Lois Ehlert was born November 9, 1934, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and the Layton School of Art. She has also worked as an art teacher, freelance illustrator, and designer. She has created 38 books for young reader and is known for her colorful collage artwork. Her work as an author and an illustrator has appeared in countless publications and has received numerous awards and honors.
In addition to creating books, Ehlert has produced toys, games, clothes for children, posters, brochures, catalogs, and banners. She has received the Caldecott Honor Book, 1989, for Color Zoo, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for Snowballs, the Booklist Editors' Choice for Cuckoo/Cucú: A Mexican Folktale/Un Cuento Folklórico Mexicano, the IRA Teachers' Choice and NCTE Notable Children's Trade Book in the Language Arts for Feathers for Lunch, the American Library Association Notable Children's Book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
The first book that she wrote and illustrated was Growing Vegetable Soup (1987). Some of her other works include Planting a Rainbow (2003), Feathers for Lunch (1996), Snowballs (1999), Leaf Man (2005), Moon Rope/ Un Lazo de Luna (2003), which is based on a Peruvian folktale, and Rrralph (2013), Rain Fish (2016), and Heart to Heart (2017).
Lois Ehlert died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 25, 2021. She was 86.
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