Click through to see tributes to some of the children’s authors, illustrators, and publishers who died this year.
Award-winning children’s book author and illustrator, fine artist, and educator Ashley Bryan, widely known for his passion for poetry and vibrant retellings of folktales and spirituals rooted in the Black oral tradition, died peacefully on February 4 while staying with relatives in Texas. He was 98.
Bobby Byrd, cofounder and publisher of Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso, Tex., died on July 11 at 80. The publishing house was established in 1985 and became a countercultural force, focusing on underrepresented authors of the border.
Young adult author Huntley Fitzpatrick, known for her realistic contemporary teen romances, died on April 8 following a long illness. She was 58.
Rising YA sci-fi and fantasy author Lani Forbes died on February 3 in Boise, Idaho, following a nine-month battle with neuroendocrine cancer. She was 35.
Award-winning British author-illustrator Shirley Hughes, best known for her picture books capturing the everyday experiences and emotions of young children in her realistic watercolors, died on February 25 at her home in London. She was 94.
Award-winning children’s author and illustrator Steve Jenkins, widely praised for his distinctive and detailed cut- and torn-paper collages depicting animals and the natural world, died on December 26 at age 69, of a splenic artery aneurysm.
Prolific children’s book illustrator and painter Leonard Kessler, known for his wide range of early readers, picture books, and concept books, died on February 16 at his home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 101.
Award-winning children’s book author Patricia MacLachlan, widely lauded for her spare, realistic stories about everyday family life, died on March 31 at her home in Williamsburg, Mass. She was 84.
Award-winning children’s book author Jim Murphy, best known for his carefully researched nonfiction documenting dramatic events in history through the experiences of young people of the time, died suddenly on May 1 at his home in Woodstock, N.Y. He was 74.
Author and illustrator Jill Pinkwater, best known for the humorous line drawings she created for many quirky chapter and picture books by her husband Daniel, died in Rhinebeck, N.Y., on October 4. She was 81.
Children’s author and multimedia visual artist Jeanne Steig, known for her witty retellings of fairy tales and myths, most of them illustrated by her late husband, cartoonist and author William Steig, died on July 26 in Quincy, Mass. She was 92.
Poet and author Ellen Wittlinger, whose YA novels have been praised for their depiction of memorable and realistic protagonists navigating the experiences of first love and other provocative issues of adolescence, died on November 17. She was 74.
