"After she died, when I became the only person in the family doing children's books, I felt I inherited the mantle of this expectation of high quality," Zemach said of her mother.
". . . I was confused about whether it was OK to be influenced by one's famous mother."
Her work on The Character in the Book, published in 1998, and on The Question Song and Just Enough and Not Too Much, which will be released this year, bolstered her confidence.
"Now, I'm old enough to realize that if my work does look like hers - how nice, what a privilege, how fortunate," the Doylestown Township resident said. "You ultimately have to stand on your own two feet."
It is a lesson Zemach's daughter Talya Zemach-Bersin has learned early. The senior at Central Bucks West High School said she was "obsessed with portraiture . . . trying to show honesty in someone's face."
"If I were doing illustrations, I would be comparing myself to them," Talya added. "The only pressure I have is that I want to be personally satisfied."
The three generations are featured in an exhibit - "Zemach X 3" - through May 28 at the Mixed Media Gallery in Doylestown Borough.
"It's amazing the connections," said Thomas Sperling, gallery curator. "Margot's work has a madness of swirl about it. Kaethe's has a cleaner look. They are three distinct artists, but they are all line-oriented. . . . They want to rush their line into expressing a mood."
Zemach speaks reverently about the work of her mother, a Caldecott Medalist for Duffy and the Devil.
She said that her mother, who died in 1989, revolutionized the field of children's literature, eschewing primary colors and simple drawings, and offering high-quality art with subtle colors and sophisticated lines.
Zemach's mother and father, Harve, started in the field of children's literature in the late 1950s when the books were syrupy and moralistic, said Zemach, whose oldest daughter, Ariella, is a college freshman.
