It’s time to reveal the answers to last week’s trivia questions.
27. Which famous author/illustrator has a children’s picture book art museum named after him? This man was working as an art director of an advertising agency when a children’s author asked him to illustrate a book. It was so well received he began writing his own brightly-illustrated and innovative books.
Surprise, it’s Eric Carle! The museum named after him is The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. It sounds like a absolutely wonderful place to visit.
The book I alluded to in the question was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? written by Bill Martin, Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle.
Probably every family has at least one favorite Eric Carle book, out of the over 70 he has created. Here are some of ours:
28. This multiple award-winning illustrator was born in Vienna. She does not write her books, but illustrates classics such as The Little Mermaid and The Wizard of Oz.
Lisbeth Zwerger just had an exhibit at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. I am sorry to say I hadn’t heard of her before seeing her art on the museum website. According to the website, Zwerger received the Hans Christian Andersen medal in 1990, which they say is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for children’s literature.
As stated by this interview, her teachers did not encourage Zwerger to become an illustrator. Her mother’s did strongly support her, however, helping find a publisher for her first book.
The link to her name has some examples of her works, or look for these:
Thank you for writing about The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. We hope you can visit us sometime. The Zwerger exhibition ends Sunday, September 26th – and will be followed by Monsters and Miracles: A Journey Through Jewish Picture Books opening on October 15th. We also have two other galleries – one features Eric Carle’s work and the other has Leo Lionni.
Again, thank you. We are a fairly young museum and appreciate the mention.
My nineteen-month old son and I cannot get enough of Eric Carle– his current favorite is Head-to-Toe. My adolescent students at Passages Academy (New York City public school for incarcerated and detained youth) sometimes enjoy freaking the heck out out when they see a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar sitting inside the same walls that confine them. It’s not uncommon to see an adult-sized fifteen-year old young man grabbing it off the shelf and running around the library showing it to everyone and asking them if they agree with him that it’s the best book of all time. Happened today *and* yesterday. 🙂
Sandy-
Great to hear from you. Hopefully our family can visit the museum soon.
Jessica-
Interesting that Eric Carle’s books appeal to such a range of ages. Thanks for sharing your experiences.