Chris Raschka

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Chris Raschka (2013)

Christopher ( "Chris") Raschka (* 6. March 1959 in Huntingdon , Pennsylvania ) is an American illustrator and author , of the American children's literature major picture books has helped. For his illustrations for Norton Juster's book The Hello Goodbye Window , Raschka was awarded the most prestigious American price for picture books, the Caldecott Medal , in 2006; he received another Caldecott Medal in 2012 for A Ball for Daisy .

life and work

Chris Raschka grew up in the suburbs of Chicago , but spent part of his childhood in his mother's country of birth, Austria . After graduating from high school, he studied at St. Olaf College in Northfield , Minnesota, graduating in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in biology. 1981–1982 he worked as an intern at a pediatric orthopedic clinic in Germany. In the following years he earned his living with various jobs in different places, including a. in the US Virgin Islands . As a violist , he was part of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra ( Ann Arbor , Michigan) and the Flint Symphony Orchestra ( Flint , Michigan), but had to give up this career due to tendinitis . He also dropped his original plan to study medicine in 1986 in order to make illustrating his profession.

In 1992 Raschka published his first picture book at Orchard Books , an imprint of the Hachette Group : Charlie Parker Played Be Bop . The book already had all the features that became characteristic of many of his subsequent works: The rather reservedly designed pictures with crayons and watercolors accompany texts that often seem to contain nonsense , but come alive to full poetry as soon as they are read aloud in rhythmic chanting . In this debut, rhythmic language also served as a tool to give children an immediate, sensory impression of Charlie Parker's musical conception.

His book, Yo! Yes? , which is about loneliness and friendship, brought Raschka a Caldecott Honor Recognition . In 2005 he published the book The Hello, Goodbye Window , together with Norton Juster, who contributed the lyrics, which tells the story of a little girl who visits her grandparents with sensitivity to childlike perception and childlike experience. The Association for Library Service to Children awarded the book its 2006 Caldecott Medal.

In 2011, Raschka designed a picture book without words for the first time, A Ball for Daisy , the story of a white dog that loses its favorite toy but finds a friend. For this book he received a Caldecott Medal for the second time. Also in 2011 he published a book for older children for the first time, Seriously, Norman! The little novel, written with great wit, describes the madness of the everyday adult world from the perspective of a 12-year-old.

Raschka is married and has one grown son. He lives in New York City with his wife.

Publications (selection)

  • 1992 - Charlie Parker Played Be Bop (Orchard Books)
  • 1993 - Yo! Yes? (Orchard Books)
  • German: Hey! Yes? (Hanser, 1997)
  • 1994 - Elizabeth Imagined an Iceberg (Orchard Books)
  • 1995 - Can't Sleep (Orchard Books)
  • 1995 - The Blushful Hippopotamus (Orchard Books)
  • 1997 - Mysterious Thelonious (Orchard Books)
  • German: Mysterious Theolonius (Sanssouci, 1999)
  • 1998 - Arlene Sardine (Orchard Books)
  • 1999 - Like Likes Like (DK Publishing)
  • 1999 - with Dorothee Kreusch-Jacob: Kids! (Patmos, Düsseldorf)
  • 2000 - ring! Yo? (DK Publishing)
  • 2002 - John Coltrane's Giant Steps (Atheneum / Richard Jackson Books)
  • 2001 - Waffle (Atheneum)
  • 2005 - with Norton Juster (Author): The Hello Goodbye Window (Michael Di Capua Books)
  • 2005 - A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems (with Paul B. Janeczko; Candlewick)
  • 2006 - Five for a Little One (Atheneum)
  • 2008 - Peter and the Wolf (Atheneum)
  • 2009 - A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms (with Paul B. Janeczko; Candlewick)
  • 2011 - Good Sports: Rhymes about Running, Jumping, Throwing, and More (with Jack Prelutzky; Dragonfly Books)
  • 2011 - A Ball for Daisy (Schwartz & Wade Books)
  • 2011 - Seriously, Norman! (Scholastic)
  • 2013 - Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle (Schwartz & Wade Books)
  • 2017 - Skin Agrain (with Bell Hooks; Jump At The Sun)

Awards (selection)

  • 1992 - Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year, for Charlie Parker Played Be Bop
  • 1992 - Notable Children's Book (American Library Association), for Charlie Parker Played Be Bop
  • 1992 - Pick of the Lists (American Booksellers Association), for Charlie Parker Played Be Bop
  • 1994 - Caldecott Honor Book Award, for Yo! Yes?
  • 1994 - Unicef-Ezra Jack Keats Award, for Yo! Yes?
  • 2005 - Nomination for the Boston Globe / Horn Book Award, for The Hello, Goodbye Window
  • 2006 - Caldecott Medal, for The Hello, Goodbye Window
  • 2011 - Parent's Choice Award, for Seriously, Norman!
  • 2012 - Caldecott Medal, for A Ball for Daisy

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Improvisations: Picture Books by Chris Raschka. Retrieved August 26, 2016 .
  2. ^ Meg Wolitzer: Do-Over: Children's Books. In: The New York Times. November 10, 2011, accessed February 5, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Seriously, Norman! Retrieved August 26, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Raschka, Chris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Raschka, Christopher (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American children's book author and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Huntingdon , Pennsylvania