If you are a late baby boomer or a baby boomer with kids there is a good chance you have either read or been read a children’s book illustrated by Eric Carle.
For me it was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (1967, his first illustrated book) which was in heavy rotation when my daughter was about a year old.
The Tacoma Art Museum is having an exhibit of his work through January 21, 2007
If you are driving up to Seattle or down to Portland or beyond it might be worth a quick pit stop in Tacoma.
Beside his stature as one of America’s leading book illustrators Carle should also be commended for his efforts in creating the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, a museum dedicated solely to the illustrated story. This subject has been and remains one of the strongest fields of book collecting with the yearly Caldecott Medal being one of the most prestigious awards in the book world.
Some Eric Carle factoids:
71 million copies of Carle’s books have been sold around the world.
Carle has illustrated over 70 books
Carle has yet to win a Caldecott Medal
Carle began his career working as a graphic designer in the promotion department of The New York Times