Margaret Crosby "Peggy" Rathmann [1] (born March 4, 1953) is an American illustrator and author of popular children's books including Good Night, Gorilla and Officer Buckle and Gloria , which won the 1996 Caldecott Medal.
Rathmann was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and grew up in a family with five children. [2] In early elementary school, she was often seated in the back of the room to avoid her blocking the view of other students, but she could not see the board because she was near-sighted. "I remember the teacher talking about the alphabet and thinking, 'What alphabet?'" [2] Rathmann credits her third grade teacher, who painted stories to engage students, with helping her become a good reader. [3]
Rathmann graduated from Mounds View High School, and later graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in psychology. She planned to become a doctor, enrolling in medical school at Macalester College. [4] [3] She dropped out after a year and a half to instead pursue a career in scientific illustration, and began training at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. She left the program after two years, and spent the next three years studying portrait artistry at studios in Minneapolis. After she was able to soothe her crying niece by drawing a funny story in her sketchbook, Rathmann decided to become a children's book author and spent the next two years expanding the original story to 150 pages. When it was "subsequently turned down by every major publisher", she was devastated. [3] Rathmann moved into her parents' home, and she and her mother enrolled in a children's book class taught by Barbara Bottner. [5]
As part of an assignment, Rathmann wrote her first picture book, Ruby the Copycat (1991). Following its publication, she was awarded Most Promising New Author in Publishers Weekly's 1991 Cuffie Awards. [4] [6] Rathmann then illustrated Bootsie Barker Bites (1992), written by her instructor Barbara Bottner . [3]
At age 35, when she was divorced and living in her parents' home, Rathmann got a book agent. She subsequently wrote and illustrated Good Night, Gorilla (1994) followed by Officer Buckle and Gloria (1995) — which won the 1996 Caldecott Medal for picture book illustration. [3] [7] Upon receiving news of the award, Rathmann got into bed and "waited to die of embarrassment", fearing that critics would "expose, ridicule, and then crucify" her. [8] Eventually she was able to appreciate the honor.
She wrote Ten Minutes till Bedtime (1998) [9] and The Day The Babies Crawled Away (2003), which made the Horn Book Magazine's annual Fanfare List. [10] In 2014, Good Night, Gorilla was a runner-up for the Phoenix Picture Book Award from the Children's Literature Association, which annually recognizes the best picture book that did not win a major award 20 years earlier. "Books are considered not only for the quality of their illustrations, but for the way pictures and text work together." [11]
Rathmann takes at least nine months to write each of her books, and finds the writing more difficult than the illustrations. She struggles in the editing stages: "It kills me! I used to call my editor and try to give the money back. I'd say, 'Look, I'm sorry, but I'm giving you the money back. Trust me, you don't want this book it's not working.'" She continued: "Then they'd cut me some slack, and I'd work on it for a few more months." [12] Rathmann cites Maurice Sendak as an influence, and described him as making "good books for bad children". Other influences include Dr. Seuss and A.A. Milne. [3]
Rathmann is married to John Wick, a former construction foreman who renovated her bathroom in San Francisco. In the middle of the remodeling project, Rathmann ran out of money. Wick offered to finish the work for free, and they married in 1996. [3]
They live on a 540-acre ranch in Marin County, California that they purchased in 1988. Their regenerative agriculture efforts on the ranch were featured in a 2018 New York Times article. [13]
Rathmann has illustrated at least seven picture books, six of which she also wrote.
Several translations have been published.Gute Nacht, Gorilla (2006) was named "Book of the Month" for September 2006 by the German Institut für Jugendliteratur (young people's literature).
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