<DIV>The illustrations for this series were created by Scott McKowen, who, with his wife Christina Poddubiuk, operates Punch & Judy Inc., a company specializing in design and illustration for theater and performing arts. Their projects often involve research into the visual aspects of historical settings and characters. Christina is a theater set and costume designer and contributed advice on the period clothing for the illustrations.<br><br>Scott created these drawings in scratchboard ­ an engraving medium which evokes the look of popular art from the period of these stories. Scratchboard is an illustration board with a specifically prepared surface of hard white chalk. A thin layer of black ink is rolled over the surface, and lines are drawn by hand with a sharp knife by scraping through the ink layer to expose the white surface underneath. The finished drawings are then scanned and the color is added digitally.<br><br>As the popularity of the recent Lemony Snicket books proves, children never get tired of reading about orphans and their misfortunes. So Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1905 story about a pampered little rich girl who suddenly finds herself poor and fatherless should continue to entice generations of fans.<br></div>