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Mary O'Keefe Young
I truly believe I have the most wonderful job in the world. I began drawing at a very early age and I always experienced great joy in being creative. Much of my childhood I spent stretched out on the floor daydreaming and drawing whatever came to my mind. A desire to improve my drawing and... show more

I truly believe I have the most wonderful job in the world. I began drawing at a very early age and I always experienced great joy in being creative. Much of my childhood I spent stretched out on the floor daydreaming and drawing whatever came to my mind. A desire to improve my drawing and painting has always been important to me. I was determined to be able to render human faces and my brothers and sisters often called my drawings "Monkey People" It is interesting that now I illustrate new Curious George books! When I was very young I loved the pictures in my books and I began to make books from my own stories and drew pictures to illustrate them. I still have a few of those little books! I received a BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York City. I learned so much there - about drawing, painting and illustrating children's books. I also learned how to present my work professionally so that I would get assignments as an illustrator. That was more than 25 years ago and now I go to Art Schools and share my experience with the students. I have published more than 40 children's books as well as illustrations for book jackets, magazines, greeting cards and advertizing. In 2001 I began collaborating with Pat Schories on the Biscuit Series and have illustrated 16 of them. In 2004 I began illustrating new Curious George books. I truly enjoy drawing George in the style of H.A.Rey. I like the challenge of showing him having lots of fun and as usual, getting into some type of trouble. I am presently working on my 8th and 9th Curious George. My studio is in my home in White Plains, NY. I was very fortunate to work and also to be available while my 3 children were growing up. It is wonderful to be able to take a short break every few hours and walk around my yard and enjoy the emerging flowers, our vegetable garden, the autumn leaves or the snow. I also enjoy hiking, skiing, running, kayaking and bicycling.I often visit schools and libraries to talk to children about my work. They get so excited when they try to guess what I am drawing for them. To all the children and adults who enjoy picture books - thank you!
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Community Reviews
Miss Tucker's Bookshelf
Miss Tucker's Bookshelf rated it 8 years ago
In my future classroom I would share this book with the class by introducing the "All about me" week. I would relate Biscuit's owner to my students and talk about how they will be bringing something special from home with them to present to the class. This will engage the students to really put thou...
lorenalee
lorenalee rated it 10 years ago
Yeah, I really have no excuse for this. It was an Amazon freebie. Don’t judge me.Well, were to start. Missy is an engineer with no time for men and dating, and has never found a man intelligent enough to match her. All it takes is her being kidnapped and engaged (against her will) to an alien king. ...
Amara's Eden
Amara's Eden rated it 11 years ago
Merry Christmas, Curious George is, obviously enough, a Christmas-themed Curious George book in which Curious George is accidentally delivered, along with an evergreen tree, to a children's hospital. There he gets into his typical shenanigans, cheering up the sick children as he does so. After being...
She Thought What?!?! Rants, Raves, and In-Betweens
George cheering up the kids stuck sick at the hospital. Nice story.
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