Tricia Tusa Books In Order

Publication Order of Children's Books

Tricia Tusa is an illustrator a picture book author from New Mexico who has illustrated and written more than 50 picture books and graphic novels. Tusa was born in a swampy part of Texas in 1960 and in her twenties, she moved to New York City before she finally settled in northern New Mexico where she now makes her home. Tricia is always thinking about her stories much of the time as her inspiration sometimes comes from the things she hears or sees all around her, which she then puts down on a binder. Since she has been doing this for years, she has a huge binder full of ideas that she often refers to when she wants to write something new. She has said that it just feels good walking around documenting what she finds interesting about her world. Since she has been at this for so long, she has ideas that go back three decades though some of these ideas have not been developed. Tusa loves writing for children as she likes to relive her childhood through stories. She likes that she gets to write for the little girl that she once was by asking questions such as what clothes would such a girl want, how would her mother respond to her and how would she want to end the story.

As a five-year-old, Tricia Tusa told her parents that she would love to grow up and become a children’s book author. But given that she was a child, she wanted to run an orphanage and also become a child psychologist. When she graduated from college, she went to live in New York City and started making some very impressive artworks from home. She got her big break when Holiday House gave her a chance asking that she illustrate two books for them. Once she became known around the illustration scene in New York, she got a contract for Macmillan and wrote as well as illustrated several books. Tusa started illustrating and writing books as a twenty-year-old and during her twenties and heading into her early thirties she did about ten books. At thirty-five years, she gave birth to her first child and found that she did not have as much time for writing as she did before. Since she spent so much time taking care of her daughter, the creative process became much more difficult and hence she decided to become an illustrator of other people’s works. She still gets ideas for books she should work on but most of them just end up on the binder for later. Twenty-six years after embarking on her journey, she has been the recipient of many honors and awards and has done illustrations for jacket covers, magazines, labels, posters, and even graphic design for a bus stop shelter art.

As for her art, Tricia Tusa is often compelled to draw with ink and pen or sometimes she does get a pencil. She has also been known to paint with gouache and watercolors, adding colored pencils to the crayons she prefers. Linda Ashman’s book “How to Make a Night” was something a departure as she took some photos herself, found some, cut and paste others, and monoprinted the rest. Tusa also does her paintings using Masonite painted with acrylic to make for some humorous and sometimes very dark works. She loves to give herself the time for works such as this as she finds it provides a lot of freedom as she for the most part free-lances and hence does not have pressure to be appropriate or appeal to certain editor tastes.

Tricia Tusa’s “Follow Me” is the story of an imaginative girl swinging through the air. She sees the world around her in a kaleidoscope of colors that include the blues of the sky, the flowers of the field, and the pinks and reds of dawn. Flying through the canopies of the trees in the vicinity, she sees that the trees had changed color as it turning to fall. She believes that she can fly through the air but ultimately return home safe and sound. Tusa has done beautiful illustrations which are monograph color etchings with soft hues that float across the page. The graphic picture novel takes readers to the days of their childhood when they would swing on trees. It also prompts younger readers into wanting to enjoy the joys of swinging once again.

“Is That You, Eleanor Sue?” is the story of Eleanor Sue, a creative girl who receives a lot of support for her talents from her mother. She has several pairs of costumes that she uses during the weekends, dressing up as several characters to visit her mother. Supporting her daughter, her mother always obliges her and pretends to be anything she wants her to be. She has been a neighbor’s cat, a witch, a delivery person, a wizard, and a bear. Eleanor never seems to run out of ideas on the many characters she comes up with. It is so much fun that her mother decides to also dress up when their grandmother announces that she will be coming into town. Eleanor Sue is surprised when her grandmother comes to open the door alongside her mother making for a rib-cracking scene. Three generations of women have dressed up in similar-looking outfits making for a hilarious but joyous reunion. Eleanor realizes that her grandmother must have encouraged her mother when she used to engage in the same shenanigans as a girl.

Tricia Tusa’s “Camilla’s New Hairdo” is a creative work about the importance of creative ideas and ways of doing things. At the beginning of the story, Camilla is stuck in a rut that may best be described as a tower with no doors but a lot of windows. The boredom and loneliness are not about to stifle her creativity as she creates masterpieces given that is a very talented person that can do with very few supplies. Things get shaken up when Mozelle a young girl flies through her window one day. She is at Camilla’s home by the following day and together they plan to take on the world. It is a fun book that is all about expanding comfort zones and outside the box thinking while still promoting safety.