Tricia Tusa Books in Order

Tricia Tusa is a picture-book author and illustrator whose work makes room for oddball neighbors, imaginative children, unruly animals, and plenty of visual jokes. She was born in Texas, lived in several parts of the country and abroad, and later made her home with her family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She has spent decades making books for young readers, sometimes writing and illustrating them herself and sometimes building pictures around another writer's words. Her work often starts from a small feeling, a memory, a question, or an image that won't leave her alone. The finished stories can be funny and offbeat, but they usually keep close to a child's view of the world.

Tusa got her start the hands-on way. At 21, after moving to New York City, she looked up publishers in the phone book, called art directors, and asked for appointments to show a homemade portfolio of drawings and paintings. Holiday House gave her a first contract, opening the door to a career in children's books.

She has written or illustrated dozens of books. As an illustrator, she has worked on titles including Jim Averbeck's In a Blue Room, Edith Pattou's Mrs. Spitzer's Garden, Nancy Coffelt's Fred Stays with Me, and The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania of Jordan and Kelly DiPucchio. In a Blue Room received a Charlotte Zolotow Honor, while Fred Stays with Me received a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor.

Her own books show how much she enjoys characters who don't quite fit the instructions they are given. In Maebelle's Suitcase, a 108-year-old hat maker helps a young bird prepare for migration. Stay Away from the Junkyard! follows a girl who ignores local gossip and finds a friend among discarded things. Camilla's New Hairdo turns a lonely tower, elaborate hairstyles, and a flying student into a very unusual friendship.

Then there are the books that lean into play. Follow Me lets a child on a swing drift into a bright, airy daydream, while Is That You, Eleanor Sue? follows a girl whose Saturday dress-up games pull her mother and grandmother into the fun. Tusa has said that Eleanor Sue is connected to the child she remembers being, and that childhood memories and daydreaming remain important sources for her work.

The pictures matter as much as the words. Tusa likes to experiment with materials, choosing a medium to suit the feeling of a particular story. Pen and ink, watercolor, acrylic, printmaking, collage, clay, and paper mache have all been part of her creative life. She also slips familiar faces, rooms, and views from daily life into her art.

Her books don't talk down to children. They trust kids to notice the strange detail in a room, the silly possibility in a costume, or the kindness hidden behind a rumor.

Tusa continues to work from Santa Fe, where she lives with her family. Long walks, swimming, yoga, reading, sewing, studio time, and looking at the sky and trees have all fed the same habit that drives her books: paying attention, then seeing where an image might lead.