Kevin Henkes is both the author and the illustrator of his books, and his work is a perfect example of how illustrations and the text work together to create meaning in a picture book.  It was interesting to me to learn that Kevin was drawn to art as a young child and that he only began to write in high school.  Now when he works on his books, he begins with the words, making sure that each word and line is perfect before he creates the illustrations for his books.  This was surprising to me because the text and illustrations in his books work so well together that I thought that they must have been created together, page by page.   

For instance, in his book Owen, the illustrations give us information not mentioned with words that add a lot of fun and extra meaning to the story.  In this book, Owen's neighbor gives his parents advice on how to get Owen to leave behind his favorite blanket.  We know that his neighbor thinks that he’s too old for his blanket, but the pictures show us her rather nosy disapproval.  We also see that Owen is secretly listening in when she gives his parents advice.  Henkes shows us their indirect rivalry without ever writing a word about it.  The words in the book make the neighbor’s advice sound almost neutral or disinterested but the pictures show us otherwise.

 It seemed to me that Henkes work has continued to improve as time has gone on.  Early in his career, his books featured human children.  The illustrations in these books are beautiful and I enjoyed looking at them as isolated pieces of art.  In Clean Enough, Henkes tells the story of a little boy who, while playing and enjoying his bath forgets to actually wash himself.  When his mother tells him that he has to get out of the bath, he decides that he must be clean enough after all of the time he’s spent in the tub.  The illustrations are realistic pencil drawings with what looks like watercolor.  The voice of the child is authentic and the story line made me remember when taking a bath was a time to play in the water.  This being said, this book didn't really move me in the way that many of Henkes' later books do.  I think that some of this has to do with the changes that Henkes made in the way he illustrates his books.  After his first few books, Henkes changed his characters from human to animals.  Henkes said that using animals allowed him to be more playful with his illustrations, to have his animal characters do things that human characters couldn't (such as show emotion with their ears and tails) and freed him from having to use models for his drawings.  In my opinion, the illustrations of his mice characters are much more fun and interactive with the text than his earlier books with human characters.  I can see the fun Henkes had with Lily in the book Lily's Purple Plastic Purse.  In many of the pictures of this book, Henkes has drawn a border around his illustrations, only to have part of Lily bursting outside of the frame.  I also think that Henkes chose to write about topics that relate to some of the difficulties of childhood in his later books.  These topics include dealing with a friend who isn't acting like much of a friend in A Weekend With Wendell, apologizing for doing something hurtful to someone we care about in Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, and parting with a beloved item that we are getting ready to outgrow in Owen.  All children deal with these issues and all adults remember dealing with them.  In these books, Henkes delves into topics that are trying and difficult and part of growing up.  These books teach us about dealing with these problems, but not in an overly didactic way.  We are primarily enjoying Henkes' writing and illustrations.  I would like to work with first or second grade students in the future and would use many of Henkes' books in units on friendship, empathy, communication, and imagination.