A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen

Dee and Magee are colorful and expressive, and the plot is just silly enough to to elicit a giggle or two. Even pre-readers will be able to surmise that an ordinary day at sea turns not so ordinary for these companions, but with the help of some friends the day is saved. Magee and Dee' series, and introduced us to the gentle rhymes and cartoony (but not ridiculous) illustrations of Chris Van Dusen. Our household copy from the original printing has survived multiple shelf-weeding and 3 moves, dust jacket and all.

Magee (Chronicle) (2003), If I Built a Car (Puffin) (2005) and I’ve had a ball illustrating Kate DiCamillo’s Mercy Watson series (Candlewick). Since then I’ve written and illustrated A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee (Chronicle), which was published in 2000. Magee and his little dog, Dee / Hopped in the car and drove down to the sea.” The combination of these two things eventually became my first book, Down to the Sea with Mr. At the same time, a refrain kept running through my head-“Mr. I thought that would be a really funny and intriguing illustration. One day I started thinking about drawing a picture of a boat stuck high up in a tree.

I was doing mostly editorial work and my illustrations appeared in magazines like Nickelodeon, Family Fun, and Disney Adventures. “For more than ten years I worked as a freelance illustrator specializing in art for kids. Eventually I started drawing cartoons and illustrations for the magazine and my career as an illustrator was born. First I was a waiter, and then I was offered a part-time job at a magazine for teenagers. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. “After high school, I studied fine art at The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and graduated with a BFA in 1982. I had no idea back then that I’d end up writing and illustrating children’s books when I grew up. Seuss’ words and I was fascinated by the meticulous detail of Robert McCloskey’s illustrations. Seuss and Robert McCloskey were my heroes. My specialty was aliens, robots, and monsters. Another would draw animals so realistic you’d swear they were breathing. One of my brothers would sketch intricate war scenes. We didn’t have video games or computers to entertain us, so we drew instead. As a child, my brothers and I would spend hours drawing pictures. Chris Van Dusen writes: “I was born in Portland, Maine, on St.

A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen