A Picture for Harold’s Room
It had been five years since “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” but 54-year-old Crockett Johnson decided that Harold had a new problem.
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The Best Children's Picture Books
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Red Bird, by Barbara Mitchell
There’s dark shadows on a lake in the dim orange of sunset. An Indian raises his fishing spear in a painted canoe. illustrations in Red Bird are lifelike watercolors which bring the Indian tribe to life. And in the story of Red Bird Barbara Mitchell contributes a detailed story about the heritage of a girl […]
Loopy, by Hardie Gramatky
“Little Toot” wasn’t his only children’s character. Two years later Hardie Gramatky wrote and illustrated another story about a child-like airplane (who looks a lot like the red-cheeked tugboat) — called Loopy!. “Loopy is a small airplane,” the first page announces – “the kind that flyers cheerfully call a hedgehopper.” A picture shows the speeding […]
The Warlord’s Puzzle, by Virginia Walton Pilegard
The Warlord’s Puzzle is a children’s picture book that actually grew out of the author’s master’s thesis! Virginia Walton Pilegard was raised on a Nevada cattle ranch, and grew up to be an elementary school teacher – but she wrote her thesis on “strengthening Visual Perception through Informal Geometry.” In “The Warlord’s Puzzle,” she tells […]
A Firefly Named Torchy, by Bernard Waber
The artwork is almost surreal. There’s streaks of luminous yellows and greens, but the paints mix together in a colorful chaos. “On a warm night at the edge of a woods, a firefly was born,” writes Bernard Waber at the beginning of A Firefly Named Torchy. But he’s also the illustrator, and he’s determined toshowcase […]
True Heart, by Marissa Moss
“It makes me grin, because my wish came true.” There’s real history in True Heart, a children’s book which was inspired when Marissa Moss visited the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. A frontier engineer remembers back to 1893, when they were a teenager who could only dream about driving the railroad. There’s a real […]
Roberto, The Insect Architect, by Nina Laden
It’s a satirical story with a technological secret. “No computers were used,” brags Nina Laden, listing out the materials that she used instead to create the mixed-media collages in “Roberto the Insect Architect.” (“[D]ifferent kinds of paper, parts of images cut from old catalogs and magazines, wood veeners, cork veneer, blueprints, cardboard, skeleton leaves, old […]
Paperboy, by Dav Pilkey
Can an illustrator write a good story? The Paperboy knows that’s the wrong question to ask. Instead, the book shows some gorgeous illustrations, while its text just fills in the details. It’s a wonderful example of two art forms combining. Dav Pilkey illustrates his interpretation of a dark neighborhood seen by a newsboy – while […]
Coming On Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson
The illustrator dedicated this book “To the men and women at war, far from and home.” For Coming On Home Soon, E. B. Lewis drew photo-realistic illustrations capturing a sad story from the distant past. The narrator “tried hard not to cry” as her mother puts a Sunday dress into a satchel. “Ada Ruth,” she […]
The Biggest Bear, by Lynd Ward
He illustrated 200 children’s books, and was the illustrator for “Johnny Tremain.” The book’s jacket even describes him as “one of America’s greatest artists.” But in 1952, Lynd Ward started his greatest project. He both wrote and illustrated the story of “The Biggest Bear” – and it won him the Caldecott Medal. “Johnny Orchard lived […]