An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicated concepts or objects that are difficult to describe textually, which is the reason illustrations are often found in children's books.
Dick and Jane are the two main characters created by Zerna Sharp for a series of basal readers written by William S. Gray to teach children to read. The characters first appeared in the Elson-Gray Readers in 1930 and continued in a subsequent series of books through the final version in 1965. These readers were used in classrooms in the United States and in other English-speaking countries for nearly four decades, reaching the height of their popularity in the 1950s, when 80 percent of first-grade students in the United States used them. Although the Dick and Jane series of primers continued to be sold until 1973 and remained in use in some classrooms throughout the 1970s, they were replaced with other reading texts by the 1980s and gradually disappeared from school curricula.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a 1969 children's picture book designed, illustrated, and written by American children's author and illustrator Eric Carle. The plot follows a very hungry caterpillar that consumes a variety of foods before pupating and becoming a butterfly. It incorporates elements that contribute to early childhood education, including counting, days of the week, and food. It also incorporates a butterfly’s life cycle.
Leo Lionni was an Italian-American writer and illustrator of children's books. Born in the Netherlands, he moved to Italy and lived there before moving to the United States in 1939, where he worked as an art director for several advertising agencies, and then for Fortune magazine. He returned to Italy in 1962 and started writing and illustrating children's books. In 1962, his book Inch by Inch was awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
Jenny Nimmo is a British author of children's books, including fantasy and adventure novels, chapter books, and picture books. Born in England, she has lived mostly in Wales for 40 years. She is probably best known for two series of fantasy novels: The Magician Trilogy (1986–1989), contemporary stories rooted in Welsh myth, and Children of the Red King (2002–2010), featuring schoolchildren endowed with magical powers. The Snow Spider, first of the Magician books, won the second annual Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and the 1987 Tir na n-Og Award as the year's best originally English-language book with an authentic Welsh background. The Stone Mouse was highly commended for the 1993 Carnegie Medal. Several others of hers have been shortlisted for children's book awards.
Doug Cushman is an artist who has worked as a cartoonist and a book illustrator. He is also the author of a series of children's books.
Jerry Pinkney was an American illustrator and writer of children's literature. Pinkney illustrated over 100 books since 1964, including picture books, nonfiction titles and novels. Pinkney's works addressed diverse themes and were usually done in watercolors.
Nicholasa Mohr is one of the best known Nuyorican writers, born in the United States to Puerto Rican parents. In 1973, she became the first Nuyorican woman in the 20th century to have her literary works published by the major commercial publishing houses, and has had the longest creative writing career of any Nuyorican female writer for these publishing houses. She centers her works on the female experience as a child and adult in Puerto Rican communities in New York City, with much of writing containing semi-autobiographical content. In addition to her prominent novels and short stories, she has written screenplays, plays, and television scripts.
Kay Chorao, born as Ann McKay Sproat on January 7, 1936, in Elkhart, Indiana, is an American artist, illustrator and writer of children's books.
My Weird School is a series of humorous chapter books written by Dan Gutman and illustrated by Jim Paillot, first published in July 2004. Further series include My Weird School Daze (2008-2011), My Weirder School (2011-2014), My Weirdest School (2015-2018), My Weirder-est School (2019-2022), and My Weird-tastic School (2023-2024).
Moore College of Art & Design is a private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1848 by Sarah Worthington Peter as the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, and was renamed the Moore College of Art & Design in 1989. Although the school's undergraduate programs were historically only open to women, Moore opened admission to transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming students in 2020. Its other educational programs, including graduate programs and youth programs, are co-educational.
Toon Books is a publisher of hardcover comic book early readers founded by Françoise Mouly. With titles by such creators as Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch, Dean Haspiel, Eleanor Davis, and Mouly's collaborator and husband, Art Spiegelman, Toon Books promotes its line as "the first high-quality comics designed for children ages four and up".
Felicia Bond is an American writer and illustrator of numerous books for children. She is the illustrator of all the If You Give... series written by Laura Numeroff and published by HarperCollins Children's Books.
Sue DiCicco is an American sculptor, children's book author and illustrator, and founder of Armed with the Arts and the Peace Crane Project.
Mary Robertson Bassett was a late 19th and early 20th century illustrator of magazines and children's books.
A wordless picture book or a almost-wordless picture book is a picture book whose narrative is expressed through the illustrations.
Mara Rockliff is an American author of children's books specializing in works based on true stories. Her book Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France won an Orbis Pictus Honor from the National Council of Teachers of English. The American Library Association selected her book Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott for a Sibert Honor. She also received the Golden Kite Award for Me and Momma and Big John.
Judith Schermer is a Detroit-born, Philadelphia-based painter who also wrote and illustrated for children during the 1970s and 1980s.
Stepdog is a 1983 children's book by Marlene Fanta Shyer, with illustrations by Judith Schermer. Shyer's story revolves around a girl's excitement over her father's new wife, and the jealousy the latter's pet dog develops after they wed. It received positive reviews, and several publications throughout the 1980s discussed its portrayal of stepfamily dynamics.
Sheila LaFarge is a French-American children's book translator, whose work focuses on translating Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian books into English.
