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Barbara McClintock is an author and illustrator of children's picture books.
Her books have won 5 New York Times Best Books awards, a New York Times Notable Book citation,
a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor award, and numerous other awards, recommended/best book lists,
and starred reviews. Her books have been made into children's videos, a ballet/opera, and a recorded books on tape.
Some of her best known books are ADELE & SIMON, ADELE & SIMON IN AMERICA, DAHLIA, THE GINGERBREAD MAN ( written by Jim Aylesworth ), THE FANTASTIC DRAWINGS OF DANIELLE, ANIMAL FABLES FROM AESOP, and THE HEARTACES OF A FRENCH CAT.
Barbara drew constantly as a child. By the time she was seven, she knew she would be an artist when she grew up. Her older sister recommended she be a children's book illustrator, and this proved to be a rare instance when she folowed her sisters' advice. Barbara also wanted to be a cat when she grew up, and is glad she had art as a back up plan.
The first part of Barbara's growing up was in Clinton, NJ. Her early influences were her photographer father, seamstress/teacher mother, and the cartoon character Top Cat.
Barbara moved to North Dakota when she was 9 with her mother and sister after her parents divorced. She continued to draw throughout middle and high school, often in the margins of her test papers and homework.
Barbara attended Jamestown College in North Dakota, where she refined her drawing skills by copying pictures in art books she checked out of her college library.
Two weeks after her 20th birthday, Barbara moved to New York City to begin her career on the recommendation of Maurice Sendak, whom she called from North Dakota for advice about how to become a children's book illustrator.
Barbara studied briefly at the Art Student's League in New York. She continued to copy from art books she checked out from libraries, and sketched paintings and drawings in museums and galleries in New York, London, Paris, Vienna, and Lisbon. Barbara is essentially self-taught as an artist/illustrator.
After working early in her career for Jim Henson illustrating books for his television series FRAGGLE ROCK, Barbara wrote and illustrated THE HEARTACHES OF A FRENCH CAT. Rejected by 16 publishers before it was bought by David R. Godine, it won Barbara's first New York Times Best Books award.
She currently lives in rural Connecticut with the illustrator David A. Johnson, their two cats Pip and Emma, her son Larson when he isn't in China, and David's gorgeous rose garden. Barbara is at work on ADELE & SIMON IN CHINA, due out fall 2011.
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