Jerry Pinkney, American illustrator and writer of children’s books, was born on Dec. 22, 1939, in Philadelphia. He was the middle child in a family of five.
Jerry Pinkney, American illustrator and writer of children’s books, was born on Dec. 22, 1939, in Philadelphia. He was the middle child in a family of five.
At the age of four, Jerry was a very good artist and his mom enrolled him in art classes. He struggled from dyslexia.
He met his future wife, Gloria Jean, while in high school and received a full scholarship to the Philadelphia University of Arts.
He worked for Rust Craft Greeting Card Company before opening his own freelance studio. He illustrated his first picture book, “The Adventures of Spider: West African Folk Tales,” in 1964. During the 1970s, he worked with the Postal Service on the Black Heritage Stamp Series. Jerry also taught at several colleges and universities, including the University of Delaware, The Pratt Institute in New York and the University at Buffalo, N.Y.
His illustrations brought more than one hundred children’s books to life, many with black children or images of black history and culture. He was one of the most respected illustrators in the group. One of his many awards included The Randolph Caldecott Medal for the year’s most distinguished picture book for children, “The Lion and the Mouse,” in 2010.
Jerry and Gloria have four children, Troy, Brian, Scott and Myles. They lived in Croton-on-Hudson in New York and he died Oct. 20, 2021, of a heart attack in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. at 81 years of age.
We have his B-2 book “The Lion and the Mouse” and his (JF) book “Rikki-tikki-tavi.”
