Axle Annie

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Axle Annie

Axle Annie--Written by Robin Pulver and illustrated by Tedd Arnold

Book-of-the-Month Club Selection

Artwork selected for Society of Illustrators exhibition, The Original Art, 1999

Smithsonian's Notable Books for Children, 1999 selection.

Axle Annie is the best school bus driver in Burskyville. And she's so much fun, all the kids want to ride on Annie's bus. On snowy mornings they won't close the schools unless Annie thinks she can't make it over Tiger Hill. But Annie has always made it over that hill. Shifty Rhodes, another bus driver, would like nothing better than to stay in his warm bed when blizzards hit town. If he could stop Annie from driving over Tiger Hill, maybe the schools would take a snow day and Shifty could stay in bed. He will try anything to stop Annie.

For some reason, as I visualized Annie's character, Amelia Earhart came to mind. That explains the pilot's goggles and outfit --what some people call "the mad bomber" look. I was very excited to work on the illustrations for this new book by my good friend, Robin Pulver. We are both members of a writers group that meets monthly to share and critique each other's work. Usually, the writers and illustrators that create a book together do not know each other or have no contact before the book is published. It was the first time that Robin has been able to watch the illustrations develop for one of her stories month by month. And it was a first for me to be able to hear feedback from the author of a story while I was illustrating it.

Robin says -- "One of the great joys for me as a picture book author is having my words illustrated by a talented artist. When I write a picture book story, I hold back on description, partly to save space for the art, but also to leave the artist free to follow his own imagination. I love art--I bought pictures for my walls long before I bought any furniture!--so for me the magic of having my words illustrated is a wondrous gift. I never pictured the character Axle Annie like this! I think Tedd Arnold's Annie is glorious and surprising."

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