Jerry Pinkney is one of my most favorite illustrators of children’s books. The man is awesome. I’ve never come across any of his books at auctions, but I’ve purchased a few on my own.
Last spring, he was in Philadelphia at a book festival, I got a chance to meet him and he graciously signed several of my books. I was like a child meeting her favorite movie star, and I wrote about it in an earlier post about buying children’s books at auction. It was especially neat meeting him because he’s from Philadelphia.
So, I was very happy to read this week in my local newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, that Pinkney had finally won the Randolph Caldecott Medal. He became the first individual African American to win it, after being honored five times. Pinkney has been an illustrator for 46 years.
The medal, first awarded in 1938 by the American Library Association, is given to the best illustrated book of the year. Pinkney’s book is “The Lion and the Mouse,” his own version of the Aesop tale, told in pictures and not words, published in September. I don’t have it yet, but I will. Photo of Pinkney at right is by Thomas Kristich, from Jerry Pinkney Studio website.
Pinkney will receive the medal in June in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, his drawings and those of other Caldecott Medal winners will be on display at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA, from March 19 to May 23. If you’re in the area, please drop by.
I saw an exhibit of his drawings some years ago at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and they were beautiful. Just as they are in all the books he has illustrated.
His most recent book is called “The Sweethearts of Rhythm,” about a 1940s African American girl swing band from Mississippi. It is a collaboration with author Marilyn Nelson, and was published in October.
If you’re not familiar with Pinkney and other illustrators of black children’s books, you should be. Drop by the children’s section of your local bookstore, pull up one of those tiny chairs and escape into one of his worlds. You’ll never want to leave it.
It’s somewhat like being at an auction.
Very interesting post. I have a blog about auctions myself. I will come back if there is any update on this blog. Thanks
Hi. Thanks for your comment. I love the work of Jerry Pinkney. Pls do come back to my blog often. I update it every day five days a week. I think you’ll enjoy the posts because they cover a variety of subjects. You can also go to myauctionfinds.com & sign up for email updates and tweets of my posts.
Sherry