Some years ago, I was trying to keep my young niece quiet during a wedding ceremony at a church in Italy. As her parents were in the wedding party, and I couldn’t understand the language anyway, I kept her busy by repeatedly drawing animals on one of those magnetic toys that you can keep erasing. A bunny! A cat! An octopus! A bird! A cow! My companions in the pew were rather impressed. Not because I was keeping a kid occupied (they'd certainly seen me do that before), but because I’d revealed a new talent…the quick creation of a large variety of cartoon animals. At the reception afterwards, I was asked where I’d learned that trick. I actually had to think for a minute, because it seemed like I’d always known how, and then I remembered.

Ed Emberly’s Drawing Book of Animals. It might have been my godfather, or maybe one of my aunts or uncles, but someone gave me a copy of it at my grandmother’s house in Queens when I was a kid. I was fascinated by the technique: if you are able to draw some basic shapes, letters and numbers, dots, scribbles, bird tracks, and curlicues, you can make animals. He started with ants, worms, snakes, and caterpillars, and moved on to turtles, mice, and birds, and then eventually to gorillas, giraffes, alligators, and at last, a full size green dragon with wings. I spent many happy afternoons drawing my way through the book, and taking the author’s “notes, hints, and suggestions” to heart, as he explained simple methods for facial expressions, decorations, and embellishments to his basic drawings.

There’s a picture at the back of the book of Ed Emberly as a kid, with a caption, “For the boy I was, the book I could not find.” So for the girl I was, thank you, Mr. Emberly, for this terrific book.

I’m not sure what happened to my old copy of it. For all I know, it’s still in Queens, teaching some other kid how to draw (I’d love that).

Buy one for a kid in your life. You’ll be glad you did. And who knows, maybe in several decades, those cartoon skills will come in handy when least expected.

BOOK: Ed Emberly’s Drawing Book of Animals

AUTHOR: Ed Emberly

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1970

IMAGE: book cover, LB Kids