Brett L. Helquist (born November 1965) is an American illustrator best known for his work in the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events . [1] As such, his illustrations for that series have appeared in multiple media, including the books, the audio book covers, and the calendars. Helquist graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) with a BFA in illustration in 1993. After graduation, he moved to New York City where he worked full-time as a graphic designer, occasionally drawing for newspapers and magazines. Helquist's work has been featured in children's magazines, along with The New York Times . He has illustrated almost 50 books.
Helquist was born in Ganado, Arizona, in 1965, and grew up in Orem, Utah, with his six sisters. His love of art and his desire to become an illustrator came from reading comic strips in newspapers as a child. [2] Helquist served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hong Kong, then earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Brigham Young University in 1993. Prior to entering the illustration program at BYU, Helquist studied as an engineering student. [3] He took a year off during his time as a student to take a job in Taiwan where he illustrated a textbook. [4] This experience helped him make the decision to switch to illustration and the visual arts. From there, he worked closely with Utah artist and BYU professor of illustration Robert Barrett. [4]
Helquist has lived in New York City since 1993. [5] Immediately after graduating from BYU, Helquist was an intern for illustrator Robert Neubecker. [2] For six years, he worked as a graphic designer, drawing for magazines and newspapers in his spare time. [6] He has been published in the children's magazine Cricket , and in The New York Times . He is represented by Steven Malk of Writers House in New York City. [7]
In 2011, it was announced that Helquist would be producing images for a new edition of the infamous Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz. The series was beloved for its terrifying artwork by Stephen Gammell, which caused universal backlash against Helquist's comparatively tame illustrations. The new release proved overwhelmingly unsuccessful, and in 2017 subsequent printings restored Gammell's illustrations.
In August 2017, Helquist donated several boxes filled with early sketches of his illustrations for A Series of Unfortunate Events to BYU's Special Collections department. [8] These sketches were displayed at BYU until the end of September 2017. [6]
In February 2019, Helquist was the Artist Guest of Honor and Keynote Speaker at the 37th annual Life, the Universe, & Everything science fiction and fantasy arts symposium. [9]
In 2024, The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity, which Helquist illustrated, won the Sibert Medal. [10]
Besides the 13 A Series of Unfortunate Events books, Helquist has provided illustrations for nearly 50 books, varying from children's books to young adult novels.
Helquist produced new cover illustrations for a reprint of the 1954–1976 Green Knowe series by Lucy M. Boston (Harcourt, 2002; retaining the original interior illustrations by the writer's son Peter Boston): [11]
He also produced new illustrations for a reprint of the 1981–1991 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz (Harper & Row, 2011):
Helquist also wrote and illustrated Roger, the Jolly Pirate, ISBN 0-06-623805-6, published in 2004; Bedtime for Bear, ISBN 0-060-50205-3, published in 2010; and Grumpy Goat, ISBN 0-061-13953-X, published in 2013.
Daniel Handler is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events and All the Wrong Questions, published under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The former was adapted into a film in 2004 as well as a Netflix series from 2017 to 2019.
Yoshitaka Amano is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer. He first came into prominence in the late 1960s working on the anime adaptation of Speed Racer. Amano later became the creator of iconic and influential characters such as Gatchaman, Tekkaman, Honeybee Hutch, and Casshern. In 1982 he went independent and became a freelance artist, finding success as an illustrator for numerous authors, and worked on best-selling novel series, such as The Guin Saga and Vampire Hunter D. He is also known for his commissioned illustrations for the popular video game franchise Final Fantasy.
Book the First: The Bad Beginning is the first novel of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become orphans following a fire and are sent to live with Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance.
Book the Second: The Reptile Room is the second book in the children's series A Series of Unfortunate Events, written by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket. The book tells the story of the Baudelaire orphans, as they are sent to live with a distant relative named Montgomery Montgomery.
Book the Third: The Wide Window is the third novel of the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. In this novel, the Baudelaire orphans live with their aunt Josephine, who is seemingly scared of everything. The book was published on February 25, 2000 by HarperCollins and illustrated by Brett Helquist.
Book the Fourth: The Miserable Mill is the fourth novel of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. In this novel, the Baudelaire orphans live with the owner of Lucky Smells Lumber Mill. The book was published on April 15, 2000, by HarperCollins and illustrated by Brett Helquist.
Book the Tenth: The Slippery Slope is the tenth novel in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It was illustrated by Brett Helquist and published on September 23, 2003. In the novel, Violet and Klaus Baudelaire make their way up the Mortmain Mountains to rescue their sister Sunny from Count Olaf and his troupe. They meet Quigley Quagmire, a character who they thought to be dead, and visit the headquarters of a mysterious organization called "V.F.D." They are reunited with Sunny and manage to escape from Olaf. The book has received positive reviews and been translated into several different languages.
Lucy Maria Boston was an English novelist who wrote for children and adults, publishing her work entirely after the age of 60. She is best known for her "Green Knowe" series: six low fantasy children's novels published by Faber between 1954 and 1976. The setting is Green Knowe, an old country manor house based on Boston's Cambridgeshire home at Hemingford Grey. For the fourth book in the series, A Stranger at Green Knowe (1961), she won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a series of three collections of short horror stories for children, written by Alvin Schwartz and originally illustrated by Stephen Gammell. In 2011, HarperCollins published editions featuring new art by Brett Helquist, causing mass controversy among fans of Gammell. Subsequent printings have restored the original Gammell art. The titles of the books are Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981), More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1984), and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones (1991).
Jan Brett is an American illustrator and writer of children's picture books. Her colorful, detailed depictions of a wide variety of animals and human cultures range from Scandinavia to Africa. Her titles include The Mitten, The Hat, and Gingerbread Baby. She has adapted or retold traditional stories such as the Gingerbread Man and Goldilocks and has illustrated classics such as "The Owl and the Pussycat."
Carson Friedman Ellis is a Canadian-born American children's book illustrator and artist. She received a Caldecott Honor for her children's book Du Iz Tak? (2016). Her work is inspired by folk art, art history, and mysticism.
Robert James Sabuda is a children's pop-up book artist and paper engineer. His innovative designs have made him well known in the book arts, with The New York Times referring to Sabuda as "indisputably the king of pop-ups" in a 2003 article.
Brian Kane Floca is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He is best known for illustrating books written by Avi and for nonfiction picture books. In 2014, he won the Caldecott Medal for his book, Locomotive, as well as the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Honor.
Betsy Reilly Lewin is an American illustrator from Clearfield, Pennsylvania. She studied illustration at Pratt Institute. After graduation, she began designing greeting cards. She began writing and illustrating stories for children's magazines and eventually children's books. She is married to children's book illustrator Ted Lewin and with him has co-written and illustrated several books about their travels to remote places, including Uganda in Gorilla Walk and Mongolia in Horse Song, as well as How to Babysit a Leopard: and Other True Stories from Our Travels Across Six Continents. She is arguably best known for the Caldecott Honor Book Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type.
"The Lump of Coal" is a Christmas short story written by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Brett Helquist. Originally published in the December 10–12, 2004 issue of the now-defunct magazine USA Weekend, it was re-released as a stand-alone book in 2008. It is meant to parody traditional children's Christmas stories, à la the 1823 poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Though illustrated and relatively short, the book uses vocabulary above that of most children, including the term objets d'art. Many elements of the story are easily recognizable as Snicket-esque to A Series of Unfortunate Events readers, including a culturally intelligent and talented protagonist who is dismissed by many a mumpsimus.
This is a list of books by Lemony Snicket, the pen name of American author Daniel Handler. Works published under the name Daniel Handler are not included. Handler, as Snicket, has published 26 fiction novels, thirteen in the main A Series of Unfortunate Events franchise. His works have been translated into more than 40 languages, and have sold more than 65 million copies.
Peter Shakerley Boston was a British architect and illustrator, best known for the illustrations he made to the books written by his mother, author Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990), who wrote under the name L.M. Boston. The best known of these books were the Green Knowe books. In those illustrations, Peter Boston included items from his mother's home, The Manor in Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire, one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in Britain.
Mark Siegel is known both as an author, illustrator, and as the editorial director of First Second Books, a Macmillan imprint which publishes graphic novels for all ages. He grew up in France until the age of 18, after which he moved back to the United States where he presently lives.
Jon Klassen is a Canadian writer and illustrator of children's books and an animator. He won both the American Caldecott Medal and the British Kate Greenaway Medal for children's book illustration, recognizing the 2012 picture book This Is Not My Hat, which he also wrote. He is the first person to win both awards for the same work.
A Series of Unfortunate Events is an American black comedy drama television series based on the book series of the same name by Lemony Snicket for Netflix. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Warburton, Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes, K. Todd Freeman, and Presley Smith. Dylan Kingwell, Avi Lake, Sara Rue and Lucy Punch join the cast in the second season.