R.W. Alley

BIOGRAPHY
Here you'll find a short history of how I came to be making pictures for children.

PORTFOLIO

THERE'S A WOLF AT THE DOOR by Zoë B. Alley

PADDINGTON HERE AND NOW by Michael Bond
Paddington gets into a bit of hot water and meets again the first owner of his famous hat.
summer, 2008

VALENTINE SURPRISE by Corinne Demas
It's amazing what scissors, fancy paper and determination can accomplish. A couple of cats also help to move things along.
February, 2008

TIGER CAN’T SLEEP
by S.J. Fore
What's that in the closet?
January, 2006

BALLERINO NATE
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Nate loves ballet. But, do boys dance?
March 2006.

DEAR SANTA, The Letters of James B. Dobbins
by Bill Harley
As our story begins, James B. Dobbins (Jimmy, to us) is writing... "Dear Santa, Here is what I want for Christmas..." He goes on to list some rather grand and some rather unusual items. Jimmy is quite sure he deserves them all.
However, things happen. Don't they always? And, Jimmy feels the need to write a few more letters to Santa in order to explain several of these "things."
Jimmy leaves quite a paper trail; all the way to Christmas Eve.

ZIGGY’S BLUE-RIBBON DAY
by Claudia Mills
He isn’t good at running races or at jumping high or jumping far. He isn’t good at throwing balls. And, what’s this, eggs on spoons? Oh, no.
But, Ziggy is good at drawing. So, what to do but bring his markers and crayons to the field?

BECAUSE YOUR DADDY LOVES YOU
by Andrew Clements
"When a father and daughter spend the day at the beach, Dad shows understanding and compassion when a beach ball floats away, an ice cream cone gets drippy, and a shoe gets lost."

THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT WAS TIDY & NEAT
by Teri Sloat
It all started with a mouse...

This is the house
At the end of the street
That was tidy and neat
When Mom left...

WE’RE OFF TO FIND THE WITCH’S HOUSE
by Mr. Krieb
It’s Halloween night, and as the moon rises, four children set off to find the witch’s house. A Wizard. A Cowboy. A Pirate. A Superhero. Will they get there?

IN THE FALL,
WINTER BLANKET,
SPRING SAIL,
ONE SUMMERY DAY
by Larry Dane Brimmer
These four books, prepared especially for classroom reading, take a fantastic view of the seasons. There’s a bear chopping wood for the winter. On the frozen pond, penguins are on skates . Frogs are sailing on a spring rainbow. And, a sea serpent slides in the summer surf. What fun to illustrate.

PEARL AND WAGNER, TWO GOOD FRIENDS
and
PEARL AND WAGNER, THREE SECRETS
by Kate McMullan
In TWO GOOD FRIENDS meet Pearl, a rabbit, and Wagner, a mouse, are best friends. But sometimes best-friendship can be difficult; especially when you have to work together on a school project or when one of you doesn’t see things quite the way the other one does.

In THREE SECRETS, Wagner tells Pearl an embarrassing secret. Pearl tells Wagner a surprising secret. And Lulu (she’s a duck and it’s her birthday) tells Wagner a secret that turns out not to be a secret at all. As they visit an ice cream factory, hang out on the playground and go to an amusement park, Pearl and Wagner find out how sometimes keeping secrets is not only hard but can make even the best friends be unfriendly.

CAT SKIDOO
by Bethany Roberts
A pair of precocious kittens (you will have to name them yourself) pit-pat, tumble, tangle and pounce through a day of Cat Skidooing. Birds, frogs, crickets, bees and (you guessed it) a dog join the romp. Until, tired and happy the kittens tumble into bed.

A REVOLUTIONARY FIELD TRIP,
Poems of Colonial America
by Susan Katz
Twenty poems describe the field trip adventures of Mrs. Brown's class as the students explore the colonial and native tribe sites of North America. What games did colonial kids play? What did they eat? How did the Powatan nation plant corn? What does a blacksmith do? What did/does a Navajo powwow sound like? What is it with all those cobblestones? Mrs. Brown's class finds out.

PADDINGTON BEAR
by Michael Bond
Here’s the story of how a smallish bear from “Darkest Peru” is discovered amid the bicycles and luggage of Paddington Station, in the middle of London, by Mr. and Mrs. Brown who had only planned on picking up their children from school. Luckily for all concerned, the Browns were just the sort of people to welcome a lost bear to their family.

THE GREAT GOOGLESTEIN MUSEUM MYSTERY
by Jean Van Leeuwen
Tired of their comfortable digs in Macy's department store, Marvin, Fats and Raymond are three mice searching for adventure. (Really it's mostly Marvin's idea.) A shopping bag and taxi ride later, they find themselves at the Guggenheim Museum. Settling in, in the café, Marvin finds adventure in the Museum's famed corkscrew ramp, Fats finds adventure in art and Raymond finds enough to do in just saving his friends from their adventures.

DETECTIVE DINOSAUR
and
DETECTIVE DINOSAUR LOST AND FOUND
by James Skofield
SQUEAK!
CLAAANG!
These are the sounds of a mystery in DETECTIVE DINOSAUR. And where there’s a mystery, bumbling, big-hearted Detective Dinosaur and his loyal sidekick, Officer Pterodactyl, can’t be far behind. Together they investigate the Case of the Missing Hat. Then they take on the Case of the Squeaking Shoe. But, when the duo finds a mysterious shadow on a dark night, will they have the courage to investigate? We shall see...

“Help!” called Granny Apatosaurus.
“Baby Penny is lost!”
So begins DETECTIVE DINOSAUR LOST AND FOUND.
It’s another case for Detective Dinosaur and Officer Pterodactyl! Will they find the lost baby? How lost can a baby apatosaurus be? (They are rather huge.) Then, what have the fearless twosome discovered lurking in the garage? Is it a horrid monster, or a...what? And finally, it’s a foggy night and Detective Dinosaur is out on patrol, when suddenly.... You’ll have to read the stories to find out.

THE KNOW-NOTHING BOOKS
by Michele Sobel Spirn
THE KNOW-NOTHINGS
If you wanted French fries, where would you go?
To France, of course! At least that’s what the Know-Nothings think.

A KNOW-NOTHING BIRTHDAY
Boris’s birthday is coming up, but it looks like his friends
don’t remember. Will Boris spend his birthday alone?
Or are Doris, Norris and Morris secretly planning a party
he will never forget?

A KNOW-NOTHING HALLOWEEN
Boris, Morris, Doris and Norris (and Floris) want to
celebrate Halloween. They want to trick-or-treat and
bob for apples, but they don’t know anyone named Bob
and they don’t know any tricks.

THE KNOW-NOTHINGS TALK TURKEY
The Know-Nothings have read that the way to celebrate
Thanksgiving is to serve a turkey dinner. But, how can
Boris, Morris, Doris and Norris (and Floris) serve the
turkey his dinner if the bird won’t even sit down?

THE REAL, TRUE DULCIE CAMPBELL
by Cynthia DeFelice
Dulcie Campbell refuses to believe that she is an ordinary farm girl. Is she really meant to muck out the chicken coop? Can those be her real parents? Where did that brother come from? Even the dog can't possibly be part of her real, true world. Can he? This is what happens when you read too many fairy tales and take them too much to heart.