I’ve always admired Jan Brett’s books. She tells so much with her imagery. From The Mitten to The Hat, Jan has a talent for rendering realistic animals in a whimsical fashion. The decorative borders of her pages often tell more than the main scene. Her detail work can keep the eye entranced for hours.

When I ran across her latest book, The Three Snow Bears, I had to laugh at her spin on the Goldilocks theme. She chose to turn the whole story polar complete with an Eskimo girl and sled dogs. I felt a bit warm inside, as I had put a similar spin on the same story for a bookmark project I worked on for a charity event a few years ago. For a while I had ambitions to create a full-blown story around it, but rested on my laurels. There’s no one I’d rather see do it before me than Jan Brett.