Author's books make learning about famous people fun for kids

Mike Venezia doesn't want artists to be on a pedestal.

When he tried to look for books for his kids to teach them about art, he couldn't find any.

So Venezia, then working at the Leo Burnett advertising agency, designed a few books incorporating cartoons of events in the artists' lives.

Soon, the Glen Ellyn resident had a deal with Children's Press and published the first two of his "Getting to Know" books on Picasso and Rembrandt.

The project blossomed, and now he's published more than 60 children's books on artists, presidents and composers.

"Why shouldn't kids be able to know about these people at an early age?" he said.

The Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame announced recently that Venezia would join six other artists with local ties in its 2008 class. A formal induction ceremony will be held in April.

Venezia, 62, grew up in the Fox River Heights area, north of St. Charles. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a short time later started working for Leo Burnett, creating print and television ads.

Creating the books started as a hobby, but they were so successful he quit his job in 2001 to write and illustrate them full time.

He includes real-life photos and art pieces, but weaves those together with funny interpretations of the peoples' lives.

In his book on artist Faith Ringgold, he relates how she was fascinated with the radio when she was a child in the 1930s and thought there were little people inside of it.

Venezia's illustration has a line of tiny people marching into the Ringgold house radio.

The cartoon figures are a way to make the subjects more accessible to children, Venezia said.

He wants children to be able to come away with his presidents books knowing a handful of facts about each one -- a feat many adults couldn't accomplish.

"Each and every one of them did something that affects our lives every day," he said. "Whether it was laws that were passed or something that affected the mood of the nation."

He's starting on a new series about scientists, a subject that is less familiar to him, but he said he's enjoying learning about it.

"I'm finding answers to the questions I had as a child," he said.