, he's all ready to celebrate with his friends on Christmas morning...preschoolers looking forward to the big day will enjoy the orderly procession of events, and so much to do. In Smythe's effectively busy collage illustrations, an appealingly fuzzy Snowbear (fashioned from what looks like white rice paper) keeps the lights on for Martha Stewart in his ebullient and all-encompassing month of preparation. Pass the scissors and glue!"
---THE HORN BOOK |
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"On December 1, Snowbear begins his preparations for Christmas by making a wish list for Santa. Each of the next 24 days finds him engaged in a new activity–stringing lights, arranging his snow-globe collection, sending cards, making ornaments, wrapping presents, watching his favorite holiday movies. The simple text and appealing cut-paper collage illustrations provide a complete iconography for a warm-and-fuzzy celebration for this winning character and his animal friends."
-----SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL |
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THE HALLOWEEN QUEEN
IS A SWEET TREAT! |
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"Two children go trick-or-treating together, but one of them, the narrator, avoids a scary house on their route. Knowing that the other kids are not frightened and that the best treats are passed out by the Halloween Queen, she summons up her courage and approaches the door. She nervously enters on her own but, once inside, she finds a lively party in progress and all of her friends in attendance. Readers will appreciate the activities and treats described, and the happy ending when the woman's identity is revealed...Smythe's collages add lightness and warmth to the story. During scarier moments, the Queen's small, costumed dog appears, usually with a smile to assure readers that what is happening is all in fun. An additional purchase."
---SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
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AND HEARTS ARE ALL "A FLUTTER" FOR THE RUNAWAY VALENTINE! |
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"A boastful Valentine card learns how scrap paper feels in this sentimental debut by Casey and Smythe. Victor had everything, "the lace, the glitter, the sparkles, and he could sing twenty different love songs when you pushed a secret button on his belt." But when he accidentally falls to the grimy floor and performs a "marching cartwheel out of the store," this once-proud card becomes mere litter. A boy bends him into a scoop, a woman scrawls an address on him and a man uses him as shoe-padding until "there was nothing left of Victor but a little round piece of pink cardboard covered with red glitter." Casey redeems the sorry shred by making it part of a girl's handmade card to her grandmother. Smythe aptly illustrates the escapade in cut paper and cloth, collage components that might have come from forsaken greeting cards or sewing-box remnants. Victor actually gains value when he becomes a handicraft instead of a store-bought item, and his triumph ought to warm the hearts of those who fashion their own homemade cards and gifts."
---PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY
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"Victor is a first-class valentine. He's got glitter and lace, he sparkles, and he sings 20 love songs with a push of the secret button on his belt. He's got everything, "everything, that is, except for maybe a little patience." Elbowing his way to the front of the valentine rack-he's eager to get snapped up fast-he loses his balance and flutters to the floor. Down among paper scraps and tumbleweeds of dust, Victor begins to lose a bit of his shine (not to mention the button that activates his love songs). Still, he figures somebody will still want him, so he cartwheels out of the store and is grabbed by a young girl. Eureka, thinks Victor, but she only wants him to scoop a marble out of a puddle, then he's discarded. When picked up again, it's only to have his lace pulled off or to have someone use him to scribble a note on or to be folded to buffer a blister or be chewed by a squirrel for nest insulation. Victor's looking bad and feeling worse: "Nobody will want me. I'm no good for anything anymore." Into this existential moment comes a little girl, who sees in Victor, or what's left of him, just the thing she needs: The centerpiece for a valentine she is making for her Grandma. Casey has dropped readers a hint much earlier: Back when Victor had fallen out of the valentine rack and lay in the sweepings, one of the pieces of detritus was a fortune from a fortune cookie-"You will overcome difficult times." And how, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of street life and the toils of dismemberment. Newcomer Smythe's color-shot, meticulous, cut-paper collage illustrations have a slapstick quality that keeps Victor's predicament from ever feeling too down and out."
----KIRKUS REVIEWS
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CUT-PAPER COLLAGE ILLUSTRATION
--made the old-fashioned way--
by Hand
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