David J. Catrow III Biography

Born 0027;s name Deborah; Education: Attended Kent State University. Hobbies and other interests: Bicycling, birdwatching, painting.

Addresses

Office—Springfield News-Sun, 202 North Limestone St., Springfield, 45503.

Career

Cartoonist, painter, and commercial illustrator. Springfield News-Sun, Springfield, OH, editorial cartoonist, 1984—; Copley News Service, syndicated cartoonist, 1988—. Worked as a paramedic for ten years. Freelance illustrator for Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon-Journal; illustrator of Wild Things (weekly pet column). Exhibitions: Catrow's art is held in the permanent collections of the National Archives, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Museum of Cartoon Art in San Francisco, as well as many private holdings.

Honors Awards

Best of Cox award, Cox Newspapers, 1989, 1995, for editorial cartooning, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, for community division's illustration category, and 2000, 2003, for illustration; Book Sense Book-of-the-Year nominations, American Booksellers Association, 2002, for Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon and Take Me out of the Bathtub, and Other Silly Dilly Songs; Best Illustrated Book for the Year selection, New York Times, 1995, for She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!, and 1999, for The Emperor's Old Clothes.

Writings

(Self-illustrated) We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, Dial (New York, NY), 2002.

ILLUSTRATOR; AS DAVID CATROW

Ethel Pochocki, Attic Mice, Holt (New York, NY), 1990.

Charles Ghigna, Good Dogs, Hyperion Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Robert Southey, The Cataract of Lodore, Holt (New York, NY), 1992.

Harriet Berg Schwartz, Backstage with Clawdio, Knopf (New York, NY), 1993.

David J. Catrow, III

John Walker, Ridiculous Rhymes from A to Z, Holt (New York, NY), 1994.

Kathryn Lasky, She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!, Hyperion Books (New York, NY), 1995.

William Kotzwinkle, The Million-Dollar Bear, Knopf (New York, NY), 1995.

Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and through the Wood, Holt (New York, NY), 1996.

Elizabeth Spurr, The Long, Long Letter, Hyperion Books (New York, NY), 1996.

Robert Burleigh, Who Said That?: Famous Americans Speak, Holt (New York, NY), 1997.

Sharon Arms Doucet, Why Lapin's Ears Are Long and Other Tales from the Louisiana Bayou, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Candace Fleming, Westward Ho, Carlotta!, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1998.

Howard W. Reeves, There Was an Old Witch, Hyperion Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Laura Simms, Rotten Teeth, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1998.

Stephen Phillip Policoff, Cesar's Amazing Journey, Viking (New York, NY), 1999.

Kathryn Lasky, The Emperor's Old Clothes, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1999.

Arthur Dorros, The Fungus That Ate My School, Scholastic Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Mike Reiss, How Murray Saved Christmas, Price Stern Sloan (New York, NY), 2000.

Robert D. San Souci, Cinderella Skeleton: A Fractured Fairy Tale in Rhyme, Silver Whistle/Harcourt (New York, NY), 2000.

Patty Lovell, Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon, Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.

Alan Katz, Take Me out of the Bathtub, and Other Silly Dilly Songs, Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Margery Cuyler, That's Good! That's Bad!, Holt (New York, NY), 2001.

Mike Reiss, Santa Claustrophobia, Price Stern Sloan (New York, NY), 2002.

Jerdine Nolen, Plantzilla, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2002.

Margery Cuyler, That's Good! That's Bad! in the Grand Canyon, Holt (New York, NY), 2002.

Alan Katz, I'm Still Here in the Bathtub: Brand New Silly Dilly Songs, Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Robert D. San Souci, Little Pierre: A Cajun Story from Louisiana, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2003.

Karin Ireland, Don't Take Your Snake for a Stroll, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2003.

Mike Reiss, The Boy Who Looked like Lincoln, Price Stern Sloan (New York, NY), 2003.

Alan Katz, Where Did They Hide My Presents?: Silly Dilly Christmas Songs, Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York, NY), 2004.

James Carville and Patricia C. McKissack, Lu and the Swamp Ghost, Atheneum (New York, NY), 2004.

Karen Beaumont, I Like Myself!, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2004.

Karen Kaufman Orloff, I Wanna Iguana, Putnam (New York, NY), 2004.

ILLUSTRATOR; "CORNERSTONES OF FREEDOM" SERIES

R. Conrad Stein, The Story of the Little Bighorn, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1983.

R. Conrad Stein, The Story of Wounded Knee, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1983.

R. Conrad Stein, The Story of the Johnstown Flood, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1984.

R. Conrad Stein, The Story of the Oregon Trail, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1984.

R. Conrad Stein, The Story of Apollo 11, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1985.

R. Conrad Stein, The Story of the Trail of Tears, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1985.

Zachary Kent, The Story of the Battle of Bull Run, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1986.

Work in Progress

Illustrating Karen Beaumont's I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!, for Harcourt (New York, NY), 2005; Elise Broach's Wet Dog!, Dial (New York, NY), 2005; Jerdine Nolen's Plantzilla Goes to Camp, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005; and Alan Zweibel's A Tree Named Steve, Putnam (New York, NY), 2005.

Sidelights

David J. Catrow, III—who prefers to be known simply as David Catrow—is an award-winning editorial cartoonist for the Springfield News-Sun. His work is syndicated to more than 900 newspapers in the United States and Canada, including the New York Times, USA Today, and the Washington Post. Catrow is also the illustrator of several critically acclaimed children's books. His work is often cited for its dark, biting humor and for employing unusual, squiggly lines that remind critics of Dr. Seuss.

Catrow has collaborated with a number of award-winning children's authors, including Kathryn Lasky, Robert D. San Souci, and Arthur Dorros. Lasky's She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head! was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year in 1995. Set in 1896, She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head! tells the story of Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall, founders of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Angered by the latest fashion statement—ladies' hats decorated with the bodies of dead birds—the two women are roused to action. Reviewers praised Catrow's artwork. In School Library Journal Steven Engelfried remarked that "The exaggerated expressions and postures of Catrow's figures bring humor to every page, but the serious business of political action comes through just the same." Carolyn Phelan, reviewing the work in Booklist, noted that "the colorful ink-andwatercolor artwork pokes fun at the extremes of fashion and the haughty pretensions of society." A Publishers Weekly contributor stated that Catrow "contributes flamboyant caricatures of the behatted Bostonians in convincing period costume, and his watercolors of birds mimic John James Audubon's own naturalistic paintings."

San Souci's Cinderella Skeleton: A Fractured Fairy Tale in Rhyme is a somewhat ghoulish take on the "Cinderella" motif. In this retelling, Cinderella dashes away from the Halloween Ball at midnight, leaving behind a glass slipper that still contains her bony foot. Susan Hepler, writing in School Library Journal, observed that, reflecting the quirky story, "Catrow's wonderfully weird pencil-and-watercolor illustrations feature wiggly lines, lurid pink and bilious green accents." In Horn Book Anita L. Burkam stated that Catrow's drawings "employ the long lines and angles of the skeletons to create particularly dynamic compositions." The Fungus That Ate My School, a 2000 work by Dorros, follows the exploits of three schoolchildren who return from spring vacation to find a class experiment gone horribly wrong. With the help of Professor Macademia and the Fungus Unit, the slimy, multi-tentacled creature is eventually brought under control. A critic in Publishers Weekly stated that "Dr. Seuss's influence can be seen in Catrow's squiggly line drawings, which feature mushroom-like trees and eccentric characters." GraceAnne A. DeCandido, reviewing The Fungus That Ate My School in Booklist, added that "Words can scarcely do justice to the whorls and splotches of vertiginous color."

Catrow has also illustrated works by comedy writer Alan Katz, among them Take Me out of the Bathtub, and Other Silly Dilly Songs. Katz provides humorous new lyrics to well-known children's songs: "I've Been Working on the Railroad" is remade as "I've Been Cleaning up My Bedroom," and "Row Row Row Your Boat" becomes "Clean Clean Clean Your Room." Jane Marino in School Library Journal lauded Katz's tunes and noted that Catrow's "watercolor illustrations are equally entertaining, with exaggerated features and situations giving them a cartoon look." Lauren Peterson commented in Booklist that Catrow's "animated double-spread pictures are at least as silly as the song lyrics."

While Catrow has provided artwork for R. Conrad Stein's "Cornerstones of Freedom" series of nonfiction books on serious themes—titles include such sobering works as The Story of the Little Bighorn and The Story of the Johnstown Flood—the illustrator otherwise continues to specialize in the humorously offbeat and quirky. His artwork for Jerdine Nolen's Plantzilla was praised by a Kirkus reviewer for its "characteristic comic extravagance." Karin Ireland's Don't Take Your Snake for a Stroll, a 2003 work that discusses the pitfalls that await people who dare to take their exotic pets outside the home, is subjected to a similar treatment. A critic in Kirkus Reviews observed that Catrow's "bright, typically bizarre watercolors" are "an excellent match" for Ireland's rhyming text. According to a contributor for Publishers Weekly, Catrow's illustrations "plunge readers in a funhouse-mirror world."

In 2002 Catrow published We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, a self-illustrated work that explains the opening lines of that famous document. With the actual words of the preamble serving as his text, Catrow "uses his marvelous, witty style to create a visual delight, encouraging kids to giggle and then claim ownership of the words and the basic concepts they ensure," according to Pamela K. Bomboy in School Library Journal. A Publishers Weekly critic stated that "The zany, patriotic paean offers kids lighthearted but meaningful incentive to reflect further on the relevance" of the preamble, while a Kirkus Reviews critic praised We the Kids as "an engaging way of removing barriers to understanding raised by the Constitution's stylized language."