Doris Burn

Doris "Doe" Wernstedt Burn (April 24, 1923 – March 9, 2011) was an American children's book author and illustrator. She lived most of her life on Waldron Island in the San Juan Islands archipelago of Washington. Her book illustrations, mostly done between 1965 and 1971, consist of absorbingly detailed line drawings, often of children matter-of-factly doing extraordinary things.

Her books tend to offer a pretty endearing (and quirky) sense of *place*. You could call it home, but that wouldn't be exactly right, because the featured children aren't satisfied with what we would customarily call home...at least not at first. The books (not always written by her) are both charming to read and delightful to visually absorb. This first pair is in print and available at Exodus Books.

In Andrew Henry's Meadow, Andrew is a middle child, misunderstood and underappreciated. He loves to invent things, but his older sisters don't have time for him, his younger brothers think he just spoils their fun, and his parents think he's in the way. So he decides to go to a nearby meadow and build a house for himself. When other neighborhood kids discover his house, they ask him to build unique houses for them too. Once it's understood all those kids are missing, a massive search party is organized!

In We Were Tired of Living in a House (recently reprinted!), the children—with their cat and dog—decide they would rather live anywhere else, trying a tree, a pond, a cave, the seashore. But each time, a catastrophe prompts them to move on to a better place. Such a cute story!

In this next pairing, Doris Burn's illustrations continue to play with a theme of place, or belonging, and include a heavy dose of whimsy and imagination. These two books are harder to find, and that's a shame because they're so much fun!

In The Summerfolk, Willy and his dad live in a touristy area that draws folks in the summer. Their simple way of life is disrupted each year by the "summerfolk," and Willy is usually eager to avoid them, often by hiding out in his leaky skiff floating in the swampy area out back. But one day, he's discovered by Fedderly, a young visitor with a magnificent boat of his own, and this sets off a day of introductions to other kids, leading to the most peculiar flotilla you ever saw, and giving Willy the realization that maybe the summerfolk aren't so bad.

In Christina Katerina & the Box, Christina manages to commandeer a large appliance box before it's trashed. Though her mother consistently tries to get rid of the box, the young girl is imaginatively persistent, using the box as a clubhouse, race car, and more as it slowly deteriorates.

PUBLICATIONS WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY DORIS BURN

Andrew Henry's Meadow
New York: Coward-McCann. 1965

The Summerfolk
New York: Coward-McCann. 1968

The Tale of Lazy Lizard Canyon
New York: Putnam & Sons. 1976

Andrew Henry's Meadow
Fortieth Anniversary Edition. Woodinville, WA: San Juan Publishing. 2005

Andrew Henry’s Meadow
Philomel Edition. New York: Penguin Group. 2012

PUBLICATIONS ILLUSTRATED BY DORIS BURN

Hudden and Dudden and Donald O’Neary
Joseph Jacobs. New York: Coward-McCann. 1968

Tappy
Robert Nathan. New York: Knopf. 1968

We Were Tired of Living In a House
Liesel Moak Skorpen. New York: Coward-McCann. 1969

My Old Tree
Patricia Lee Gauch. New York: Coward-McCann. 1970

Christina Katerina & The Box
Patricia Lee Gauch. New York: Putnam & Grosset. 1971

Phipps
Liesel Moak Skorpen. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. 1972

Christina Katerina & The First Annual Grand Ballet
Patricia Lee Gauch. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. 1973