I've always been interested in the Great Depression, perhaps one of the two most important experiences for people who lived in the 20th century (the other, of course, was World War II). Listening to stories that my parents, grandparents, and their friends told set my imagination rolling with images of heroes and connivers working together in order to survive. The stories were mostly about everyday people, people you could write books about. Some seemed like they could give Fagan or Robin Hood a run for their money. Every time I attend a funeral of some "old timer" these days, I inevitably hear someone say "they sure don't make 'em like that anymore." And you know what? They don't. My relatives and their friends did everything from sell things on Maxwell Street (and what a curious list of things they were, too), to start up and fail at any number of businesses and schemes. People were happy to work 12 hours a day at the stockyards, factories, or train yards. Hmmm, maybe happy isn't the right word. More like thankful.

The Great Depression isn't easy to explain to children. A complex series of incidents helped create it. My books on Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses, Georgia O'Keeffe, Aaron Copeland, Duke Ellington, Grant Wood, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin are filled with images of the Great Depression, without much commentary on the event. It didn't seem necessary in these books. But because Dorothea Lange and her art are so specifically tied to the Depression, I felt that a little more accounting was called for. With a simple but accurate explanation and my favorite aide, the humorous illustration, I tried to give my young readers a basic understanding of a complicated historical event. I always try to give my readers a desire to look deeper into events, peoples' lives, and the times in which they lived.

My most important goal, however, is to make people, places, ideas, and events fun to learn about. If children can look at historical figures in a fun way, the exciting worlds of history, art, and music will open up to them for the rest of their lives. I attempt to do this in my Artist, Composer, and U.S. President series by making the subjects seem like real people to children. Van Gogh, Mozart, and Thomas Jefferson were all babies, had families with parents who had problems, and grew up, just like anyone else. Along the way, they turned out to be remarkable people with the power to inspire. I approach my books by answering questions I have about each artist, composer or president - not questions I have as Mike Venezia the adult, but as an eight or nine-year-old Mike Venezia. Humor is key in my books. It's what makes them different from other children's history or biography books. It's the little bits of humor that stick in a child's mind and makes learning fun.

In the 60 books I've written (not including the up-and-coming presidents series), I've included somewhere around 350 illustrations or so. I've never put one illustration in a book just to be funny. Each illustration has to have something in it based on a fact, something that might spark a dialog between a young reader and a parent/teacher. I try to find quirky stories that tell something important about the person I am writing about. I hope this comes through to you when you and your students read Getting to Know Dorothea Lange. Dorothea was an incredible person who overcame a serious disability and entered a career that at the time was primarily open only to men - all during the country's worst economic disaster. Dorothea Lange emerged to become not only one of our greatest woman artist but, more importantly, a great American artist.

Dorothea Lange was born in 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey. She lived during one of the unhappiest times in American history - The Great Depression. Dorothea's photographs from that period are some of the best-know and most powerful pictures of the twentieth century.

The Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted for more than ten years. No one had any idea it was coming or how it would change their lives. It was a time when, almost overnight, millions of people in the United States lost their savings, jobs, and homes.

Part of the reason it happened was that too many people borrowed and invested their money unwisely. When it was time to pay the money back, people found they didn't have enough. Families sometimes had to sell their houses, farms, and cars. Since no one had very much money to spend, many factories and stores closed too, and things kept getting worse.

Dorothea Lange's best-known photographs show the people and families who were affected most by the Great Depression. Dorothea had a way of picturing people in a caring, sensitive way that had rarely been seen before.

Dorothea didn't even have to photograph people's faces to show the suffering and loneliness many people felt at this time.

Dorothea Lange grew up in a nice neighborhood in Hoboken. When she was six years old, she caught a serious disease called polio. Today polio can be prevented, but in Dorothea's time it disabled many children. Dorothea's right leg and foot were badly damaged and she walked with a limp for the rest of her life.

Dorothea could no longer run and jump like she had before. Some kids even made fun of her. Dorothea grew up feeling angry, sad, and embarrassed all at the same time.

When she became a photographer, Dorothea took a picture of her right foot. She said her damaged foot was the most important thing that ever happened to her. Because of her foot, she always worked hard not to let her problems get her down, and that made her a stronger, more understanding person.

Dorothea went to school in New York City, which was right across the Hudson River from Hoboken. Her mother worked as a librarian there. New York was much different from her own quiet neighborhood. It was crowded and exciting. Dorothea loved to study the interesting people she saw every day.

Sometimes when she went to meet her mother after school, Dorothea had to walk through dangerous neighborhoods. Since she couldn't run fast, she invented a way to give herself a blank expression so that no one would notice her. She called it her "cloak of invisibility." Later, Dorothea used her "cloak" to study people without them knowing she was even around.

When Dorothea graduated from high school she surprised everyone by announcing she wanted to be a photographer. Dorothea had never owned a camera or even taken a picture, but with her great imagination and interest in people, Dorothea knew she'd do just fine.

She started out by convincing a well-known New York portrait photographer to give her a job as an assistant. It wasn't long before Dorothea learned how to use a camera, develop film, make prints, and run a studio.

After getting her confidence up, Dorothea decided to travel around the world to learn more about people and practice her photography. When she was twenty-two years old, Dorothea left New York with her best friend. They made it only as far as San Francisco, California, thought, because a pickpocket stole all their money. Dorothea ended up staying in San Francisco.

She got a job right away in a department store and joined a camera club. Dorothea met and became friends with lots of photographers and artist. One of those friends offered to lend Dorothea enough money to start up her own portrait studio.

Dorothea was thrilled to have the chance to run her own business. She soon became very successful making unusual portraits of wealthy mothers and their children.

Dorothea invited her friend to come over to her new studio every day after work. They enjoyed discussing the latest things happening in art and photography and listening to new jazz music on the phonograph.

In 1933, during one of the worst years of the Depression, Dorothea noticed from her studio window dozens of men who were out of work. They were standing in a breadline waiting for a free meal. She decided to go out and photograph them. One of the pictures she brought back was called White Angel Bread Line. Dorothea put a print of it up on the wall of her studio.

When her friends asked her what she was going to do with photographs of starving homeless people, Dorothea told them she had no idea. All Dorothea knew was that she had to take more pictures to show what a serious problem the Great Depression was.

Dorothea spent more and more time outside her comfortable studio. She often went to dangerous areas to photograph people who were tired and sometimes angry. This is when her cloak of invisibility really came in handy.

One day, a friend suggested that Dorothea have a show of all the remarkable photographs she had been taking. In 1934, Dorothea had her first show at a small California gallery.

At this exhibit, Dorothea's photographs could be seen for the first time by lots of people. One person who went to the show thought Dorothea's pictures would be perfect to go along with some articles he was writing. Paul Taylor was a college professor who was studying the problems people were having because of the Great Depression.

Paul asked Dorothea if he could use one of her photographs for a government report he was writing. He then asked her if she would go along and work with him. Dorothea agreed. She couldn't wait to begin using her skills to help record the Great Depression.

Dorothea and Paul made a great team. They worked hard gathering information from many of the thousands of migrant families who arrived in California every day.

Most migrants were ordinary people who had lost their farms and homes. They traveled all over the country hoping to get jobs picking fruit, vegetables, or cotton. They were so poor that they often had to live in old tents or cardboard boxes without heat, running water, or much food.

Dorothea took a picture of the migrant mother below. In it you can almost fell how worried that mother was about her children's future and where they would get their next meal. This picture became on the most famous photographs of the Great Depression.

Dorothea and Paul sent their reports to Washington, D.C. This information was used by the United States government to convince more fortunate Americans that the migrant families needed help.

Dorothea Lange lived to be seventy years old, and spent most of her life traveling around the country with Paul, photographing people in America who were very poor and were treated unfairly. Dorothea wanted to make sure no one would forget about them

One of Dorothea's favorite cameras was a big clunky one called a Graflex. She preferred it to smaller cameras because it forced her to take her time and set up her photographs more carefully.

Dorothea's photographs are known as documentary photographs. Their purpose was to record information and facts. But few documentary photographers have ever made pictures that are as artistic and caring as Dorothea Lange's.

Mike Venezia is Author/Illustrator of Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists (series), Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers (series), and Getting to Know the U.S. Presidents (series to be released 2004), all published by Children's Press, Div. of Grolier, Scholastic Publishing.