• Home
• Writers
• Anita Lobel

Anita Lobel Writer

Anita Lobel (née Kempler; born June 2, 1934) is a Polish-American illustrator of children's books, including A New Coat for Anna, This Quiet Lady, Alison's Zinnia, and On Market Street, which won a Caldecott Honor for illustrations. One Lighthouse, One Moon, one of three books she created about her cat, Nini, is a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. Her childhood memoir, No Pretty Pictures, was a finalist for the National Book Award.She was born in Krakow, Poland, to a merchant family. When she was five years old, World War II began and she, her brother and their nanny, whom they called Niania, were forced into hiding for the next four and a half years, first in the countryside, then in a ghetto, and finally in a convent, where the Nazis caught them. She and her brother were then sent to a concentration camp in Germany. They were rescued in 1945 by the Swedish Red Cross and reunited with their parents in 1947. Though she could read and write, Lobel didn't begin school until age 13. In 1952, her family moved from Sweden to New York where she graduated from high school and earned a B.F.A. in fine arts from Pratt Institute. While taking part in a school play at Pratt, she met her future husband, Arnold Lobel, who was the play's director.After graduation, she worked for several years as a textile designer until Susan Hirschman asked her to make a book. Published in 1965, Sven's Bridge was the first book she wrote and illustrated. The illustrations include examples of Swedish folk designs from the author's childhood. Her third book, Potatoes, Potatoes, is based partly on her childhood in Poland, and her fourth book, The Troll Music, "was mainly inspired by the bottom parts of medieval tapestries with all the vegetation and little animals running around."For many years, she worked with her husband, author-illustrator Arnold Lobel, until his death in 1987. With him she had two children: a daughter, Adrianne, who was married to actor Mark Linn-Baker; a son, Adam; and three grandchildren. Their first and second collaborations were How the Rooster Saved the Day and A Treeful of Pigs. She received a Caldecott Honor in 1982 for another, On Market Street.After her husband's death, she went onto to write and illustrate Alison's Zinnia's and the book Away from Home, a companion piece focusing on boys rather than girls. In 1998, she produced No Pretty Pictures, which is a memoir of her childhood. The story begins in 1939, when she was five years old, and continues through 1947, when she and her brother were reunited with their parents. After that, she illustrated a counting book, One Lighthouse, One Moon. Throughout this time, she has illustrated works of other authors, including Charlotte S. Huck and Kevin Henkes.She has received three Best Illustrated Book selections from the New York Times Book Review, in 1965 for Sven's Bridge, in 1981 for On Market Street, and in 2000 for One Lighthouse, One Moon. How the Rooster Saved the Day is a New York Times Outstanding Book selection for 1977. She received two Boston Globe/Horn Book Awards for illustration, first for On Market Street, and later in 1984 for The Rose in My Garden. On Market Street also received a Caldecott Honor Book Award, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award (illustration), and is an American Book Award finalist. No Pretty Pictures has also won many awards, including a National Book Award, a Judy Lopez Memorial Medal for Children's Literature, an Orbis Pictus Award, a Golden Kite Award, a Sydney Taylor Award Honor Book, a Booklist editor's choice, a River Bank Review Children's Books of Distinction finalist, an American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults citation, and a Gradiva Award for Best Memoir.