When I Was Young in the Mountains

“Rylant delights in the simple joys of living with her grandparents in the Appalachian Mountains: fresh cornbread, the swimming hole, bathing in the tin tub, snakes, and the community church. Surrounding all of these memories is the loving relationship with her grandparents. Warmly rendered illustrations complement the lyrical text.”–School Library Journal


“An evocative remembrance of the simple pleasures in country living; splashing in the swimming hole, taking baths in the kitchen, sharing family times, each is eloquently portrayed here in both the misty-hued scenes and in the poetic text.”--Association for Childhood Education International

Diane Goode’s childhood love for books and art has been a lifelong passion, as she has been drawing since she can remember. Her Italian and French heritage, coupled with summers spent in Europe visiting family, cathedrals, and museums, profoundly shaped her appreciation for art and life. She pursued this passion by studying art history at Queens College before earning her degree in fine arts.

The influence of Europe, particularly Paris, is evident in many of her illustrated books, including Where’s Our Mama? and Mama’s Perfect Present. Her experience living in Pennsylvania inspired the artwork for Cynthia Rylant’s When I Was Young in the Mountains, a project for which she received a Caldecott Honor Medal.

To date, Diane Goode has illustrated 27 children’s books, encompassing anthologies and her own written stories. She has a particular affinity for classic tales, having illustrated numerous traditional fairy tales.

Regarding her creative process, Goode explains: “I always begin with a rough dummy and then work on the individual pages, sketching very loosely and quickly to establish movement and composition. I do these dozens of times, repositioning enlarging, reducing, adding and omitting. There are always hundreds of sketches for each book. It sounds tedious, but it is the most exciting part of creating a book. When I’m satisfied with these, I do the final art. All of my work is done on opaline parchment, a thin but strong paper. I sketch lightly in pencil and use water colors applied with very fine sable brushes. Sometimes I use color pencils with the paint to soften the atmosphere.”

Diane Goode currently resides in Watchung, New Jersey, with her husband, David, who is an author and college professor. Their son, Peter, is a student at the Rhode Island School of Design.

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