Ted Dewan Biography (1961-)

An American-born artist who now makes his home in Great Britain, Ted Dewan has been praised for creating book illustrations that feature his characteristic quirky, engaging style. Using his artistic skills, timely marketing, and creative concepts, Dewan encourages readers to find new appreciation for familiar material. Books for Keeps contributor Pam Harwood admired the author's "'cool' language" and "bright, lively pictures," which bring Dewan's adaptation of the time-honored story Three Billy Goats Gruff back to life. Among original tales, Dewan has also authors the self-illustrated picture books Baby Gets the Zapper and Crispin and the Three Little Piglets, as well as several volumes in the ongoing "Bing Bunny" series of picture books for the toddler set. Praising Bing: Get Dressed from the series, Ilene Cooper wrote in Booklist that "it's hard to know what's more fun here, the computer-collage art or the satisfying way Dewan captures a child's world."

After studying engineering at Brown University and teaching physics at Milton Academy in Boston, Massachusetts, Dewan decided to make a career change. He began illustrating nonfiction books for both children and adults, including several volumes by science writer Steve Parker. Published in 1992, Inside the Whale showcases Dewan's pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings alongside Parker's examination of the morphology of the world's largest mammals. Similar in format, Inside Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures investigates the processes used by modern scientists to recreate detailed models of dinosaurs. School Library Journal contributor Cathryn A. Camper praised both books for using "humor and imagination, instead of knives" to examine the anatomy of these creatures.

With the success of his illustrations for Parker, Dewan moved on to create his own stories for children, and he attempts to explain one of the great mysteries of childhood in Top Secret. Published in 1996, Top Secret reveals, in a comic-book format, the complex technology and heroic bravery responsible for the legend of the tooth fairy. In Dewan's book, the "new kid," one of seven turtle-like creatures, describes the dangerous mission with which his crew has been charged. Their goal: undetected tooth extraction from beneath the pillow of a sleeping girl and replacement of said tooth with a shiny coin. School Library Journal contributor Karen James noted Dewan's humorous peppering of technical jargon, such as "zip cable" and "Slumber Zone," to augment the text. Citing the combination of "catchy lingo of the narration and the Lego-like machines," a Kirkus Reviews critic called Top Secret "adventurous fun, especially for the mechanically inclined," while Booklist reviewer Carolyn Phelan wrote that "Children will enjoy the visual wit and pizzazz that characterizes this original picture book."

The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Dewan's next endeavor, is an original story based on a ballad by eighteenth-century German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is doubtful, however, that Goethe could have imagined a robot cast in the title role. In a workshop that School Librarian contributor Anne Rowe described as "a cross between a metal workshop and Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory," Dewan's modern-day sorcerer puts together gears, wires, bulbs, transistors, and other mechanical things to create new inventions. Because his workshop has becoming cluttered with bits of left-over stuff, he wires together a savvy robot apprentice to clean up after him. The first robot, who quickly becomes addicted to technology himself in the form of television, accumulates enough stuff to build a successor to perform all the hard work; the new robot does the same. So it goes, until the robots revolt against the sorcerer, forcing the inventor to flip the "off" switch on the entire mechanical crew, all except his original apprentice. A Publishers Weekly contributor called The Sorcerer's Apprentice a "post-modern melodrama" that "cautions against cloning, environmental depletion and television," while a Kirkus reviewer dubbed the work a "rollicking remake of the classic tale." Drawing on his interest in electronic music, Dewan also created a musical accompaniment to compliment his visual story, arranging compositions by Paul-Abraham Dukas and Camille Saint-Saëns and including his own, titled "The March of the Robots."

Wealthy young porker Crispin Tamworth is introduced in Dewan's Crispin: The Pig Who Had It All, which focuses on what Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper called "a familiar theme, made fresh and funny thanks to a witty yet heartfelt text and eye-popping art." Getting anything and everything he wants, Crispin values next to nothing, and his room soon becomes a dumping ground for broken and discarded toys of all sorts. Still, there is always something new to want, and when Santa leaves him nothing but an empty box one Christmas, the pig is more than a little petulant. Fortunately, with the help of resourceful new friends Penny and Nick, he learns that a toy's real value is having someone to share it with. The flip side of sharing, sharing his family with a new sibling, is the focus of Crispin and the Three Little Piglets, which finds Crispin out of the limelight when his mother brings home three new siblings. In School Library Journal Barbara Buckley praised Dewan's "cleverness," noting that the illustrations of Crispin and his endlessly exercising mother in their upper-middle-class home "give real personalities to all of the characters." Also enjoying Dewan's humorous twist on the classic story about the three little pigs, Julie Cummins wrote in Booklist that Crispin and the Three Little Piglets is enlivened by "puckish, humorous illustrations . . . burst[ing] with details that reflect real life with a twist."

Each of Dewan's books takes up to eight months to create, from idea to finished art, and most of that time is spent on the illustrations. Noting on his Web site that he chose not to major in art during college because "I didn't think I was groovy enough to fit in with the other art students (I didn't have any black clothes)," Dewan offered this encouragement to aspiring illustrators: "The best way to become good at drawing is to do a lot of it. Too many people stop drawing when they're ten because suddenly they get worried that they're not good enough. You have to keep practicing if you want to get better."