Jane Wattenberg facts for kids

Jane Wattenberg (born 1949) is an American author, photographer, and illustrator. She creates many books for children. You might also know her by her special pen name, Mrs. Mustard.

Creating Books and Art

Jane Wattenberg is famous for her best-selling baby board books. These include Mrs. Mustard's Baby Faces and Mrs. Mustard's Beastly Babies. These books are unique because they are accordion-style and use photo collages. A photo collage is when you combine different photos to make a new image.

She also wrote and illustrated Henny-Penny, a popular re-told tale that won awards. Another one of her books is Never Cry Woof!. This book is a fun twist on the classic story The Boy Who Cried Wolf. In her version, dogs guard the sheep instead of a boy.

Her most recent book with photo illustrations is The Duck and the Kangaroo. This book uses a poem written by Edward Lear a long time ago. It's the first time this poem has been published as its own book.

How Jane Wattenberg Gets Ideas

Jane Wattenberg gets ideas from many different artists. She is inspired by photo collage artists like Hannah Höch. She also looks at the work of painters like René Magritte and photographers like Herbert Bayer. Animal photographers such as Ylla and Harry Whittier Frees have also influenced her. In children's books, she finds inspiration from Tana Hoban, Vladimir Radunsky, and Maira Kalman.

Early Photography and Other Works

When Jane was young, she started taking pictures with a simple Brownie camera. She loved making double-exposed images, which means taking two pictures on the same piece of film. This early experience helped shape her later art.

Her first published photo appeared in Rolling Stone magazine in 1972. The famous photographer Annie Leibovitz chose it. Jane has also created art for book covers for authors like Judy Blume and Joan Bauer. She has even designed album covers for musicians like Herbie Hancock.

Before she started making books, her photo collages were featured in magazines. These included Electric Company, Bananas, and Dynamite magazines.

About Jane Wattenberg's Life

Jane Rachel Wattenberg was born on April 19, 1949, in Norwalk, Connecticut. She grew up there. Her father was a chemist and enjoyed photography as a hobby. Her mother was an elementary school teacher who cared deeply about her community, family, and friends.

Today, Jane lives in San Francisco, California, with her husband. They have three adult sons. She has a special "urban farm" in the city. There, she keeps bees and harvests honey. She also raises hens, ducks, and goats. Sometimes, she even has emus and quails!

Education and Learning

Jane Wattenberg studied art history at Simmons College, earning her bachelor's degree in 1971. She then received her master's degree in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1973.

In 1970, she studied art history in Vienna, Austria. She also gained experience by working at famous museums. She interned at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. She also worked at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Jane has learned from many talented photographers and authors, including John Pfahl and Uri Schulevitz.

Teaching Photography

After finishing her studies in 1973, Jane Wattenberg moved to San Francisco. There, she began teaching photography classes. She taught at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the University of California San Francisco.

At the University of California San Francisco, she taught classes on self-portraiture. In 1976, she joined the photography team at Lone Mountain College. Some of her students there became well-known photographers themselves, like Jim Goldberg.

Books by Jane Wattenberg

• The Duck and the Kangaroo Greenwillow/HarperCollins (2009)
• Never Cry Woof! A Dog-U-Drama Scholastic Press (2005)
• This is the Rain (Text by Lola Schaefer) HarperCollins/Greenwillow (2001)
• Henny-Penny Scholastic Press (2000)
• Mrs. Mustard's Name Games Chronicle Books (1993)
• Mrs. Mustard's Beastly Babies Chronicle Books (1990)
• Mrs. Mustard's Baby Faces Chronicle Books (1989, 2007)

Awards and Recognition

Jane Wattenberg's books have won several awards:

• Never Cry Woof!, Children's Choice Award (2006)
• Henny-Penny, Best Book Choices, University of Wisconsin (2001)
• Henny-Penny, Blue Ribbon Award for Best Books, Center for Children's Books, University of Illinois (2000)
• Mrs. Mustard's Beastly Babies, American Bookseller's Pick of the Lists (1990)