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WORK TITLE: Hiding in Plain Sight
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LAST VOLUME: SATA 303
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PERSONAL
Father worked in advertising; married Alan Comport (an art agent); children: two daughters.
EDUCATION:Columbus College of Art & Design, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1978; Syracuse University, M.A. (illustration), 2000.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Illustrator. Former art director for advertising agencies; W/C Studio Inc., cofounder with husband Alan Comport, 1983; Art at Large, Inc. (public art designer), cofounder, 2003. Maryland Institute College of Art, member of adjunct faculty. ArtWalk (nonprofit), cofounder, 2004, and curator, artist, and designer. Member of executive board, Providence Center; member of board of directors, Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County and Annapolis Arts District. Exhibitions: Work included in permanent collection of Museum of American Illustrators. Creator of public art, including installation at Howard Merrill Advertising, Raleigh, NC, and Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, MD.
AWARDS:Several ADDY awards; awards from Society of Illustrators; regional design awards from industry journals, including Communication Arts and Print; Christopher Award, the Américas Award for Children’s & Young Adult Literature, the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, and Best Children’s Book of the Year from Bank Street College.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Schooled in the advertising trade during a high-school job at her father’s advertising agency, Sally Wern Comport worked as an art director in advertising after graduating from college. The creative opportunities to be found in book illustration prompted Comport to undertake her first picture-book project, Robert San Souci’s Brave Margaret: An Irish Adventure, in the late 1990s. In addition to illustrating stand-alone books for authors such as Jean Fritz, Joseph Bruchac, Virginia L. Krull, Tina Nichols Coury, and Susan Hood, she has brought visual life to Heather Vogel Frederick’s popular “Spy Mouse” stories and created the artwork for Catherine Nicols’s multi-volume adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Comport has also gained prominence through her work with Art at Large, a creative collaboration that creates and installs large-scale works of art in public spaces.
In Booklist, Carolyn Phelan hailed Comport’s work for Brave Margaret by noting that her animated pastel illustrations are “full of rich colors and textures” and “almost jump off the page.” The story’s rural setting and its folktale roots are expressed through Comport’s use of “dark and rugged pastels and varying perspective,” noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer, the critic deeming Brave Margaret an “exciting read.”
Comport’s versatility is frequently noted by critics. Her comics-style art for Sara Nickerson’s middle-grade novel How to Disappear and Never Be Found “not only extends the plot of the novel but also stands on its own as fully realized ministories,” wrote Francisca Goldsmith in Booklist, and her illustrations for Robert Merrill Bartlett’s The Story of Thanksgiving feature “warm fall colors [and] are energetic and festive,” according to Hazel Rochman in the same publication.
While many of Comport’s illustrations appear in fictional and fanciful tales, she brings to life a real-life flight of fancy in her artwork for Coury’s Hanging off Jefferson’s Nose: Growing up on Mount Rushmore. The story of Lincoln Borglum, the son of Mount Rushmore artist Gutzon Borglum, Coury’s text is accompanied by “realistic” earthen-toned multimedia paintings that “are eye-opening and reveal the project’s dizzying scope,” according to Booklist critic Daniel Kraus.
Also based on a true story, Susan Hood’s picture book Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay drew praise from Luann Toth in School Library Journal, the critic dubbing Comport’s contribution as “nothing short of brilliant” in her use of “light and dark” to evoke the inspiring power of music. Equally inspirational, Angela Farris Watkins’s Love Will See You Through: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Six Guiding Beliefs becomes a colorful tribute to the late civil rights leader through Comport’s brightly colored and “energetic mixed-media art,” according to a Publishers Weekly critic.
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The “Zayd Saleem, Chasing the Dream” trilogy, written by Hena Khan and illustrated by Comport, begins with Power Forward, a middle-grade series about fourth grader Zayd Saleem who dreams about being the first Pakistani-American to play in the NBA. Standing in his way is that he’s short and skinny, he’s on the D (for developmental) Team, and his parents don’t approve. Demanding that he practice his violin, his parents forbid him from playing basketball. Zayd disobeys and tries out for the Gold Team where he can play basketball with his best friend Adam. Lindsey Tomsu wrote in Booklist: “this is a promising series opener featuring a main character with a refreshing perspective.”
Second in the series, On Point, follows Zayd, who has made the Gold Team. But the team goes into a losing streak and Zayd hopes it’s not because of him. Then Adam is showing disinterest in basketball, starts hanging out with other kids, quits the team, and decides to play football instead. Zayd is now the new point guard. Meanwhile, Zayd’s uncle is getting married, but as the parents are making all the arrangements, Zayd convinces his uncle to speak up for himself. The book offers “realistic fiction featuring the everyday life of a boy from a traditional Pakistani family,” declared Lindsey Tomsu in Booklist.
Comport illustrated and Amanda Davis wrote the award-winning picture book 30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag. After the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, a 30′ x 20′ American flag hanging near Ground Zero in New York was tattered and torn and put into storage. In 2008, the New York Says Thank You Foundation brought the flag to every state in the union, traveling 120,000 miles, where people patched it with other retired American flags and pieces of flags. Thread from the original Star-Spangled Banner at the War of 1812, a piece of the flag Abraham Lincoln was laid on after he was shot, and stitches by members of the Navajo Code Talkers are included in the flag. The National 9/11 Flag came to rest in 2014 in the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York.
Writing in Publishers Weekly, a reviewer reported: “Comport adds intricately collaged multimedia spreads so textured they’re almost tangible, employing newspaper clippings, [and] stitched vignettes.” The reviewer added that the illustrations feature a cast of varying ages, abilities, and skin colors. On the Teachers, Books, Readers blog, Andrew Hacket praised the book’s message of “hope and healing that followed as thousands came together to repair the National 9/11 Flag, stitch by stitch.”
Comport illustrated Suzanne Slade’s book, Blast Off!: How Mary Sherman Morgan Fueled America into Space, about the first woman rocket scientist. Morgan grew up poor on a North Dakota farm. She started school at age 8 and loved learning about science. With a scholarship to college she studied chemistry. During World War II she designed rocket fuel, and during the space race, she traveled to a lab in California where she became a rocket fuel expert. She was chosen over her male colleagues to develop a powerful but also stable fuel. She invented the liquid fuel Hydyne in 1957 that powered the Jupiter C rocket that launched Explorer 1, America’s first satellite. John Peters wrote in Booklist that Comport depicts Morgan “in nerdy period eyeglasses, standing confidently next to the tools of her profession amid swirls of equations.” According to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, Morgan’s “example of perseverance and glass ceiling–shattering delivers a motivating message for would-be scientists.”
Hiding in Plain Sight: Kate Warne and the Race to Save Abraham Lincoln, written by Beth Anderson and illustrated by Comport, traces the life of Kate Warne, America’s first female detective. Warne worked for Pinkerton Detective Agency and was instrumental in uncovering a plot to kill president-elect Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore. Lincoln knew he might be in danger traveling by train from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, DC, for the inauguration, but he refused to change his route. Warne protected the president along the way using disguises, wearing costumes, disabling telegraph lines, and exposing spies. “Comport incorporates recurring images of timepieces, matching the sense of suspense layered into Anderson’s text,” according to a Kirkus Reviews writer. In a Booklist review, Kit Ballenger remarked: “Meticulous illustrations employ the ‘scrapbook house’ collage style of the era, highlights of which include superbly detailed garments and period furniture.”
In an interview online at Children’s Book Council, Comport described how she approached illustrating children’s books: “I approach illustrating children’s books very specifically for each title, subject, and cultural time period. The experience of researching is my most productive creative time. By immersing and imagining the light, the smell, the temperature, the climate, the dress, the art of the surrounding culture in a point in time—but most especially the light; I am transported in my mind and can see the book unfold before a pencil has touched the page.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 1999, Carolyn Phelan, review of Brave Margaret: An Irish Adventure, p. 1217; September 15, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of The Story of Thanksgiving, p. 234; April 1, 2002, Francisca Goldsmith, review of How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, p. 1329; August, 2002, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Vampire State Building, p. 1950; July, 2005, Todd Morning, review of The Black Paw, p. 1924; September 15, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of Bearwalker, p. 65; June 1, 2009, Daniel Kraus, review of Night Wings, p. 56; April 15, 2012, Daniel Kraus, review of Hanging off Jefferson’s Nose: Growing up on Mount Rushmore, p. 58; February 1, 2015, Kathleen McBroom, review of Love Will See You Through: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Six Guiding Beliefs (as Told by His Niece), p. 40; March 15, 2016, Maggie Reagan, review of Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay, p. 52; April 1, 2018, Lindsey Tomsu, review of Power Forward, p. 80; May 1, 2018, Lindsey Tomsu, review of On Point, p. 81; April 1, 2022, John Peters, review of Blast Off! How Mary Sherman Morgan Fueled America into Space, p. 30; December 2024, Kit Ballenger, review of Hiding in Plain Sight: Kate Warne and the Race to Save Abraham Lincoln, p. 120.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2005, review of For Your Paws Only, p. 1025; July 1, 2006, review of The Return of Skeleton Man, p. 675; March 15, 2007, review of Who’s Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage?; April 1, 2012, review of Hanging off Jefferson’s Nose; November 1, 2014, review of Love Will See You Through; March 1, 2016, review of Ada’s Violin; December 1, 2024, review of Hiding in Plain Sight.
Publishers Weekly, February 8, 1999, review of Brave Margaret, p. 214; April 15, 2002, review of How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, p. 65; November 10, 2014, review of Love Will See You Through, p. 62; March 7, 2016, review of Ada’s Violin, p. 71; September 6, 2021, review of 30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag, p. 94.
School Library Journal, September, 2001, Pamela K. Bomboy, review of The Story of Thanksgiving, p. 210; November, 2002, Elaine E. Knight, review of Vampire State Building, p. 129; August, 2004, B. Allison Gray, review of The Dark Pond, p. 115; August, 2005, Wendi Hoffenberg, review of Whisper in the Dark, p. 121; October, 2005, Elizabeth Bird, review of The Black Paw, p. 160; December, 2005, Elizabeth Bird, review of For Your Paws Only, p. 147; August, 2006, Adrienne Furness, review of The Return of Skeleton Man, p. 115; April, 2007, Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, review of Who’s Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage?, p. 105; July, 2009, Madeline J. Bryant, review of Night Wings, p. 80; July, 2012, Donna Cardon, review of Hanging off Jefferson’s Nose, p. 68; April, 2014, Stephanie Farnlacher, review of Love Will See You Through, p. 134; April, 2016, Luann Toth, review of Ada’s Violin, p. 180.
ONLINE
Sally Wern Comport/Art at Large website, http://www.sallywerncomport.com (July 1, 2016).
Children’s Book Council website, https://www.cbcbooks.org/ (November 21, 2017), “Three Questions with Sally Wern Comport.”
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (April 2022), review of Blast Off!
Teachers, Books, Readers blog, https://teachersbooksreaders.com/ (September 23, 2021), Andrew Hacket, “30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag by Amanda Davis.”
Truly Amazing Women Project website, http://trulyamazingwomen.com (July 1, 2016), “Sally Wern Comport.”
Principal & Lead Designer
Sally Wern Comport
began her commercial art career at the age of 15, drawing Ethan Allen furniture illustrations for her dad's advertising agency. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Columbus College of Art and Design followed by a graduate degree from Syracuse University. Comport co-founded W/C Studio Inc. in 1986 and has continued to own and operate her own illustration and design studio since, expanding this application to large-scale graphics and public art with the conception of Art at Large, Inc. in 2003.
Sally defines herself as a visual problem solver above all else, working collaboratively with clients and fabricators to understand the assignment, and immersing herself in research to develop the right aesthetic and application. She continues to foster her prolific body of work as an illustrator in the publishing industry, earning such honors as the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal, the Christopher Award, the Américas Award for Children's & Young Adult Literature, the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, and Best Children's Book of the Year from Bank Street College, amongst others. See more Illustration Press here.
Sally remains an active member of the community as co-founder and curator of the non-profit public art initiative ArtWalk and is part of the conglomerate Circle Creatives within the Annapolis Arts District. Comport has lent her expertise in arts and culture to local economic development and tourism initiatives, as well as educational programs at Maryland Institute College of Art, Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, and Studio 39. Sally served on the Board of Directors for Providence of Maryland for 10 years and continues to contribute through steering the Taylor Comport Scholarship & Professional Development Fund.
Sally is represented by Shannon Associates in New York City. An extended bibliography and CV is available upon request.
Contact Sally at sally@artatlargeinc.com.
Biography
Sally Wern Comport began her commercial art career at the age of 15, drawing Ethan Allen furniture illustrations for her dad's advertising agency. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Columbus College of Art and Design followed by a graduate degree from Syracuse University. Comport co-founded W/C Studio Inc. in 1986 and has continued to own and operate her own illustration and design studio since, expanding this application to large-scale graphics and public art with the conception of Art at Large, Inc. in 2003.
Sally is a visual problem-solver that works collaboratively with each client to understand the assignment—whether she's working on the spread of a picture book or the wall of a building. Sally brings her artistic sensibilities, keen design eye, and love of research to every project, yielding innovative results. Her publishing work has earned such honors as the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal, the Christopher Award, the Américas Award for Children's & Young Adult Literature, the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, and Best Children's Book of the Year from Bank Street College, among others.
Sally remains an active member of the community as co-founder and curator of the non-profit public art initiative ArtWalk Annapolis. Sally served on the Board of Directors for Providence of Maryland for 10 years and continues to contribute through steering the Taylor Comport Scholarship & Professional Development Fund.
An extended bibliography and CV is available upon request.
Artist Sally Wern Comport
Who she is: Artist Sally Wern Comport drew her first paycheck as a professional artist at the age of 15 when she began drawing furniture for newspaper ads for the local franchise of Ethan Allen. Since then, she has worked for dozens of newspapers and magazines, illustrated books, curated and created large scale art, and developed aesthetic and branding concepts for her clients.
What she does: After 20 years working as an illustrator, this Summa Cum Laude graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design returned to school and earned her graduate degree from Syracuse University, and then co-founded Art At Large, a design firm that creates and installs beautiful works of art in public places.
Why she does it: Needless to say, this was a giant departure for the illustrator, who among other high-profile assignments, illustrated the Bible for a South American publishing company.
ART AT LARGE
By Hope Katz Gibbs
I recently sat down with Sally to talk about what made her take the risk, and how it is working out for her. Following is that Q&A.
You’ve been a successful, widely-known illustrator for many years, and yet you decided to take a somewhat risky path when you launched Art At Large.
Sally Wern Comport: I have had a fortunate run at the illustration business from the time I was a teenager. My Dad owned a small advertising agency in Ohio and I worked for him as a staff artist drawing furniture for the newspaper for the local Ethan Allen furniture store. Honestly, I was raised around a drawing board in the middle of the family living room.
I remember going up to New York to Simon and Schuster to present my first children’s book spreads after about ten years producing editorial and Institutional work. I took them up on the train with me in a portfolio case in sketch form and I remember the editor’s positive reaction to the presentation.
The publishing of the book itself, “Brave Margaret,” was only secondary to that experience. I could go on and on about the job experiences that, to me, although they are almost private moments, are more notable than the awards I’ve received, or any credentials.
So while I loved being an illustrator for magazines, books and newspaper articles, one of the fondest memories of my career was creating art for the walls of Howard Merrill Advertising in Raleigh N.C. It was the first large scale project I was hired for, where the pieces would not be printed on a page, but hung on a wall for years and the agency staff and clients from all over the world would be seeing them everyday they walked into the space.
So it was that sort of experience that got you thinking about something other than the printed page? What can you tell us about the mission of Art At Large? How does it differ from illustration?
Sally Wern Comport: Well, the mission of Art at Large Inc. is actually exactly the same as working in illustration — so that made it easier to take the risk because it felt familiar.
It is visually communicating an idea or an aesthetic to engage the viewer in the meaning of the words on a page or the space where they stand. I am a visual interpreter for the message that my clients/audience are asked to understand. In that way, creative content is problem solving for the unspeakable dimension and depth of a subject.
Without that intent, I am not interested in creating art. I don’t do paintings in my “spare time” unless they are specifically for a client because, one, I don’t have any spare time. And secondly, being a problem solver is what motivates me.
Did you have any fears about launching Art At Large?
Sally Wern Comport: Absolutely! But fear, to me, is the greatest motivator of all time. I never shy away from being afraid because there is a thing to be learned around every corner of the unknown.
I believe it is part thrill seeking and part undying curiosity — and I am convinced that those two things will keep me alive in my craft.
Also, I watched the illustration field fizzle and become anemic with the onset of cheap stock picture galleries, blatant copyright violations on the Internet, and younger cheaper talent that could do an adequate job and wanted a place to start.
I also watched all the art directors that I had worked with in the past be bypassed and marginalized for the bottom line. Increasingly, publishing houses were becoming short sighted in their practices. It really was a sad shift in the tide.
But I knew that unless I played to a new audience who could recognize and highlight the strengths that someone with experience and listening skills could bring to their projects, I would not be able to keep making art for a living.
So I feel like I literally gave birth to Art at Large one dark, early morning in 2000. I remember that I had sat up all night frantically considering my next move. Sparked by the fear was also the excitement of marrying the advancements in digital printing technology in the commercial sign industry.
I had kept up with all those advances because my brother Steve owns a large format print shop in Ohio. He has been a great resource for my learning curve in the craft part of Art at Large, and digital printing technology just keeps improving and moving forward, which is very inspiring to Art at Large Inc.
One of your projects was Art Walk, in Annapolis. I know you ran into issues with bureaucracy, community groups, and others. How did that resolve itself?
Sally Wern Comport: Passion, tenacity, and focus. These are all a necessity – qualities required for any project that is bigger than you to survive and succeed.
Partnering with people that have a similar energy to get to a goal is the reason things get done. To be really effective, I believe you cannot act as the lone wolf artist — but artists have notoriously been adverse to team playing.
Thankfully, I have found another path and been enriched beyond any expectations for what that has brought to my experience as an artist.
Art Walk happened because I found a small team of partners that had the same dream – all gifted with a different skill. We set those skills in motion and I curated and managed a project that brought together talented artists, philanthropic smart people, and creative spirit that produced 13 pieces of large scale art on the exterior walls of buildings in a historic city that is not notable for accepting new ideas.
Some of your art is in private settings, but much of it is in public spaces. How has it generally been received? And what do you see as the role of art in the public spaces?
Sally Wern Comport: I am not objective enough about my own work to understand reaction to it.
As with all forms of art , I am certain some appreciate how I do it and others, not so much. The best part of working with other talent in making public art is that you can, with an educated visual eye, make correct decisions about what art makes sense for where. I get as much joy (maybe more) in creating the correct aesthetic by choosing and arranging the graphic content for a space as I do creating the content myself.
Looking back, would you say the risk paid off?
Sally Wern Comport: The fluctuation of working on Art at Large Inc. projects and illustration is, by design, weighing much more to the large-scale projects at this point. I have never been so fulfilled in my career as I am juggling the great variety of tasks that have arisen in trying to create for spaces that will be touched and viewed for many years. Illustration, especially editorial illustration has been a much more temporal application.
It seems as if it’s a greater responsibility, and maybe now that I have grown up a little, I am ready to accept that challenge.
Can you give any advice to others who may be thinking of refocusing their energy and careers?
Sally Wern Comport: I don’t think there is ever a time to stop reevaluating your energy and the path you are treading on. A creative person needs to be as creative with their career as with their product. Risk is the juice to get to the next place and keep the vitality in creating.
November 21, 2017Guest Posts
Three Questions with Sally Wern Comport
How do you approach illustrating children’s books? What are some hallmarks of your illustration style?
I approach illustrating children’s books very specifically for each title, subject, and cultural time period. The experience of researching is my most productive creative time. By immersing and imagining the light, the smell, the temperature, the climate, the dress, the art of the surrounding culture in a point in time – but most especially the light; I am transported in my mind and can see the book unfold before a pencil has touched the page for sketches. I am drawn to particular artists that share the aesthetic of the moment that I am trying to portray and I will sometimes emulate other artist’s work that most relates to the emotion of that aesthetic. Although it may be apparent that I have illustrated each of the titles that I have done by the drawing style, the techniques vary widely, and have exposed me to a whole new way of thinking about a subject. Always, the initial research is key.
How does art & literature engage community?
From an early age Art and literature shape our cognitive skills as we all are aware, just as math and science, but as we are introduced to a larger world in our various environments, it is our emotional intellect that give us awareness of our connection from one human being to another. The enrichment of reading someone else’s thoughts and sharing similar thoughts or being universally connected by the same earth that revolves around the same sun with the same light is what exposure to art and literature opens us to in our bigger world.
What role does a library and a librarian play in a town or school setting?
I have loved libraries from when I was a child and my Mother would drop me off to the library for programs. Prior to the internet and google searches, the initial research that I did for illustrating was all done through the local library. I would often discover things in the process of one search and find a whole other relatable subject to inform an assignment. I was also drawn to the way the library was organized and I would inevitably make my way to the art books to find a treasure trove of images that, in print, are far more accessible than the flash of a screen image. To this day, the stacks of a library are a comfort to me, and my home Art library with the rolling library ladder is one of my most important imagining zones. I think a library in any town or school is an essential keeper and symbol of our great asset of knowledge and a place for invention of new ways to engage people from all walks of life.
About Sally Wern Comport
Sally Wern Comport began her career as an artist at age 15, drawing furniture newspaper ads for her dad’s [much more innocent] Mad-Men-era advertising agency. Since then, her prolific catalog of creative works span decades, applying visual problem solving to editorial concepts, corporate collateral, children’s publications, commercial branding design, and large-scale art. Comport is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design and earned her graduate degree from Syracuse University and continues to guest lecture and teach at Maryland Institute College of Art. She co-founded W/C Studio Inc., a commercial art studio in 1986 with clients as wide ranging as American Express Bank, Microsoft, UPS, and Simon Schuster Publishing. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of American Illustration in New York.
Comport established her design studio Art at Large, Inc. in 2003, which specializes in large-scale artistic solutions for interior and exterior spaces. Clients include George Washington’s Mount Vernon, University of Maryland Rehabilitation & Orthopedic Institute, the Harriet Tubman Visitors Center, Anne Arundel Medical Center, and the Maryland Historical Society. She serves as a designer/consultant to several non-profit Boards, including Providence Center, Visit Annapolis, and the public art initiative she co-founded in 2004 known as ArtWalk. Comport’s latest picture books include Love Will See You Through: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Six Guiding Beliefs by Dr. Angela Farris Watkins and Ada’s Violin by Susan Hood, for which she has received many honors including the Christopher Award, the 2017 Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, and inclusion in The Society of Illustrator’s Original Art Show. Sally is represented by Shannon Associates in New York City, and resides with her family in Annapolis, Maryland.
Beebe, Katy NILE CROSSING Eerdmans (Children's Fiction) $18.00 10, 23 ISBN: 978-0-8028-5425-4
A starting-school story set in the Egyptian New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 B.C.E.). "A fisherman's life is the best life of all," but for young Khepri, son of a fisherman, life is about to change. On this morning, he rises early with his father for a journey across the Nile to begin school, where he will learn to be a scribe. The first-person point of view is perfect for conveying, in vivid, sensuous prose, Khepri's feelings and descriptions of the town, river, and bustling city of Thebes. Comport's illustrations--digitally created with pastels and acrylic paint--are inspired by traditional decorative textiles and patterns and are beautifully presented in double-page spreads. Oddly, though, the poetic narrative abruptly ends as Khepri is about to enter the gates of the school. A densely printed, one-page backmatter section titled "Writing in Ancient Egypt" concludes the story, but it makes the book feel out of balance. Though it was unusual for the son of a fisherman to attend school in Khepri's time, his story evokes the same excitement and fear that many schoolchildren experience when starting a new year, so the withholding of the in-school experience from the main narrative is a disappointment. A beautiful, flawed story that rings true even if set thousands of years ago. (historical note, bibliography, author's note, illustrator's note, glossary) (Picture book. 6-9)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Beebe, Katy: NILE CROSSING." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2017. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A504217626/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ea2805c4. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
Power Forward. By Hena Khan. Illus. by Sally Wern Comport. May 2018.144p. Simon 8i SchusterlSalaam Reads, $16.99 (9781534411982); paper, $6.99 (9781534411999). Gr. 1-4.
Zayd Saleem plans on being the first Pakistani American player to make it to the NBA. Unfortunately, he has a few roadblocks to overcome. First, he is the shortest kid in his class, which has resulted in being placed on the D team at school, instead of the vaunted Gold Team where his best friends play. Second, his parents expect him to become a master violin player by attending extra practices before school. So Zayd begins skipping violin practice to play basketball. His parents, of course, naturally wise up and are furious enough to ban him from tryouts for Gold Team. Will Zayd be able to make them understand that basketball is his true passion? Khan nicely incorporates many Urdu words into Zayd's narrative (though note that there is not a dictionary to provide translations). Overall, this is a promising series opener featuring a main character with a refreshing perspective, which will appeal to plenty of sports-loving readers. --Lindsey Tomsu
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
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Tomsu, Lindsey. "Power Forward." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 15, 1 Apr. 2018, p. 80. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A534956975/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7491f5d4. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
On Point.
By Hena Khan. Illus. by Sally Wern Comport.
May 2018. 144p. Simon & Schuster/Salaam Reads, $16.99 (9781534412026); paper, $6.99 (9781534412019). Gr. 2-5.
Having made the coveted Gold Team (in Power Forward, 2018), Zayd looks forward to a winning season with his best friend, Adam. Unfortunately, the basketball team starts out on a major losing streak. Adding to this is further disappointment when Adam begins acting distant and showing an interest in football instead. When Adam quits the team, the coach makes Zayd the new point guard, which places great pressure on him to lead his teammates to a victory. Meanwhile, at home, Zayd watches his young uncle begin preparations for his marriage, with the couple's parents dictating all the decisions with little regard to their feelings. Can Zayd step up to be a leader on the court and also convince his uncle to step up and voice his opinions about his upcoming nuptials? Zayd's exploits in this second volume again find a great balance between sports action and realistic fiction featuring the everyday life of a boy from a traditional Pakistani family. Readers will look forward to further adventures featuring Zayd. --Lindsey Tomsu
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Tomsu, Lindsey. "On Point." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 17, 1 May 2018, p. 81. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A539647469/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4e167e80. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
Fletcher, Tiera WONDER WOMEN OF SCIENCE Candlewick (Children's None) $19.99 3, 23 ISBN: 978-1-5362-0734-7
Brief, inspiring biographies of 12 female scientists are accompanied by interesting information on an array of scientific topics.
Aerospace engineer Fletcher and novelist Rue combine forces to craft an engaging series of biographies of current female scientists working in a variety of fields. Each biography begins with a “Fact File” that includes birthplace, education, current position, and honors the subject has received. Comport’s full-page portraits are complemented by snapshots of the subjects in childhood. The narrative includes information about each woman’s field, what sparked her career choice, a note of advice to her childhood self, suggestions to guide STEM-focused readers, and finally, “Words To Live By”—a few last pithy bits of advice. The women run the gamut, including a forestry engineer, a computer science engineer, and a paleoclimatologist. Each chapter is followed by a couple of pages of additional science background related to the woman’s work. A slightly flippant, breezy, and amusing writing style makes this an easy and engaging read. Each biography includes plenty of information about the scientist’s childhood experiences, making it that much more pertinent for young readers; women of color are well represented. Altogether, it offers an invaluable and highly plausible road map from youthful ambition to future success. Outstanding backmatter rounds out this excellent presentation.
A fine choice for inspiring future scientists. (glossary, tips on success in STEM, further reading, index) (Collective biography. 10-14)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Fletcher, Tiera: WONDER WOMEN OF SCIENCE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2021. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A648127184/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b6d88a9b. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
Amanda Davis, illus. by Sally Wern Comport. WorthyKids, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5460-1369-3
A 30' x 20' American flag that hung in New York City in the aftermath of 9/11 undergoes an extraordinary yearslong journey to be restored, before coming to rest in 2014 at the National September 11 Museum. Utilizing the refrain "The fabric of America..." Davis outlines the flag's journey through each of the 50 states, where it was patched with other retired U.S. flags by a number of local leaders and citizens: "in New Mexico, near Navajo Nation, stories of survival and secret battle codes were shared as members of the Navajo Code Talkers placed stitches. The fabric of America unites." Comport adds intricately collaged mulrimedia spreads so textured they're almost tangible, employing newspaper clippings, stitched vignettes, and fabric panels while creating a cast of varying ages, abilities, sizes, and skin colors. A nationalistic nonfiction narrative that effectively informs about a symbol of hope. Back matter includes more about the flag and its restoration process, facts about the U.S. Flag Code, photographs, and an author's note. Ages 5-8. (May)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 PWxyz, LLC
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"30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 36, 6 Sept. 2021, p. 94. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A675525146/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a25b21c1. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
Blast Off! How Mary Sherman Morgan Fueled America into Space. By Suzanne Slade. Illus. by Sally Wern Comport. Apr. 2022.48p. Astra/Calkins Creek, $18.99 (9781684372416). Gr. 1-3.920.
The author of A Computer Called Katherine (2019) profiles another woman scientist who played a significant role in this country's early space program--so unrecognizably that even Wernher von Braun had to address his thankyou letter to "Dear Unknown Lady." Filling out the skimpy historical record with, she admits, bits of invented detail, Slade follows Mary Sherman Morgan from a North Dakota farm to a lab in California, where her "passion for chemistry" drove her to become " the rocket fuel expert" and to develop the powerful-yet-stable fuel that put Explorer I into orbit in 1958. Comport outfits Morgan in nerdy period eyeglasses, standing confidently next to the tools of her profession amid swirls of equations. The best clue to Morgan's character, though, is embedded in the back matter, where, along with more about the satellite and the Juno I rocket, readers will learn that her original name for her fuel, Bagel (for its association with "lox," the shorthand term for liquid oxygen) was rejected by the army in favor of the more "scientific" sounding "hydyne. "--John Peters
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
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Peters, John. "Blast Off! How Mary Sherman Morgan Fueled America into Space." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 15, 1 Apr. 2022, p. 30. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A701067452/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=53ba2bda. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
Comport, Sally Wern HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers (Children's None) $18.99 1, 28 ISBN: 9781635928235
A detective foils a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
This expertly paced tale ratchets up the tension as readers learn that Lincoln's life was in danger as he set out by train to Washington, D.C., for his 1861 presidential inauguration. Anderson adeptly plays with dramatic irony: Readers likely already know that he ultimately made it. But how? Enter Kate Warne, "the first female detective in the United States," who uncovered a plot to kill Lincoln in Baltimore, his only stop in the South. Lincoln "wasn't welcome" here because of his opposition to slavery. Kate and Allan Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, needed to convince Lincoln the threat was real. After they initially failed, they concocted a ruse that involved disabling telegraph lines, donning costumes, and keeping Southern spies at bay. Kate, traveling incognito, secured a berth for her "sick brother." Lincoln boarded the train in disguise, and she kept watch until they arrived in Baltimore and his train car was rerouted. Having successfully safeguarded the president-elect, Kate disappeared into a Baltimore crowd, "hiding in plain sight" to await her next assignment. Organized chronologically, each spread opens like a scrapbook, with pictorial maps of Lincoln's train route and framed portraits of principal characters and events, all suffused in an ominous, dusky palette. Cleverly, Comport incorporates recurring images of timepieces, matching the sense of suspense layered into Anderson's text--time is indeed of the essence.
A lively, luminous account of a lesser-known woman's ingenious contribution to presidential history. (afterword, bibliography, illustrator's note, archival photographs, picture credits)(Informational picture book. 7-10)
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"Comport, Sally Wern: HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A817945742/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=675983c9. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
Hiding in Plain Sight: Kate Warne and the Race to Save Abraham Lincoln. By Beth Anderson. Illus. by Sally Wern Comport. Jan. 2025. 48p. Astra/Calkins Creek, $18.99 (9781635928235). Gr. 2-4. 363.289092.
Kate Warne was the nation's first woman detective and a plucky and committed, chameleonlike undercover agent of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. By disguising herself as a Southern loyalist in Baltimore, Warne uncovered a rebel plot to kill Abraham Lincoln there in February 1861. After secretively delivering messages among his allies in several cities, Warne snuck the president-elect to Washington under the cover of night to save him from the assassination attempt. Anderson (Lizzie Demands a Seat! 2020) weaves questions through the text to heighten reader engagement in the events and employs a succinct sentence structure that palpably conveys the mission's urgency: "Railroad executives cleared the route. Telegraph officials disabled the lines. The train raced to Philadelphia at top speed." Comport, illustrator of Susan Hood's Ada's Violin (2016), immerses us in the drama with sepia-toned artwork that lends an aged feel to the framed pages. Meticulous illustrations employ the "scrapbook house" collage style of the era, highlights of which include superbly detailed garments and period furniture. The subtle inclusion of time-pieces throughout amplifies the exigency of Warne's work. Extensive back matter includes source and illustrators' notes and elaborates on Warne's ability to hide in plain sight by camouflaging herself to investigative circumstances through wardrobe and words. An apt companion to Marissa Moss' books on Warne and Pinkerton, this is a lively choice for U.S. history or Women's History Month displays.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
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Ballenger, Kit. "Hiding in Plain Sight: Kate Warne and the Race to Save Abraham Lincoln." Booklist, vol. 121, no. 7-8, Dec. 2024, p. 120. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A829740266/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=673759ef. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
Sherman Morgan Fueled America into Space
Suzanne Slade, illus. by Sally Wern Comport. Calkins Creek, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-68437-241-6
Slade introduces a little-known hero of the space race in this dynamically illustrated portrayal of rocket fuel scientist Mary Sherman Morgan (1921–2004), a key figure in developing the propellant that powered America’s first satellite into space in 1958. A chronological narrative details Morgan’s late start to school, at age eight, before tracing her early career and diving into the excitement of the top-secret task that required the lab’s “best man”—Morgan. Wern Comport’s vivid multimedia illustrations depict Morgan and other engineers at work in images that teem with equations, data tables, formulas, and slide rules. While the book presents as a biography, an author’s note clarifies that a need “to creatively fill in a few gaps” renders the book, instead, historical fiction. Regardless, Mary’s example of perseverance and glass ceiling–shattering delivers a motivating message for would-be scientists. Back matter concludes. Ages 7–10. (Apr.)
Blog Posts
30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag by Amanda Davis
September 23, 2021
Andrew Hacket
As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 neared, I found myself unsure of how to approach this sensitive topic with my young students. Thankfully, Amanda Davis and her debut picture book, 30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag, provided the perfect solution.
In 30,000 Stitches, Amanda Davis delicately recounts the events of 9/11 in broad strokes, before transitioning to the heart of the story, the hope and healing that followed as thousands came together to repair the National 9/11 Flag, stitch by stitch, over a 120,000 mile journey, across all 50 states.
With the strong message of hope and unity I knew I wanted to plan an activity that brought the students together to create something they couldn’t on their own. I wanted to emulate the many hands that went into repairing the National 9/11 flag, while teaching valuable lessons in teamwork and gratitude.
After a discussion about community helpers, including police officers, firefighters, EMTs, doctors and nurses, we brainstormed sentence ideas to display our gratitude for the services they provide our community. Some examples remained general, while others were written to specific family members who serve in these roles.
To give more options and to help the students see their own place as community helpers, we brainstormed a list of things they could do to improve our community themselves.
With the brainstorming complete, the many hands got busy, writing out their sentences of gratitude on red, white, and blue strips of paper and “sewing” them together ring by ring.
With each piece, like each stitch of the 9/11 flag, our gratitude flag grew until finally it was complete.
If you want to know even more about 30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag, you can check out my interview with Amanda here, on The Backstory blog.