Edward Randolph Emberley (born October 19, 1931) is an American artist and illustrator, best known for

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

picture books A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

Biography

Emberley was born in

Malden, Massachusetts Malden is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 66,263 people. History Malden, a hilly woodland area north of the Mystic River, was settled by Puritans in 1640 on l ...

. He studied art at the Massachusetts School of Art in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

(now the

Massachusetts College of Art and Design Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation’s oldest art schools, the only publicly funded independent art schoo ...

), from which he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and illustration. He also studied at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

. He married Barbara, a librarian and writer, in 1955; they have two children, Rebecca and Michael. Michael is also an illustrator. They currently live in

Ipswich, Massachusetts Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A resid ...

Career

Emberley is best known for his children's book work - particularly instructional drawing books. Emberley believes that everyone can learn to draw. His drawing books for children feature clear step-by-step instructions employing numbers, letters, and shapes graded to the early elementary school level. For example, the book ''Ed Emberley's A.B.C.'' uses this style of instruction, presenting a single letter-based drawing for each letter of the alphabet. Emberley has illustrated or contributed to over 50 books, many of which were first published between the 1960s and 1980s. Renewed interest in Emberley's work has come from adults who first encountered his books as children and now are purchasing them for their own children. His most recent book, ''The Red Hen'', was released on October 26, 2010; like his preceding work, ''Chicken Little'' (2009) it is a collaboration with Rebecca Emberley.

Awards and honors

Emberley's first book, ''The Wing on a Flea'' (1961), was an

ALA Notable Book American Library Association Notable lists are announced each year in January by various divisions within the American Library Association (ALA). There are six lists, part of the larger ALA awards structure. * ''ALA Notable Books for Adults'' (est ...

and made the New York Times list of best-illustrated books for that year. He was sole runner-up for the 1967

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Servic ...

, as illustrator of ''One Wide River to Cross'', written by his wife Barbara Emberley. Next year he won the Medal for another collaboration with Barbara, ''

Drummer Hoff ''Drummer Hoff'' is an illustrated children's book by Barbara and Ed Emberley. Ed Emberley won the 1968 Caldecott Medal for the book's illustrations.American Library AssociationCaldecott Medal Winners, 1938 - Present URL accessed 27 May 2009. ...

''. The award by children's librarians annually recognizes "the most distinguished American picture book or children". ''Drummer Hoff'' was also named to the

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was an American literary award conferred on several books annually by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education annually from 1958 to 1979. Award-winning books were deemed to "belong on the same shelf" ...

list.

Selected works

*''

A Birthday Wish A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''ae ...

'' 1977 *'' Bits and Bytes: A Computer Dictionary for Beginners'' 1985 (illustrator) *'' Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug'' 2007 *'' Chicken Little'' 2009 (illustrator) *''

Clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials ...

'' 1969 (illustrator) *''

Columbus Day Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492 ...

'' (illustrator) *''

'' 1968 (illustrator) *''

Ed Emberley's 6 Nature Adventures Ed, ed or ED may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ed'' (film), a 1996 film starring Matt LeBlanc * Ed (''Fullmetal Alchemist'') or Edward Elric, a character in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' media * ''Ed'' (TV series), a TV series that ran fro ...

'' 1982 *''

Ed Emberley's ABC Ed, ed or ED may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ed'' (film), a 1996 film starring Matt LeBlanc * Ed (''Fullmetal Alchemist'') or Edward Elric, a character in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' media * ''Ed'' (TV series), a TV series that ran fro ...

'' 1978 *'' Ed Emberley's Big Green Drawing Book'' c1979 *'' Ed Emberley's Big Orange Drawing Book'' c1980 *'' Ed Emberley's Big Purple Drawing Book'' c1981 *'' Ed Emberley's Big Red Drawing Book'' c1987 *'' Ed Emberley's Christmas Drawing Book'' c1987 *'' Ed Emberley's Crazy Mixed-Up Face Game'' c1981 *'' Ed Emberley's Drawing Book: Make a World'' 1972 *'' Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals'' 1970 *'' Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Faces'' 1975 *'' Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains'' 2002 *'' Ed Emberley's Fingerprint Drawing Book'' 2001 *'' Ed Emberley's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book'' c1977 *'' Ed Emberley's Jumbo Book of Drawing Activities'' *''

Ed Emberley's Little Book of Drawing Farms Ed, ed or ED may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ed'' (film), a 1996 film starring Matt LeBlanc * Ed (''Fullmetal Alchemist'') or Edward Elric, a character in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' media * ''Ed'' (TV series), a TV series that ran fro ...

'' *'' Ed Emberley's Little Drawing Book of Trains'' 1973 *'' Ed Emberley's Little Drawing Book of Weirdos'' 1973 *'' Ed Emberley's Picture Pie'' 1984 *'' Ed Emberley's Second Drawing Box'' *'' Ed Emberley's Three Science Flip Books'' *'' Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll'' 1985 (illustrator) *'' First Words: Cars, Boats and Planes'' *'' First Words: Sounds'' *''

Glad Monster, Sad Monster Glad may refer to: * Glad (Norse mythology), a horse ridden by the gods in Norse mythology People * Emil Glad (1929–2009), Croatian actor * Ingrid Kristine Glad (born 1965), Norwegian statistician *John Glad (1941–2015), an American academ ...

'' 1997 (illustrator) *'' Go Away, Big Green Monster'' 1993 *'' Green Says Go'' *'' How to Talk to Your Computer'' (illustrator) *'' If You're a Monster and You Know It...'' 2010 (illustrator) *'' Kid-Friendly Computer Book (illustrator) *'' Kid-Friendly Computer Start-Ups (illustrator) *'' Klippity Klop'' *'' Krispin's Fair'' 1976 (illustrator) *'' Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home'' 1967 (illustrator) *'' Meet the Computer'' (illustrator) *''

Moon Seems to Change The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

'' (illustrator) *'' One Wide River to Cross'' 1967 *''The Parade Book'' 1962 *'' Simon's Song'' (illustrator) *'' Squiggles, Dots and Lines'' *'' Straight Hair, Curly Hair'' (illustrator) *'' Suppose You Met a Witch'' 1973 (illustrator) *'' Thanks Mom'' *''

The Ant and the Grasshopper The Ant and the Grasshopper, alternatively titled The Grasshopper and the Ant (or Ants), is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 373 in the Perry Index. The fable describes how a hungry grasshopper begs for food from an ant when winter comes and is ...

'' (illustrator) *'' The BASIC Book'' (illustrator) *'' The Big Dipper'' 1962 (illustrator) *'' The Bottom of the Sea'' 1966 (illustrator) *'' The Fisherman and his Wife'' unfinished (illustrator) *'' The Gallant Tailor'' unfinished (adaptor and illustrator) *''

The Lion and the Mice ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

'' (illustrator) *''

The Red Hen The Red Hen restaurant controversy was an American political controversy that began June 22, 2018, when a co-owner of The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, asked Donald Trump's White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to lea ...

'' 2010 *'' The Story of Paul Bunyan'' 1963 (illustrator) *'' The Wing on a Flea'' 1961 *'' The Wizard of Op'' 1975 *'' There Was an Old Lady'' unfinished (illustrator) *'' There Was an Old Monster!'' 2009 (illustrator) *'' Three: An Emberley Family Sketchbook'' 1998 *'' Turtle Talk'' (illustrator) *'' Where's My Sweetie Pie?'' 2010 *''Yankee Doodle'' (illustrator) *''Rosebud'' 1966 *''The Crocodile and the Scorpion'' *''Spare Parts'' (illustrator)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Emberley, Ed 1931 births American children's writers Caldecott Medal winners American children's book illustrators Massachusetts College of Art and Design alumni Living people