On this day in 2003, children\u2019s author and illustrator Robert McCloskey, whose books include such classics as \u201cMake Way for Ducklings\u201d and \u201cBlueberries for Sal,\u201d dies at age 88 in Deer Isle, Maine.<\/p>\n
Born in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1914, McCloskey studied art in Boston and New York in the 1930s. He published his first children\u2019s book, \u201cLentil,\u201d about a small-town boy who learns to play the harmonica, in 1940. His next book, \u201cMake Way for Ducklings,\u201d released in 1941, is the story of a family of ducklings (Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack) who waddle after their mother through the streets of Boston before making a permanent home in the city\u2019s Public Garden. Explaining his inspiration for the story, McCloskey told The New York Times: \u201dI had first noticed the ducks when walking through the Boston Public Garden every morning on my way to art school. When I returned to Boston four years later, I noticed the traffic problem of the ducks and heard a few stories about them. The book just sort of developed from there.\u201d In preparation for the book, McCloskey bought some live ducks to study and sketch. In 1942, \u201cMake Way for Ducklings\u201d won a Caldecott Medal, one of the top honors for American children\u2019s books. In 1987, a bronze sculpture of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings was installed in the Boston Public Garden.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 1943, McCloskey published \u201cHomer Price,\u201d about the adventures of a boy in small-town Ohio. \u201cCenterburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer Price\u201d followed in 1951. McCloskey\u2019s other books, each set in Maine, where he lived with his wife and daughters for much of his life, include: \u201cBlueberries for Sal\u201d (1948), about a girl and a bear cub and their mothers hunting for berries; \u201cOne Morning in Maine\u201d (1952), about a little girl who loses her first tooth; Caldecott Medal-winner \u201cTime of wonder\u201d (1957), about children spending their summer vacation on an island off the coast of Maine; and \u201cBurt Dow: Deep-Water Man\u201d (1963) about a fisherman who finds shelter from a storm in a whale\u2019s belly.<\/p>\n
In addition to the eight books he wrote and illustrated, McCloskey illustrated 10 children\u2019s books penned by other authors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On this day in 2003, children\u2019s author and illustrator Robert McCloskey, whose books include such classics as \u201cMake Way for Ducklings\u201d and \u201cBlueberries for Sal,\u201d dies at age 88 in Deer Isle, Maine. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1914, McCloskey studied art in Boston and New York in the 1930s. He published his first children\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3513],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}