Young readers are well acquainted with the work of Lane Smith. In fact, college students and adults, too, enjoy his satirical illustrations, which have often been described as "goofy" and even "disturbing." Winner of numerous awards, Smith is best known for his collaboration with the writer Jon Scieszka (pronounced "shes-ka") on such popular children's books as The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, and the "Time Warp Trio" series. Smith's illustrations have also appeared in magazines such as Rolling Stone, Time, and Ms., and he designed the characters for the Disney film James and the Giant Peach.

Smith is noted for his figures with large heads and small bodies, which he paints in dark oil colors that give them a distinctively strange, exaggerated quality, as if they stepped out of a dream--some might even say a nightmare. The...