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RICHARD SCARRY
AU T HO R / ILLU ST R ATO R ST U DY
RACHEL LAVEY
RE 3240 NORA VINES
BIOGRAPHY TIMELINE
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Born June 5, 1919 in Boston, MA to John James and Barbara Scarry
1938-1941: 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
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1963: Scarry first break out success is published, Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book
Ever
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1969: Scarry, wife, and son Huck move to Gstaad, Switzerlandd21
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March 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
Scarry, cir. 1990
Scarry and wife Patsy, 1951
GENERAL GENRE, CONCEPTS, THEMES, OR
SUBJECTS
Teaching Books
Books 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 ADDRESSED
Violence
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:
•
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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 fashion
Scarry: “Children can identify more closely with pictures of animals than they can with
pictures of another child.”
WHAT MAKES HIS WORK DISTINCTIVE
Richard 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.
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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”
•
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Personification of Animals
Use of Comedy
• Situational comedy
 Comments on ideas or events portrayed
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
Edgar Allen Poe Special Award from the Mystery Writers
of America (The Great Steamboat Mystery), 1976
LEGACY
On 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 Grade
Social 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 BOOKS
Series
“Richard Scarry’s”
10 MOST WIDELY HELD BOOKS IN
LIBRARIES
“Best Book Ever”
Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and
Things That Go
“Busytown”
Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever
Richard Scarry’s Best Holiday Books Ever
Richard Scarry’s Best Counting Book Ever
Step-into-Reading
Please and Thank You Book
Other Notable Books
Busy, Busy Town
The Great Steamboat Mystery
Best Storybook Ever
What Do People Do All Day?
Best Rainy Day Book Ever
Best First Book Ever
What Do People Do All Day?
The Best Mistake Ever! And other stories
Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever
Find Your ABC’s
Richard Scarry’s Great Big Schoolhouse
Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever
REFERENCES
Biography
Retan, 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.html
Pace, Jonathan. “Returning to Busytown: Remembering Richard Scarry.” The Huffington Post.
December 20, 2010. Web. March 18, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-new-york-public-library/returning-to-busytownrem_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=311409
http://0galenet.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+scar
ry&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