COEHD News

Caldecott Medal Winners visit COEHD

By deborahswolfe@gmail.com | Date: December 06, 2012

Caldecott Medal Winners author Candace Fleming and illustrator Eric Rohmann joined forces and presented, “Working Alone, Working Together” on December 5, 2012 at the College of Education and Human Development. The couple spoke about the creative process and showed their latest collaboration, the picture book, “Oh No!” Over 150 students and members of the community attended the event.

To view a photo album of the event, click here.

Fleming is a the prolific and versatile author of more than twenty books for children, including Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! (Atheneum/Anne Schwartz Books, 2002), Boxes for Katje (FSG, 2003),The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School (Random House/Schwartz and Wade, 2007) and The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary (Random House/Schwartz and Wade, 2008). The modern classic Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! was named to the New York Public Library’s list of 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know.

Rohmann is very familiar with the Caldecott Medal. In 1999, Rohmann was awarded a Caldecott Honor for Time Flies. The 2003 Caldecott Medal was Rohmann’s for My Friend Rabbit. As a boy, Eric read Wanda Gag, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Maurice Sendak, J.R.R. Tolkien, George Herriman, and any comic book he could get his hands on. Not always being the best of students, Eric kept busy drawing fancy machines, monsters, knights, dinosaurs, and ships. Now an adult, Rohmann’s résumé includes being a painter, printmaker, fine bookmaker, and former teacher. When asked why he writes and illustrates children’s books, Rohmann answers, “Children are the best audience: they are curious, enthusiastic, impulsive, generous, and pleased by simple joys. They laugh easily at the ridiculous and are willing to believe the absurd.” Rohmann lives in Chicago, Illinois.