SATA

PERSONAL

Born in Waltham, MA; married; children: Dave, James.

Attended Art Institute of Boston.

ADDRESS

• Home - Pepperell, MA.

CAREER

Author and illustrator. Art director for cable television comedy series Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, Comedy Central; Cobblestone Publishing, staff illustrator for magazines, including Appleseeds, Cobblestone, Cricket, and Spider.

Cooking, gardening, walking, bird-watching, biking, travel, movies.

Choices listee, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, 2007, for The Magic Rabbit.

WRITINGS

• (Self-illustrated) The Magic Rabbit, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007
• Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard, Candlewick Press (Somerville, MA), 2013
• ,

SIDELIGHTS

A former art director for the animated television show Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, Annette LeBlanc Cate has also been a staff artist for Appleseeds, Cricket, and other publications for children. Cate also pairs original texts with her illustrations in two books for young readers: the picture book The Magic Rabbit and Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard, a nonfiction work for budding bird lovers.

In The Magic Rabbit Cate depicts the close relationship between a crowd-pleasing magician and his faithful assistant. Ray and Bunny do everything together, from watching television while nibbling on popcorn to performing on the downtown streets of a large city. One day, in the middle of Ray and Bunny’s street-show magic act, a juggler on a unicycle interrupts the act. In the confusion that follows, a small dog chases Bunny and the fluffy white rabbit becomes separated from his magician friend. All afternoon Ray and Bunny search for each other without success, but circumstances change as evening comes and Bunny begins following a trail of gold stars.

Cate illustrates The Magic Rabbit with black-and-white drawings and only introduces color in the lucky gold stars that eventually reunite the pair at story’s end. According to School Library Journal contributor Gay Lynn Van Vleck, these “drawings perfectly evoke an urban setting.” While Van Vleck also wrote that Cate’s “succinct text has a storyteller’s style,” a Kirkus Reviews critic wrote that the “hand-lettered text and artful compositions … further contribute to the whimsical appeal of this winning debut.” Writing in Publishers Weekly, a critic similarly applauded The Magic Rabbit , writing of this “impressive debut” that Cate “creates spreads, spots and storyboard-style panels that contain a wealth of detail and feeling.”

An avid bird-watcher, Cate shares her enthusiasm for her hobby in Look Up! Combining her informal writing style and cartoon illustrations, she offers novice birders helpful hints about how to properly equip oneself for an outing (she recommends investing in a quality sketchbook rather than expensive binoculars) and advises young naturalists to be respectful of their surroundings and always ask permission to explore before following a bird into someone’s yard. Look Up! serves as a primer for identifying birds by their shapes, colors, behaviors, and songs while also examining topics such as migration patterns and habitat.

“Small and accessible,” according to a Kirkus Reviews critic, Look Up! “is jam-packed with accurate information likely to increase any potential birder’s enthusiasm and knowledge.” According to Frances E. Millhouser in School Library Journal, Cate’s “detailed drawings are charming, lively, and fun,” while Carolyn Phelan predicted in Booklist that the fact-filled volume “will engage readers with its well-presented information spiced with visual and verbal humor.”

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Booklist, September 15, 2007, John Peters, review of The Magic Rabbit, p. 72; February 1, 2013, Carolyn Phelan, review of Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard, p. 47.

• Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, March, 2013, Elizabeth Bush, review of Look Up!, p. 327.

• Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2007, review of The Magic Rabbit; February 1, 2013, review of Look Up!

• Publishers Weekly, August 6, 2007, review of The Magic Rabbit, p. 188; January 21, 2013, review of Look Up!, p. 66.

• School Library Journal, September, 2007, Gay Lynn Van Vleck, review of The Magic Rabbit, p. 160; March, 2013, Frances E. Millhouser, review of Look Up!, p. 134.*