RICHARD SCARRYA U T H O R / I L L U S T R A T O R S T U D YR A C H E L L A V E YR E 3 2 4 0 N O R A V I N E S

Born June 5, 1919 in Boston, MA to John James and Barbara Scarry1938-1941: After graduation, Scarry in encouraged to apply for business

school, and studies for less than a year. After dropping out, Scarry receives acceptance into the Boston School of Fine Arts

1941-1946: Scarry joins the Army, eventually completing Officer Candidate school and applying for art director in North Africa and Italy, drawing maps and designing graphics

1946: Finds work in New York with Golden Press as a commercial artist after providing illustration of the children’s book The Boss of the Barnyard

Marries Patricia Murphy, another children’s book author, on September 14, 1949

Scarry continues to illustrate for other children’s authors for several years until he begins to write and illustrate his own books

1963: Scarry first break out success is published, Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever

1969: Scarry, wife, and son Huck move to Gstaad, Switzerlandd21March 14, 1994: an animated children’s series based off of the world

and books created by Scarry premieres, The Busy World of Richard Scarry

Dies April 30, 1994 Gstaad, Sweden

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BIOGRAPHY TIMELINE

Scarry and wife Patsy, 1951

Scarry, cir. 1990

GENERAL GENRE, CONCEPTS, THEMES, OR SUBJECTS

Teaching BooksBooks are usually written around a subject: Holidays, Words, Numbers/Counting• Scarry usually uses his books to teach children about a subject. The

books range from pictures of words with their definitions, visual demonstrations of numbers, or a tour through the town with quick sentences describing their jobs.

• Scarry’s books have even been utliized as readers to help teach reading in younger grades.

• Scarry: “I would say [I am a] fun-man disguised as an educator…Everything has an educational value if you look for it. But it’s the fun I want to get across.”

Story Books, Mystery Books, and More• Scarry tried his hand at almost every other type of book. Scarry

also wrote his own story books, or rewrote classic stories in his own style. When puzzle or “rainy day books” rose in popularity, Scarry also published some of his own works in that genre. He wrote a good amount of mystery books, and eventually created touch and feel books, scent books, and other interactive books.

CONTROVERSY and ISSUES ADDRESSEDViolence

Many have questioned the use of “violent images” in Scarry’s work: flaming buildings, car accidents and exploding cakes may commonly appear among the illustrations• Considerations:• Plays into use of animals: rather than a human mom with an exploding

cake, a cat mom makes the situation more farcical rather than dangerous.

Scarry: “…it’s not true violence, it’s fun…The only thing that really suffers is dignity.”

Gender / Racial Stereotypes Some have criticized Scarry’s work for gender bias. Women characters perform tasks at home, while workers such as mechanics, fire fighters and truck drivers tend to be male.

• Considerations: • Writing Period 1940s-1970s• Possibility of bias, actual social patterns

More recent releases of Scarry’s work may include edits of character clothing or gender: a girl doing a more masculine job, women with clothing other than dresses or skirts

Scarry did not see his books in this fashionScarry: “Children can identify more closely with pictures of animals than they

can with pictures of another child.”

WHAT MAKES HIS WORK DISTINCTIVERichard Scarry’s work is considered classic, loved by past and present

generations. The word busy occurs in many of his titles and is a great way to describe his work. The pages of Scarry’s books have colorful, full illustrations that interact. Scarry creates recurring characters that the audience begins to follow and look for with in the book and it’s pages. The drawings are also very interactive: if an apple cart spills over on one page, you’ll likely see apples spill into the rest of the scene.

Scarry also uses animals exclusively as his characters. Scarry uses a wide range of animals as well, from cats and dogs, to sharks and hippos. His animals, however, rarely show their animal qualities. They dress, behave and speak like people. When they do, its usually to provide circumstantial humor, not to make them seem more animalistic. Rather than writing stories about animals, he drew stories about people with animals acting them out.

WRITING AND ARTISTIC STYLE• Simple, Bold Text• Scarry Preferred to let pictures tell the story and often wrote in text

after all the illustrations were created. Text still added to the story, describing the situations, providing definitions or making a humorous comment on the scene nearby.

• Busy, Colorful and Simple Drawings• Move from painting in full color to the use of “blueboarding”• Illustrations first done in black line (ink or pencil); photographed,

film postivies are transferred to an illustration board; painted over by color; printed with black lines reprinted on top• “Scarry Red”

• Personification of Animals• Use of Comedy• Situational comedy Comments on ideas or events portrayed

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONSEdgar Allen Poe Special Award from the

Mystery Writers of America (The Great Steamboat Mystery), 1976

LEGACYOn March 14, 1994, an animated series based on Richard Scarry’s world premiered. The Busy World of Richard Scarry would continue for 3 more years, delighting children and bringing life to Scarry’s unique illustrations and stories.

Huck Scarry, Richard Scarry’s son, would also go into children’s illustration. He

LESSON IDEA: RICHARD SCARRY’S BUSY, BUSY TOWN

Summary: Richard Scarry’s Busytown is busy indeed! Scarry takes us on a trip through bustling busy town and educates us on all the different kinds of jobs there are in a town. Lumberjacks and pilots, teachers and students, adults and kids in the home: every group is shown actively working to make their homes, schools and towns run.

Teaching Idea: First GradeSocial studies in first grade has a strong emphasis on family and community.

Some competency goals from the NC Standard Course of Study include applying economic concepts to school and the community, how different cultures work to earn money, understanding the roles of individuals in the community, and the roles of leaders. Students could use the book to identify various jobs people may work in order to earn money. They can use the section on home to identify jobs at home and what role they play in their own home. Using the school section, students can look at and relate to different jobs in school. Perhaps they could create jobs for the classroom and run them, or could list ways of helping at home and try to do them for one week. They could ask their parents what they do for a living and do a report describing their job. You could possibly even run a mini-job fair or have parents come in and talk about their jobs to the students.

NOTABLE BOOKSSeries“Richard Scarry’s”“Best Book Ever”“Busytown”Richard Scarry’s Best Holiday Books

EverStep-into-Reading

10 MOST WIDELY HELD BOOKS IN LIBRARIES

Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book EverRichard Scarry’s Best Counting Book EverPlease and Thank You BookWhat Do People Do All Day?The Best Mistake Ever! And other storiesRichard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose EverFind Your ABC’sRichard Scarry’s Great Big SchoolhouseRichard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever

Other Notable BooksBusy, Busy TownThe Great Steamboat MysteryBest Storybook EverWhat Do People Do All Day?Best Rainy Day Book EverBest First Book Ever

REFERENCESBiographyRetan, Walter and Risom, Ole. The Busy, Busy World of Richard Scarry. New York:

Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997. Print.Websites “Richard Scarry Fundamentals.” www.spidra.com. February 3, 2002. Web. March

18, 2012. http://www.spidra.com/scarry.htmlPace, Jonathan. “Returning to Busytown: Remembering Richard Scarry.” The

Huffington Post. December 20, 2010. Web. March 18, 2012http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-new-york-public-library/returning-to-busytown-rem_b_802778.html

“The Very Busy World of Richard Scarry.” IMDb.com. 2012. Web. March 18, 2012

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179558/“Meet The Writers: Richard Scarry.” Barnes and Noble. 2012. Web. March 18, 2012.http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?cid=311409http://

0-galenet.galegroup.com.wncln.wncln.org/servlet/SATA_Online?dd=0&locID=boon41269&d1=SATA_075_0082&srchtp=b&c=2&df=f&typ=All&docNum=BH2176755082&b0=richard+scarry&vrsn=1.0&srs=ALL&b1=KE&d3=6&ste=10&d4=0.25&stp=DateDescend&n=10&tiPG0

“Scarry, Richard.” World Cat Identities. 2010. Web. March 18, 2012.http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-46225