Illustrators That We Simply Adore

March 11, 2009

by Eliza Clark

Children learn to love books through the interplay of words and pictures.  Beautiful illustrations draw them back again and again to the same books, and that is how the process of learning to read and learning to love reading begins.

So today we celebrate a few of our most beloved illustrators:

Beatrix Potter. She set the standard, reinvented the art, and gave us all of those naughty, beautiful bunnies and kittens, hedgehogs, mice, and more.

Ernest H. Shepard. He brought that Silly Old Pooh Bear and friends to life with the simplest of line drawings, and The Wind in the Willows' cast of creatures too. 

Ludwig Bemelmans. Creator of Madeline and the ever so elegant Parisian backdrop to her adventures.

Eric Carle. Who truly believes that nothing less than art belongs on the pages of his incomparable children's books.

Jane Dyer. Her watercolor renderings of animals are simply breathtaking.

Elisha Cooper. Stylish and contemporary with a classic touch, whether drawing the beach, an evening walk, a fat cat, or ice cream.  

And for more ideas, see the wonderful book Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art by (of course!) the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (which you absolutely must visit if you should ever happen to find yourself in Western Massachusetts).

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