This week we have the answers to last week’s trivia questions, but no new questions. Children’s Author Trivia will resume the Thursday after Thanksgiving.
Are you ready to find out more about the husband and wife team, both of whom have won Caldecott Honor awards?
40. What child wouldn’t want to grow up in a household filled with exotic animals like today’s mystery illustrator? When the husband had time as a boy, he liked to draw the animals and dream of going to Africa. His teachers noticed his talent and encouraged him to go to art college. He financed his education in a unique way, as a professional wrestler. Eventually he finished his degree and became an award-winning illustrator and author of children’s books. Do you know who this wrestling illustrator is?
Ted Lewin actually wrote a children’s book about his experiences as a wrestler in I Was a Teenaged Professional Wrestler. As for his Caldecott Honor, he won that in 1994 for his book Peppe the Lamplighter.
Ted Lewin attended the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn. He met his wife, Betsy, after he graduated. The Lewin’s still live in Brooklyn, as Ted discusses in the following video.
I thought his story about Morocco was fascinating, and also the information about what you have to take into account when your art will be used for a picture book.
A few of his other books include:
41. The wife grew up in Pennsylvania. As a child, she says she was always drawing and she knew she wanted to be an artist. She even went against her parents wishes by going to an art school for college. What she didn’t know was that she would become a prize-winning illustrator and author of children’s books. It was a good thing she went to art school, because that’s how she met her husband, who was a recent graduate.
Betsy Lewin is the popular illustrator of Doreen Cronin’s books, including her Caldecott Honor winner Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type.
In this video Betsey Lewin tells how she never could have been anything but an artist.
The interview continues…
If you would like to see the rest of the interview and more information, visit Reading Rockets.
And for a sampling of her books: