SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE:
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Albany
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: French
LAST VOLUME: SATA 370
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born March 17, 1960, in Casablanca, Morocco; daughter of Maurice Kantorovitz (a teachers’ inspector) and Esther Anahory (a teacher); married Thor Wickstrom, May, 1983 (divorced, 2001); immigrated to United States; partner’s name, Barbara Lehman (an author-illustrator); children: Sosha.
EDUCATION:École Normale de Beauvais, degree (French); attended Arts Students’ League (New York, NY), and École des Beaux Arts (Paris, France).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Painter and illustrator, beginning 1987.
AVOCATIONS:Reading, listening to music, biking, going to plays, concerts, movies, art shows, and galleries.
WRITINGS
Contributor of illustrations to periodicals, including Click and NAEYC Magazine.
SIDELIGHTS
Sylvie Kantorovitz is a longtime illustrator of children’s books who has also self-illustrated a half-dozen titles. She was born in Morocco, spent her childhood and adolescence in France, and moved to the United States in her twenties. As an illustrator—publishing under her then-married name of Sylvie Wickstrom through the turn of the century—she is noted for her work in collaboration with writer Deborah Hautzig on Hautzig’s “Little Witch” novels for younger readers. In addition to the “Little Witch” books, Kantorovitz has illustrated books by several other writers, such as Amy Goldman Koss, Stuart J. Murphy, and Clyde Robert Bulla. She has created both text and illustrations for several picture books, including Mothers Can’t Get Sick, Loose Tooth, Turkey on the Loose!, I Love You, Mister Bear, and more.
Reviewing Kantorovitz’s work (as Wickstrom) for Mary Elise Monsell’s picture book Armadillo, a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that “young readers will be … charmed by the soft, warm-toned watercolors.” In a Booklist review of Ann Whitford Paul’s farm-themed picture book Silly Sadie, Silly Samuel, Hazel Rochman praised Kantorovitz’s play on painter Grant Wood’s famous picture American Gothic, adding that the book’s “innocent slapstick nonsense” is reflected in the book’s “colorful cartoons.”
In Kantorovitz’s self-illustrated I Love You, Mister Bear, a scruffy, well-worn teddy bear looking for a new home at a yard sale finds one when Sosha—named for the author’s daughter—feels sorry for the tattered toy. Bringing the bear home, the girl watches as a bath and a suit of new clothes created with the help of Sosha’s mother accomplishes a transformation, and Mister Bear turns out to be quite dapper indeed. Praising Kantorovitz’s text as “endearing” and “simply told,” Carolyn Phelan wrote in Booklist that the picture book is “illustrated with affection and panache,” while in School Library Journal, Marge Loch-Wouters described Kantorovitz’s “quiet story” as “perfect for beginning readers or one-on-one sharing.” The author/illustrator “makes every picture and line resonate with Sosha’s forthright love,” concluded a Publishers Weekly reviewer, adding that the art reflects “the pride all children take in their own redemptive powers.”
Kantorovitz takes on a challenging topic for youths and parents alike in The Very Tiny Baby. Jacob feels an ordinary uncertainty about the impending arrival of his baby sibling, expressed with the help of teddy bear Bob, but things change when the baby arrives too soon. The parents are grief-stricken and permanently concerned, leading to difficult conversations and extra frustrations for Jacob. Kantorovitz illustrates in a simple style that reflects Jacob’s responses to the solemn reality around him, including when his thoughts turn dark. Fortunately, the baby survives.
Reviewing The Very Tiny Baby in School Library Journal, Marianne Saccardi observed that Kantorovitz “doesn’t gloss over how fragile life is for preemies, the anxieties experienced by family members, and even the complaints … of a sibling who feels left out.” A Kirkus Reviews writer was impressed with how the author “honors Jacob’s emotions and experiences” in this “laudably candid effort, unafraid to treat its readership with the utmost respect.”
In Zig and the Magic Umbrella, Kantorovitz presents the fantastic voyage-by-umbrella of a unique blue-skinned creature in a world of lollipop trees. Whisked away from his rainy home, Zig ends up in a landscape where a kindly bird leads him over water, up a cliff, and past a sleeping monster to find a surprise behind a boulder. Horn Book reviewer Susan Dove Lempke suggested that children will get delightfully lost in the “whimsical, dreamlike acrylic-and-paper collage pictures as Zig’s adventure comes to a happy, and no longer lonesome, ending.”
Kantorovitz offers readers a graphic memoir in Sylvie, focusing on the period of her childhood and adolescence spent in France after her family emigrated from Morocco when she was five. Her father was a principal in a small town, and she and her three siblings grew up on the grounds of an all-boys school. Being white, like others around her, but Jewish—the only such family in town—Sylvie sometimes endures anti-Semitism or discrimination based on her North African birth. While dealing with her mother’s impulse to push her to be more feminine, the young Sylvie finds herself drawn toward opportunities to appreciate and create works of art.
In School Library Journal, Tammy Ivins commented that the book’s “cartoonish art style is enchanting, and Kantorovitz makes effective use of color and panel layout to convey mood.” A Kirkus Reviews writer declared that “the overall tone of this story is comforting, warm, calm, and deeply satisfying,” making Sylvie “quietly appealing for young readers with a taste for realism.”
Kantorovitz once told SATA: “I grew up in France. Besides being an avid reader, I always loved to draw and paint. Although proud of my artistic production, my parents did not favor a career in art. After high school, I tried a year of commercial studies. It was a nightmare. I then followed in my parents’ footsteps and became a school teacher. After one year of teaching, the need to create took over and there came the chance to study for one year at the Arts Students’ League in New York City. It was heaven. I painted, drew, met my future husband, and discovered the wonderful and magic world of picture books. (They were often close to the art books in bookstores.) Returning to France, I went to the Beaux Arts in Paris, married Thor Wickstrom, painted some more, and started a portfolio of illustrations. Back in the United States in 1985, I took my portfolio around to publishers in New York City and eventually was offered a chance to illustrate Raffi’s The Wheels on the Bus.
“After a few more illustrated books and a move upstate, I had a daughter who required an enormous amount of being read to. She also loved improvised stories about herself. The idea of writing my own stories had already taken seed but Sosha was the fertilizer. It took many years and many rewrites before I Love You, Mister Bear came out in 2004.
“I am still writing, although at this date, no story of mine is under contract. I am still illustrating, of course. And I am also painting, using my maiden name Sylvie Kantorovitz as my painter’s name.
“When I illustrate, I enjoy being able to create characters undergoing a whole range of feelings, and families where parents are present and all-loving … not as it was for me. Being a child is a very difficult time of life and a time that will shape what we adults are. It is therefore important to me to describe a range of emotions—albeit in a cartoony way—that I think children go through every day. I wish I had been taught that sadness, jealousy, anger, pain, longing were valid feelings. I’ve wondered if my love for the world of picture books is a way for me to re-create a childhood for myself.
“As far as my style is concerned, I strive for simplicity. The “less is more’ phrase could be my motto. I enjoy varying the medium and trying different approaches with every title. I never feel I’ve achieved my goal, though. … I guess it is good as it keeps me reaching for more.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 1992, Ilene Cooper, review of This Old House, p. 436; October 1, 1994, Hazel Rochman, review of Dog Days for Dudley, p. 329; December 1, 1999, Hazel Rochman, review of Silly Sadie, Silly Samuel, p. 716; January 1, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of I Love You, Mister Bear, p. 884; November 1, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of Go to Bed, Monster, p. 54.
Horn Book, July-August, 1988, Karen Jameyson, review of The Wheels on the Bus, p. 483; November-December, 1989, Ellen Fader, review of Mothers Can’t Get Sick, p. 765; May-June, 2015, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Zig and the Magic Umbrella, p. 89.
Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2003, review of I Love You, Mister Bear, p. 1365; June 1, 2008, review of Smarty Sara; February 1, 2014, review of The Very Tiny Baby; December 15, 2020, review of Sylvie.
Publishers Weekly, February 12, 1988, review of The Wheels on the Bus, p. 83; July 14, 1989, review of Mothers Can’t Get Sick, p. 75; August 23, 1991, review of Armadillo, p. 61; August 31, 1992, review of This Old House, p. 78; January 19, 2004, review of I Love You, Mister Bear, p. 74.
School Library Journal, June-July, 1988, Jennifer Smith, review of The Wheels on the Bus, p. 98; September, 1989, Patricia Homer, review of Mothers Can’t Get Sick, p. 235; April, 1990, Sharon McEmeel, review of Five Silly Fishermen, p. 88; October, 1990, Susan Hepler, review of The Christmas Coat, p. 34; March, 1991, Leslie Barban, review of Turkey on the Loose!, p. 180; May, 1991, Luann Toth, review of The Squeaky Door, p. 84; November, 1991, Virginia E. Jeschelnig, review of Armadillo, p. 104; October, 1994, Christina Door, review of Dog Days for Dudley, p. 94; March, 2000, Diane Janoff, review of Silly Sadie, Silly Samuel, p. 211; January, 2004, Marge Loch-Wouters, review of I Love You, Mister Bear, p. 107; March, 2014, Marianne Saccardi, review of The Very Tiny Baby, p. 115; October, 2020, Tammy Ivins, review of Sylvie, p. 102.
ONLINE
Sylvie Kantorovitz website, https://sylviekantorovitz.com (March 20, 2021).
Bonjour!
Thank you for your visit. Here are a few tidbits about me:
I was born in Casablanca in 1960 and grew up in France. I have lived longer in the US than I lived in France. And yet, my accent gives me away very quickly!
After high school, I became a school teacher and read and drew for my students. I loved teaching but I also wanted to study art.
In 1980, I went to New York City for a year and studied at the Art Students League. Back in France, I studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It is during these years that I discovered — or re-discovered — the magic of children’s books.
I moved to the US in my 20s, and now live in the beautiful Hudson Valley with my partner, Barbara Lehman. Barbara is also an author-illustrator of books for young readers.
I started my career in books for young children with the illustrations for a Raffi Song to Read: Wheels on the Bus.
I grew up reading popular French comics — or graphic novels. When the form became more popular in the US, I embraced it wholeheartedly and found it the perfect way to tell my stories.
Some things I love: books, movies, art (ethnographic art, medieval art, contemporary art, street art, outsider art, book art, children’s art, etc), strolls in town or in nature, drawing and doing collages.
Hear how to pronounce my name here.
If you have questions or comments, please e-mail me:
sylviekant – at – gmail – dot – com
Or find me on FaceBook, Instagram, or Twitter.
I would love to hear from you!
Five questions for Sylvie Kantorovitz
by Horn Book
Apr 24, 2024 | Filed in Newsletters
Vehicles are a staple of picture books, and Sylvie Kantorovitz’s new early-reader comic A New Car for Pickle (Holiday, 5–8 years), capitalizes on that favorite topic for readers who are speeding toward independence — and with plenty of humor and whimsical panel illustrations, it’s perfect for summer reading. See Kantorovitz’s March/April 2022 Horn Book Magazine article “Graphic Memoirs: Why We Read Them. Why We Need Them” for some thoughts on books those same readers might enjoy further down the road.
1. How is working on an early-reader comic (A New Car for Pickle; Monti and Leo) similar to working on a graphic memoir for older readers (Sylvie)? How is it different?
Photo: Barbara Lehman.
Sylvie Kantorovitz: The obvious similarity is that they rely on visual storytelling and require the drawing of lots of mini-pictures. With early-reader comics, I always aim for the same thing: readability. I try to keep my panels simple, clear, uncluttered.
There is an aspect that contains both similarities and differences: the three books you mention all present situations familiar to children, such as new friendships, facing problems, making choices. What is different is that they are created for readers with different levels of life experience.
My early readers present ideas familiar to children who are almost new to the world outside of home, who often face situations for the first time: starting a friendship, feeling unwelcome, defending a friend (as in Monti and Leo), making choices by trial and error (as in A New Car for Pickle). My graphic memoir deals with very much the same subjects but assumes a different level of experience from readers in navigating their own family, friends, and school, in facing their own difficulties and solving their problems. The content is therefore more complex; the problems and their resolutions are more nuanced.
Another big difference has to do with using my imagination versus using my memories. For my early readers, I wanted to create cozy settings busy with animal characters, which have the extraordinary advantage of being like children but who live on their own in a small village. I gave my little characters conflicts and problems that needed solving. And then, I decided on a resolution that felt emotionally satisfying to me. For Sylvie, I drew on my memories of growing up in France, on my relationships with my parents, my siblings, my friends, on my school and my teachers, on my worries about the future, and on my love of drawing. The story already existed, I just had to extract it from the jumble of images in my mind.
2. What’s your process for pacing a comic?
SK: First, I write a story line followed by more detailed content of the story. At that point my work probably resembles the writing of a play. I also draw pages of character studies, and I experiment with style.
For each one of my books, I make a page grid that shows the various possible panel sizes and page layouts. With Sylvie, I allowed myself to go to a maximum of nine panels in one page. For my early readers it is four panels per page, six on rare occasions. The grid is only a guide, and I alter as needed.
Once I have the content and grid, I cut and paste the text and position it inside panels. I include a quick description of what the image contains. This pacing stage involves a lot of cutting, pasting, juggling, shuffling, recutting, and re-positioning. If I were to draw myself at this stage, I would be surrounded by a whirlwind of notes, Post-its, scissors, tape, and sweat beads.
The task of deciding what to put in each panel and choosing the panel size is entirely intuitive. Maybe because I grew up in France and loved reading comics, this process of pacing feels very natural to me. And then, I start sketching.
3. What books did you like when you were first learning to read?
SK: I remember piles of Little Golden Books (Les petits livres d’or). I remember heavy books of fairy tales, two of them Grimms’ and one of Scandinavian tales, beautifully illustrated. I remember “The Snow Queen” and a series of thick Disney compilations. I read and re-read them all. I also read favorite comics, from Mickey Mouse Magazine to the more elaborate Tintin, Asterix, and many more.
I loved to read. Both my parents were big readers, and we had books just like we had pajamas or shampoo. I had two older cousins, and I think a lot of their books made it onto our shelves. I just read what was around, and I think I loved it all.
I clearly remember the delight of facing an afternoon of (hopefully) uninterrupted reading, of sitting down on the carpet, with a pile of books by my side with the shortest on top and going down to the longest. I knew I could read them all, methodically, one after the other, but enjoyed the warming up and the feeling of accomplishment generated by the easier start.
4. How are you like Pickle?
SK: I would love to be as carefree as Pickle. But I think I am fairly good-natured like him. I do favor a very simple way of life, and when choosing a new car, I also looked for small, simple, and safe. Like Pickle, I can get frustrated when a machine of any kind stops working. But, really, who doesn’t? And I am also very fond of whipped cream!
5. Which Richard Scarry car would Pickle pick — the pickle, the apple, or the banana car — and why?
SK: Of course Pickle would choose the Pickle car! How could he not? A Pickle Car for Pickle? Irresistible!
But then, he might get rained on, get cold and soaked, and realize the apple car was the smarter choice: cozy, warm, and dry. The good thing is, Pickle always gets a second chance.
From the April 2024 issue of Notes from the Horn Book: Summer Reading. For past years’ summer reading lists from The Horn Book, click on the tag summer reading.
Monti and Leo: A Newcomer in Pocketville
by Sylvie Kantorovitz; illus. by the author
Primary Walker US/Candlewick 80 pp.
4/24 9781536222777 $16.99
Monti the mole has a morning routine: go the bakery, stop at the library, and then rest on his favorite rock beside the river. One day, his routine is interrupted when he hears whispers about a stranger in town--and then he finds the stranger on his rock. This beginning-reader comic is for children gaining confidence and fluency. It's told in five short chapters with twenty to thirty words per page; multisyllabic words like stranger, favorite, and talent are repeated throughout the text, giving opportunities to practice them. The stranger turns out to be Leo, a long-snouted green creature; and, of course, he and Monti become fast friends. Kantorovitz presents a fresh angle on friendship, though: Leo has been experiencing some suspicion and hostility since he arrived in town, and Monti makes it his goal to show everyone how amazing Leo is. The digital illustrations mix bold lines and pastel colors to pleasing effect, and Kantorovitz varies the number of panels on each page to control the pace, building small moments of drama and breakthroughs and leading up to a talent show Monti and Leo stage to bring the town together. This cozy book feels both familiar and surprising, and it will likely be embraced by young comics fans.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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Source Citation
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Pettinelli, Adrienne L. "Monti and Leo: A Newcomer in Pocketville." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 100, no. 2, Mar.-Apr. 2024, p. 94. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A789719412/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=82489465. Accessed 6 May 2024.
antorovitz, Sylvie MONTI AND LEO Walker US/Candlewick (Children's None) $16.99 4, 16 ISBN: 9781536222777
A friendly mole learns that strangers aren't always so strange.
Pocketville, as its welcome sign advertises, is "a quiet little town"--"And we like it that way!" When a new resident, Leo the lizard, moves in, Mrs. Sheep, the baker, starts gossiping about him. Monti the mole is initially annoyed at Leo; the lizard takes Monti's favorite resting spot, buys the last cinnamon rolls, and checks out the library book Monti wanted. But Leo is also kind and willing to share. The two become fast friends, and when Mrs. Sheep gossips about Leo again, Monti speaks up. He also introduces Leo to his friend Harriet's music, and they decide to mount a talent show. Though the villagers are reluctant to take part, Monti performs some savvy ego inflation to get Mrs. Sheep on their side, and soon everyone is following suit. Seasons appear to progress from spring to winter over the course of the book's four chapters. Monti and Leo's friendship radiates warmth throughout. It's clear that kindness and hostility are choices, and this tale shows that the capacity for both exists in everyone, from mild-mannered Monti's brief bouts of irritation to a surprisingly gracious moment courtesy of Mrs. Sheep. With their long snouts, Monti and Leo cut endearing figures in Kantorovitz's rounded, spare cartoonish art. Most pages contain two to four panels, making the characters' exploits as easy to process as the relatively short sentences.
New neighbors, attitudes, and ideas are worth embracing in this community-minded tale. (character sketches) (Graphic fiction. 7-9)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Kantorovitz, Sylvie: MONTI AND LEO." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A784238258/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=cace9a4d. Accessed 6 May 2024.
Kantorovitz, Sylvie A NEW CAR FOR PICKLE Holiday House (Children's None) $14.99 6, 25 ISBN: 9780823456208
A detour on a road trip becomes an exercise in moderating vehicular expectations.
Accompanied by best friend Bird, Pickle, an aptly named anthropomorphic green dog, is going to Clover Farm for some strawberries and cream. The car sputters, shakes, and spews exhaust before stopping, so they push it to Coco's Garage to try out replacement cars. What follows is a selection process that would make Goldilocks proud: Each of Pickle's choices is too fast, too large, or too expensive. All three picks get noticed by pedestrians, whether due to Pickle's speeding, the difficulty of maneuvering a bulky vehicle, or the flashy design of the last vehicle. Each experience leaves Pickle aware of what really matters in a car: "What I want is a simple, little, safe car." Coco's able to provide just that through a tune-up of Pickle's original car. Readers may evaluate the vehicles that they see in the real world in a new light after witnessing Pickle's decision-making process. A warning from a stern police bird demonstrates one consequence of ignoring the speed limit. Pickle is a conscientious protagonist who apologizes for mistakes and shares the ever-desirable strawberries and cream. The setting is filled with appealingly round shapes and subdued colors, save for a pointy roof or the newly washed finish on one of the cars. The tale offers an excellent lesson in self-awareness, pragmatism, and manners.
A clever take on the trials and tribulations of replacing a busted ride. (Graphic fiction. 4-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Kantorovitz, Sylvie: A NEW CAR FOR PICKLE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A791876821/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=71300153. Accessed 6 May 2024.