Margaret Crosby "Peggy" Rathmann (born March 4, 1953) is an American illustrator and writer of

children's A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...

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 ima ...

. Rathmann was born in

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 311,527, making it Minnesota's second-most populous city a ...

, and graduated from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. She studied

commercial art Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of promo ...

, fine art, and children's book creation in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. Her first book, "''Ruby the Copycat'', earned Rathmann the Most Promising New Author distinction in ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

s 1991 annual Cuffie Awards." That book was followed by her illustrations of Barbara Bottner's ''Bootsie Barker Bites'' and by the self-illustrated ''Good Night, Gorilla''. Her book '' Officer Buckle and Gloria'' (1995) won the annual

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 Service ...

for U.S. picture book illustration. Since then she has written two more: ''Ten Minutes till Bedtime'' and ''The Day The Babies Crawled Away'', which made the Horn Book Fanfare List of best books of 2003. Rathmann and her husband, John Wick, were featured in a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

article about

regenerative agriculture Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration ...

efforts employed on their ranch in Marin County, California. In 2014, ''Good Night, Gorilla'' was a runner-up (Honor Book) for the

Phoenix Picture Book Award The Phoenix Award annually recognizes one English-language children's book published twenty years earlier that did not then win a major literary award. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix that is reborn from its own ashes, signifying the boo ...

from the

Children's Literature Association The Children's Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association, based in the United States, of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers, and institutions dedicated to studying children's literature.Margaret W. Denman ...

, 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.""Phoenix Picture Book Award"
. Children's Literature Association. Retrieved 2014-07-14.

Books

Rathmann has illustrated at least seven picture books, six of which she also wrote. * ''Ruby the Copycat'' (Scholastic, 1991), * ''Bootsie Barker Bites'', written by Barbara Bottner (

G. P. Putnam's Sons G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam an ...

, 1992), * ''Good Night, Gorilla'' (Putnam, 1994), * '' Officer Buckle and Gloria'' (Putnam, 1995), * ''10 Minutes till Bedtime'' (Putnam, 1998), * ''The Day the Babies Crawled Away'' (Putnam, 2003), * ''How Many Lambies on Grammy's Jammies?'' (Putnam, 2006), 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).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rathmann, Peggy 1953 births American children's book illustrators American children's writers American women children's book illustrators American women children's writers Caldecott Medal winners University of Minnesota alumni Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota Writers from Marin County, California Living people Artists from Saint Paul, Minnesota Writers who illustrated their own writing

Books

See also

References

External links