Kevin Henkes

Kevin Henkes was just nineteen when he took All Alone, a book that he had produced for a college class, and headed off to New York with hopes of a publishing deal. He quickly landed a contract with Greenwillow Books and has published over fifty books since then, including Kitten’s First Full Moon, a Caldecott Medal winner.

Most of Henkes’s picture books feature a cast of mice, including Chrysanthemum (from the book of the same name) and Lilly (of Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse fame). “My stories became more humorous, and I thought I could better tap the humor if I used animals,” he says. A highly acclaimed writer and illustrator, Henkes received the Caldecott Honor for Owen (1993) and Waiting (2015), as well as Newbery Honors for both Olive’s Ocean (2001) and The Year of Billy Miller (2013). He was also awarded the American Library Association’s Children’s Literature Legacy Award in 2020 for his significant and lasting contribution to the field.

“Books are often the first exposure to art that children have. Keeping that in mind urges me to make the very best books possible. I know how important the books from my childhood were (and are) to me. Without them, I might not be a writer and artist today,” Henkes says. “Sometimes I’ll hear from a parent about how a book of mine has insinuated itself into the heart of his or her child, or how a phrase from one of my books has become part of the family’s daily jargon. I love that. But most of all, I love sitting alone in a quiet room drawing and painting and writing. I love my job.”

Related Exhibitions: Lilly and Friends: Kevin Henkes (1999)