Danielle Ridolfi is a children’s book illustrator and scholar of visual culture who writes about the intersections of illustration, early childhood pedagogy, and material culture. She holds an MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts and a PhD in clinical psychology from Kent State University. She teaches courses in children’s studies and communication design.
By Danielle Ridolfi
By
Danielle Ridolfi
Children’s media creators are not just benevolent spinners of yarns—they are business owners, media executives, and freelance creatives. The need to turn a profit has long lived in harmony with the need to create high-quality content. But Disney, unfortunately, has begun to view quality as superfluous. Their live-action remakes are thinly-veiled cash grabs that lazily recycle old content and direct viewers to endless scores of merchandise with little creative energy required.
By
Danielle Ridolfi
In her 2023 biography, Becoming Ezra Jack Keats, Virginia McGee Butler challenges assumptions about Keats—indeed about all picture book authors—a mission for which Keats, who was deeply invested in challenging stereotypes, would have offered his hearty approval.