The Mitten

Children's book author and illustrator Barbara McClintock was born in Clinton, New Jersey on May 6, 1955. She attended Jamestown College in North Dakota before moving to New York City on the recommendation of Maurice Sendak, whom she called to ask advice about how to become a children's book illustrator. She briefly studied at The Art Students League of New York.

Before meeting Jim Henson and illustrating books for his television series Fraggle Rock, she designed characters for television commercials for an animation studio and illustrated textbooks. Her first book, The Heartaches of a French Cat, won the New York Times Best Books Award. She won this award three more times as well as a Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor award for Dahlia. Her other works include Animal Fables from Aesop, The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle, The Gingerbread Man, Adele and Simon, Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, and The Battle of Luke and Longnose.

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