Pandora

Like the classic original, with its portrayal of affectionate patience with pets by both children and their parents, this new edition of Newberry’s PANDORA has been lovingly re-issued by her daughter, Felicia N. Trujillo, and features three innovations for Newberry fans and students. This is the first edition to feature a full color reproduction of the cover art; a commentary about Newberry’s artistic process in creating PANDORA, which was the result of a quantum leap in the artist’s work; and a brief biography of the artist’s pioneer childhood. PANDORA, published in 1944, was done in yet another new medium Newberry developed to make cats come so alive on paper that they seemed ready to walk off the page. She perfected using pastels on velour paper, and chose a long-haired Persian kitty, Pandora, as her heroine. In a daring move, she also included free ink sketches usually only shared between artists, and never before presented to the public. Artists, cat fanciers, and children all loved the rich, three-dimensional, drawings of Pandora portrayed with the personality of a real feline—both maddening and delightful. The story itself will ring true for anyone who has ever known and loved a cat. Newberry was pleased to admit that all her stories were “99 and 44/100% true.” Pandora, her very own cat, was drawn from life for this book.