Society of Illustrators Gives Lifetime Achievement Award to Van Allsburg
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By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 10/26/2009
The Society of Illustrators last week honored two-time Caldecott Medalist Chris Van Allsburg with its Lifetime Achievement Award during the association’s annual Original Art exhibit, which showcases a cross section of the best-illustrated books of the year.
Van Allsburg’s career spans 30 years, starting with the publication of his first book, which earned a Caldecott honor, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi (1979), about a dog named Fritz who runs away from the boy who’s watching him.
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Chris Van Allsburg (right) with Lincoln Agnew, who received the society’s Founder’s Award. |
Van Allsburg was joined at the awards ceremony by first-time illustrator, Lincoln Agnew, who received the society’s Founder’s Award for his picture book Harry and Horsie (HarperCollins, 2009), about a boy’s spirited imagination.
“To have been juried into this exhibition is alone a major achievement and should be celebrated,” says Dilys Evan, who represents a number of book illustrators and is underwriter for the award. “To be selected by the founder’s jury as the most promising new talent is a tremendous vote of confidence in an artist ability and future in the field of children’s book illustrations.”
The book’s author, Katie Van Camp, based the main character on television host David Letterman’s son, Harry, for whom she was a nanny. Agnew, who says his work is influenced by Dr. Seuss, imparts a retro feel to his illustrations, which are reminiscent of Bill Watterson's, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes.
Some 547 books published between 2008 and 2009 were submitted to the Society of Illustrators, and judges whittled that down to 125 books to display at the 29th annual Original Art exhibit.
Only one of those books is eligible for the Society’s Gold Medal and two for its Silver Medal. Kadir Nelson received this year’s gold medal for Coretta Scott (HarperCollins, 2009), which, with its poetic text and monumental artwork, tells the story of the Civil Rights Movement. Nelson is a recipient of the society’s 2008 silver medal and his works have received
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A silver medal was awarded to Brian Floca for Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 (S & S, 2009), which School Library Journal gave a starred review and described as “Rendered in delicate lines and subtly modulated watercolors, the eye-filling illustrations allow viewers to follow the three astronauts as they lumber aboard their spacecraft for the blastoff and ensuing weeklong journey.”
The other silver medal went to Kevin Hawkes for his humorous book about animal bottoms, Chicken Cheeks (S & S, 2009), about which exhibit chair Andrew Glass says, “This was a choice the judges all could get behind.”
The exhibit will run at the society’s headquarters at 128 East 63rd Street in New York City until November 25, 2009.
