Faces:

Connecting to kids

Artist draws on his inner 9-year-old

Chris Raschka, answering the question of when he decided to make his life’s work writing and illustrating children’s books, replied with a small laugh, “I’m not sure if I have.”

Raschka is joking, of course. While he entered the world of children’s books unsure it would become a career, his quick success made it clear he had made a wise choice.

Chris Raschka draws a bunny with a “noble nose” (below) to teach young readers about the sense of smell in his book Five for a Little One (Atheneum , 2006).

A member of Trinity of Manhattan Lutheran Church , New York, Raschka illustrated The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster (Michael Di Capua Books, 2005), for which he won the 2006 Caldecott Medal. The award is given annually by the Association of Library Service to Children/American Library Association to the artist of the most distinguished picture book published in the U.S. during the preceding year.

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