Barbara McClintock: In Between Dreams, by Katherine Pierpont

This author/illustrator celebrates both the real and imaginary with her exquisitely detailed illustrations and timeless stories

The sepia-hued worlds of author/illustrator Barbara McClintock bridge that mysterious and thrilling crevice between dreams and real life. Her books are fantastical places where little girls woolgather about human-sized birds in sumptuously plumed hats taking their pet fish out for a stroll (The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle, Houghton Mifflin, 1996) and feline fairy godmothers visit Dickensian-era cats and hip them to wish-fulfilling wishbones to be found in that night's dinner (Molly and the Magic Wishbone, Frances Foster Books, 2001). She has taken stories like Cinderella (Scholastic, 2005), Goldilocks and the Three Bears (retold by Jim Aylesworth, Scholastic, 2003) and The Gingerbread Man (retold by Jim Aylesworth, Scholastic, 1998) and revitalized these old favorites with dramatic makeovers. Yet, all of Barbara McClintock's books are similar in that they exude a timeless, daydreamy quality that provides both a safe escape from reality for children and best of all, a means in which to delight in things both secret and imaginary.

"In my second life I'm going to be a teacher. Teachers and students are always so gracious and enthusiastic. They'll spend months reading my books. They put so much into my visits and it means so much to me – just hearing their feedback and which stories they respond to and which ones they don't."

Plenty of paper.
Barbara McClintock is someone who not only is lucky enough to be doing something she has loved since she was a child, but was also able to carry her childhood sojourns into fantasy with her into adulthood. When we met with her this past June in her charming, circa-1815 home in Windham, CT, Barbara spoke about how her chosen career had always been enthusiastically encouraged by her family. One of her mother's biggest fears was running out of paper for her to draw on and Barbara laughingly showed us an example of when her paper supply dwindled: a beautiful cloisonné box that belonged to her grandmother, the interior of which bore the markings of a young artist in the making. "My family never told me, 'Oh, you don't want to do that, you'll never make a living. They were fabulous!" she said.

Covering the bases.
Growing up in Clinton, NJ, Barbara spent a great deal of time in her parents' portrait photography studio where her father worked as a photographer and her mother hand-colored his black-and-white photographs. Their portrait studio would later serve as the inspiration for her book, The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle. The relationship between Danielle and her father was based upon the close connection that Barbara and her own father shared. "He and I had a pact. He would take care of reality – photographing and making pictures of what was real. And I as a child would do what was not real – I would do the fantasy things, so we had all the bases covered between the two of us," she said.

Her fascination with drawing animals as main characters is another memento from Barbara's childhood that has made the transition into her life as an adult. Spending so much time in a portrait studio, Barbara was used to seeing countless types of people come in to have their photograph taken. She began anthropomorphizing the subjects of her parents' photographs into waltzing foxes and cats in party clothes. "I relax when I'm drawing animals," she said. "I feel like I'm not going to offend anyone, and if it's not anatomically correct, no one seems to care!"

Barbara demonstrates a little bit of her art process. "I'm very structured and detailed, but there is still room for error and spontaneity. Every illustration is a challenge and adventure," she said.

Finding a voice.
When she was nine years old, her parents divorced and Barbara and her mother and sister moved to North Dakota where her mother had grown up. Since she had known from a young age that she wanted to write and illustrate for children, when she went off to Jamestown College in Jamestown, ND, she wasted no time asking her art professor about how to get started. He recommended that she call Maurice Sendak, and even though she balked at first, Barbara eventually summoned up enough courage to call the famous author/illustrator at his home in Ridgefield, CT. "He was super!" she said. "He told me how to put together a dummy book and said I should move to New York City. He also recommended that I find my own original voice and not go to art school."

So, on the advice of Maurice Sendak, at the tender age of 20, Barbara moved to New York City, determined to become a successful author and illustrator. "I was extremely motivated and dedicated. I think to really be successful in a creative field you have to be that way," she said.

"You're going to make it." Even with her fearless gamble and move to New York, luck continued to be on Barbara's side. She first got a job doing textbook illustration and also had some help from her grandfather who had a bumper crop the year she moved from North Dakota. "He sent me a check for $3,000, which 30 years ago, was a lot of money. He was so proud of me," she remembered.

With that extra money to keep her going, Barbara continued to pursue her life's dream and started visiting art directors at publishing houses. "I'd never seen a portfolio, so I had loose drawings in a basket and I started walking up and down Madison Avenue," she said. At one of her stops, a woman followed her outside and asked to see her drawings. She told Barbara that her husband owned an animation studio and that she should stop by to see him. Barbara did so and not only did she get a job, but she also walked away with words she needed to hear – "He told me, 'You're very talented and you're going to make it. It won't be next week, but I'm sure that you'll make it.' Then he gave me a job doing sketches for a KLEENEX® commercial!"

One of our favorite of Barbara's titles.

Her childhood dream came true when her first book, Heartaches of a French Cat (David R. Godine) was published in 1989. The rest, as they say, is history.

Just a dream.
Barbara McClintock has come a long way since her basket-toting days, and the delight she still finds in her craft was evident when she gave us a tour of her in-house studio. "I'm probably the last person who uses dip pens and ink," she joked as she showed us the sepia ink she uses to obtain the "old-fashioned photograph" look she's become known for.

Her latest book, Adèle and Simon (Frances Foster Books, 2006) is set in Paris in the early 1900s and features one exasperated older sister, Adèle, and her little brother Simon who can't seem to hold onto his possessions on their way home from school. Their travels along the streets of Paris are an absolute feast for the eyes and kids will love discovering the distractions on each page that cause Simon to misplace his hat, gloves, scarf, sweater, coat, knapsack, books, crayons and a drawing of a cat.

Ruminating on everything that had brought her to this point in her career, Barbara McClintock was both humble and grateful for all she's achieved. "I've had a great life and I feel very fortunate," she said. And how fortunate we are that her dreams have come true.

Katherine Pierpont, senior editor Teaching K-8 magazine.