Favorite childrens' book authors? Or illustrators?

[victoria]

I'm interested in getting a list of good authors... something I'm enjoying now, and I've done in the past, is getting all the different books I can from a single author, from the library, and reading them to my kids. I think it is really interesting to read lots of different things by one author, you usually learn something about them as a person and get insight into their writing or illustrating style.

I'm specifically thinking picture books, but am interested in chapter book authors too :).

Right now we are getting a lot of different books by Tomie dePaola, and I am going back to Jan Brett books. We've read all the Jan Brett books from our library branch, and I'm probably going to go online and request any titles from both of these authors at our library's other branches. Tomie dePaola has written and illustrated several picture books that are autobiographical in nature and I really like that. It's fun to explain to my 5 year old that this story is really true and it's about the author when he was a little boy.

So, which children's authors or illustrators are your favorites?

[Hawthorne]

I have several favorites, but the first that springs to mind is Eloise Wilkin. I'm also a huge fan of Tasha Tudor (though her books have jumped in price since her death), and Beatrix Potter. I tend to be pretty old-school in my choices (if you want really old-school, Jessie Wilcox Smith), but I just love children's book illustrations, so I'd be more pressed to say I didn't care for a particular author and/or illustrator. I'm looking forward to seeing what others post.

[Kim]

Eve Bunting and Cynthia Rylant are two of our favorites. NT

[jerzymama]

I absolutely loved Janell Cannon's Verdi and Stellaluna.

[gfrach]

Picture books (not already mentioned):

David Wiesner (love so so many of his books!)
Dav Pilkey (love many of his books, too--not not not Capt Underpants, LOL!)
Graeme Base
Helen Lester
Robert Kraus
Don and Audrey Wood (together and separate)


I'll add more if I think of any.

[bannanabette]

Mo Willems is a favorite over here.

[lunita]

Arnold Lobel
William Steig
Bill Peet (he has a fun autobiography in addition to his picture books, and the book Cappyboppy is also autobiographical in nature.)
Virginia Lee Burton
Peggy Rathmann
David Shannon
(the last two don't have a ton of books out, but they're fun.)

Tomie dePaola's chapter books are good too, if you haven't delved into that side of his work yet.

[Stacey]

Somehow I don't think your library will carry many authors from New Zealand, but I'll suggest Margaret Mahy and Lynley Dodd :-) nt

[saffron]

So, which children's authors or illustrators are your favorites?

Authors
Robert Munsch
Shirley Hughes
Elsa Beskow
Robert San Souci
James Mayhew

Illustrators
Gennady Spirin
Elisa Kleven
Giselle Potter
Paul Zelinsky
Julie Vivas

Another fun thing that we did once was to read the Cinderella story from a variety of cultures. We probably read 10-15 different versions.

[Kim]

My kids love Dodd's Slinky Malinky! NT

[boomerang]

Mo Willems!!
Melanie Watt - especially the Scaredy Squirrel books
Ian Falconer
Matt & Jennifer Holm
Lillian Hoban (I love the Frances books and feel very nostalgic about them, but it's been harder to get my boys to share the love)
Patricia Polacco
Sandra Boynton
Eric Carle
Maurice Sendak
Jon Scieszka (my husband's favorite)
Kevin Henkes

And because its my favorite part of my job, I cannot go through a discussion about children's books without recommending the latest and greatest: I have to put in a HUGE plug for this book "Binky the Space Cat" by Ashley Spires. It's a graphic novel format and I hear it's supposed to be a series. I brought this home one day and was reading it to the two younger kids while Logan was playing a video game - having heard so much laughter my too-cool-for-little-kid-books :eyeroll2: 12 year old had to come over and listen. It's a winner.

[Chryse]

Lauren Child (she is the author of the Charlie and Lola books, which Teagan loves, but she loves her other non-Charlie and Lola books even more)
Mo Willems
Melanie Watt