Melissa Sweet (born January 1, 1956) is an American illustrator and writer of nearly 100 books for children and young readers.
[12] Sweet conducts extensive research on the subjects of her biographies for children, which she illustrates with watercolor, mixed media, and collage.
[14] In Balloons over Broadway, Sweet describes her work process as "To create the art for the book, I began by making toys and puppets.
I played with all sorts of materials, not knowing exactly what the outcomes would be.In addition to the watercolor illustrations, my collages are, in part, a mix of paper from old books to make paper-mache puppets, found objects, and fabrics, all painted or altered to illustrate what it may have felt like to be in Sarg's world.
I tried to keep in mind that in everything Sarg did,he conveyed the sense that he was having fun His legacy reminds me that “play” may be the most important element in making art!"
White is a 176-page long biographical picture book that Sweet wrote and illustrated using watercolor and collage art.
It includes excerpts from White's personal life, early drafts of his novels, family pictures, and other previously unpublished information on the writer.
Martha White not only gave Sweet her permission, she offered to help by allowing her to have access to the family's personal records, memorabilia, and photo albums of E. B.
[20] Fourteen books Sweet has illustrated are Junior Library Guild selections: Pinky and Rex and the School Play (1998),[35] Pinky and Rex and the Perfect Pumpkin (1998),[36] Leaving Vietnam (1999),[37] The Boy Who Drew Birds (2004),[38] A River of Words (2008),[39] Rubia and the Three Osos (2011),[40] Mrs. Harkness and the Panda (2012),[41] Spike, the Mixed-up Monster (2013),[42] Brave Girl (2013),[43] Firefly July (2014),[44] The Right Word (2014),[45] Baabwaa and Wooliam (2017),[46] Alphamaniacs (2020),[47] and Unbound (2021)[48] In 2009, The Horn Book Magazine named The Sleepy Little Alphabet one of the best picture books of the year.