Illustrator of the Week - Elise Primavera

Elise Primavera is an American author and illustrator. Born in 1955 in West Long Beach, New Jersey, she began drawing and painting as most children do. She began copying cartoons she found in comic books, drawing on anything she could find including her school books. She got in the most trouble for drawing on her clothes. Her interest in art grew more serious at 11 when she contracted rheumatic fever and was cinfined to her bed for an entire summer, giving drawing a large role. Primavera enjoyed horse back riding and fashion design as well, but found a renewed love for art in college. After college, she began working for a few publishing houses, eventually getting her first book The Mermaid's Cape and The Snug Little House being release in 1981. Her first book as an author and illustrator was Basil and Maggie. Her most famous book is Auntie Claus (1999). According to the New York Times Primavera gets many ideas while taking showers and Auntie Claus was the product of one such "shower session". Her first novel was called The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls.