Barbara Richards

graphic artist, illustrator extraordinaire, animal lover

I met Sue in Charlotte, NC, when she needed some design work for a breast cancer fundraiser. Over coffee, I confirmed I could help with her graphic design needs and as we chatted, I shared my love of animals and design experience ranging from photography and digital art to watercolors. Sue mentioned her mother’s Henry stories, and I was intrigued and wanted to hear more. Working on a secret project illustrating a book as a surprise for an author was an unfamiliar experience. Imagine my relief when I finally met Jo, and she confirmed that she loved my interpretations of her wonderful stories.

I was born in Panama, have lived all over the eastern US from Iowa to Mississippi and have been drawing my entire life. From messing with my Dad’s architectural drawings, through Hunter College and then studying at the Parsons School of Design in New York.

Animals have always been an important part of my life, from the farm animals in South Carolina, to the Welsh terriers I showed all over the country, to my beloved Arab horse Sheer Nonsense. My menagerie over the years has included a lizard, a mouse, a hedgehog, a ferret, miniature horses, several dogs, and even a tiny bird that yells “shut up.”

With such an eclectic taste in pets, it is no surprise how much I love working on the Henry series and creating all the wonderful animals Henry meets on his travels. I have taken care to maintain an English feel to the architecture and environment depicted in the illustrations - from the flint church to fields of snowdrops. I wanted to stay true to Jo’s vision and have had so much fun interpreting her wildlife characters. Even at Parsons, I preferred to draw horses with clothes on in place of the required nudes and fashion assignments.

I worked with Belk, Inc. a Charlotte department store chain producing all their fashion-related art and design products for 28 years, retiring as a Senior Designer. Since then, I’ve been freelancing, working on everything from designing corporate logos to creating art for T-shirts to illustrating children’s books!

Finding just the right expressions for the companionable Henry and his adventurous friends has been a delight. I hope that readers young and old will enjoy following Henry’s escapades as much as I have loved creating the illustrations, and of course, I hope that Jo keeps writing…

Sue Dockstader

editor, publisher, daughter of famous author and struggling social media maven

I grew up in rural England and have been fortunate to live all over the world. I worked in London and Hong Kong as a lawyer, writer and editor and now live in Camas, Washington on the west coast of the United States.

Like my mother, I never throw anything away, and always hoped to do something with Mum’s precious stories. I met Barbara Richards in Charlotte, North Carolina, when we were working on a couple of nonprofit design projects and was thrilled to discover she is a talented artist and animal lover, as well as a graphic designer. And so, after years of procrastination, the wildlife creatures of Mum’s imagination were given life and my longstanding bucket-list wish to present Mum with a published book of her stories was underway.

It has been an amazing experience to convert Mum’s typed pages into beautiful books (much of which I can now recite from memory!) and I love that I can hear my mother’s voice shining through from every line. I’m thrilled that my children, now both in their 20’s, and who knows, maybe some grandchildren someday, along with kiddos on both sides of the Atlantic, will be able to enjoy Mum’s wonderful knack for storytelling for years to come.