Robert McCloskey was born in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1914 and spent his working life moving between Boston, New York, and the coast of Maine. He studied art at the Vesper George Art School and the National Academy of Design before a conversation with children's book editor May Massee nudged him toward picture books. He never quite considered himself a writer first; as he put it, he thought up stories in pictures and filled in the words around them.
His eight books, which he both wrote and illustrated, lean on places he knew intimately. The Boston setting of Make Way for Ducklings (1941) and the small-town Ohio of Lentil (1940) and the Homer Price stories carry the energy of a kid poking at the world. The four Maine books, including Blueberries for Sal (1948) and Time of Wonder (1957), slow down to follow the light on the water, the texture of blueberry leaves, the patience of tides. The illustrations, rendered in sepia lithography or soft watercolor depending on the book, favor careful observation over spectacle.
Make Way for Ducklings won the 1942 Caldecott Medal and Time of Wonder a second in 1958, making him the first author to hold two. Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, and Journey Cake, Ho! earned Caldecott Honors. The Library of Congress named him a Living Legend in 2000. The duck family lives on as a bronze sculpture in the Boston Public Garden, and the book became the official children's book of Massachusetts in 2003.
Start with Make Way for Ducklings. The pace of the ducklings waddling down Beacon Street, the one-sentence pages that pull you forward, and that final crossing where four policemen stand in the intersection is pure storytelling craft. If you want the quieter, painterly side, Time of Wonder rewards a slow read.
