Willie and Uncle Bill

Author-illustrator Amy Schwartz, best known for her warm, humorous tales with a kid-centered point of view, and her pen-and-ink artwork, died suddenly on February 26 at her home in Brooklyn. She was 68.

Schwartz was born April 2, 1954 in San Diego. She began her art studies at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She transferred to the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, where she majored in drawing and earned her B.F.A. in 1976. Schwartz illustrated The Breakfast Book (1979) as well as a second title for Chronicle Books. She was working as a production assistant at Simon & Schuster when her first picture book, Bea and Mrs. Jones was published by Bradbury Press in 1982. That same year the book was cited in the New York Public Library¿s selection of 100 Best Children¿s Books.

Throughout the 1980s Schwartz was especially prolific, writing and illustrating her own books as well as illustrating works by other authors including Amy Hest, Eve Bunting, and her father, Henry Schwartz, with whom she would eventually collaborate on four projects. This steady schedule allowed her to write and illustrate books full-time.

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