Best illustrated books all over the world
David Macaulay (born 1946) is an American illustrator and writer. He was born in the United Kingdom and moved to the United States at the age of eleven, soon becoming deeply interested in drawing. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and continued […]
Ed Young (1931–2023) was an American author and illustrator of children’s books, twice nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. In 1990, he received the Caldecott Medal for Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China. Young was born in Tianjin, China, and moved with his family to Shanghai […]
Kevin Henkes (1960) is an American author and illustrator of children’s picture books. He wrote his first book in 1981 while still in college. Since then, he has created around fifty picture books. His work has been widely praised. In 2005 he received the Caldecott Medal for Kitten’s First Full […]
Dahlov Ipcar (1917-2017) grew up in a creative, artistic family and began drawing very early in life. At 19, she married her math tutor and moved with her husband to a rural farm in Maine. There, she built a real farm life — raising animals, gardening — while also dedicating […]
Katherine Milhous (1894–1977) was an American artist, writer, and illustrator known for her bold graphic style and deep connection to Pennsylvania Dutch culture. She was born in Philadelphia and grew up in a Quaker family surrounded by craft traditions and printmaking, which shaped her visual language early on. Milhous studied […]
Rosalind “Roz” Chast (1954) is an American cartoonist best known for her long, ongoing collaboration with The New Yorker. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in a family of teachers. Drawing was part of her life from early childhood. Chast studied painting at the Rhode Island […]
Mordicai Gerstein (1935-2019) was born in Los Angeles into a creative family and grew up drawing from an early age. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute, where he received traditional artistic training that later shaped his work both in books and in animation. In the beginning of his career, […]
Marc Simont (1915-2013) was a Paris-born American artist, political cartoonist, and prolific illustrator of children’s books. Inspired by his father, Spanish painter Joseph Simont, Marc began drawing early. In 1935 he moved to New York, studied at the National Academy of Design, and served three years in the military. His […]
William Steig (1907–2003) — an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, and illustrator of children’s books. Among his most famous works are Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Abel’s Island, and Doctor De Soto. He is also the author of the picture book about Shrek, which later became the basis for the popular […]
Gail E. Haley is an American author and illustrator of children’s books, born in Charlotte, North Carolina. She grew up immersed in art – her father was an art-director – and later studied commercial art and fine art at the Richmond Professional Institute and the University of Virginia. Her debut […]
Stephen Gammell (1943) — American children’s book illustrator known for his distinctive, surreal, and often haunting visual style. Gammell grew up in Iowa, where his father worked as an art director for a major magazine and encouraged his son’s artistic curiosity from an early age. Though he never received formal […]
Anne F. Rockwell (1934–2018) was an American children’s-book writer and illustrator who created over one hundred titles. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and attended the Sculpture Center and the Pratt Graphic Arts Center in New York. Rockwell began working in publishing and advertising in the early 1950s, and in […]
Hilary Knight (born November 1, 1926) is an American artist, author, and illustrator of children’s books. Over the course of his long and distinguished career, he has illustrated more than fifty titles. He is best known as the illustrator of Eloise, the iconic series of books written by Kay Thompson, […]
Lane Smith (1959) — American Illustrator and Author Lane Smith was born in 1959 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and later moved to California, where he studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena while working as a janitor at Disneyland. After graduation, he moved to New York and began […]
Adrienne Adams (1906–2002) was an American author and illustrator of children’s books. Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and raised in Oklahoma, she moved to New York in 1929 to study at the American School of Design. After graduation she worked as a freelance designer, creating display work, textiles, and greeting […]
Marsha Winborn is an American illustrator known for her expressive watercolor and pen-and-wash style. She has illustrated more than thirty-five children’s books, including Grandma’s Cat by Helen Ketteman, What’s the Magic Word? by Kelly DiPucchio, and My Little Wagon by Alma Powell. Her illustrations are distinguished by warmth, gentle humor, […]
Fred Marcellino (1939–2001) was an American illustrator and author of children’s books. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Marcellino began his career as a painter working in the field of abstract expressionism. He studied in Venice on a Fulbright scholarship, and after returning to the United States, turned to design and […]
Fritz Eichenberg (1901–1990) was a German-American artist, printmaker, and book illustrator, recognized as one of the leading masters of 20th-century wood engraving. He was born in Cologne into a Jewish family and studied at the Cologne Municipal School of Applied Arts, later continuing at the Academy of Graphic Arts in […]
Marjorie Flack (1897–1958) was an American author and illustrator best known for her contributions to early 20th-century children’s literature. She was born on Long Island, New York, and began her career in illustration before turning to writing, creating books that combined simple language with engaging imagery for young readers. Among […]
Leo Lionni (1910–1999) was a pioneering author and illustrator of children’s books. Born in the Netherlands, he grew up partly in Italy and later moved to the United States in 1939, where he worked as an art director in advertising and for Fortune magazine. In 1962, Lionni began creating children’s […]