Eloise Wilkin

At work yesterday, there wasn't much for me to do. I was super productive anyways and made four hundred and fifty copies of a three-page packet, along with cleaning the office and organizing school supplies and getting keys made. And what else did I do? I went through countless children's books and organized them according to grade level and within grade level, alphabet.

I KNOW.

If you know anything about me, you know that I love organizing, a little too much maybe. If I could, I'd color-code my underwear and alphabetize my hundreds of books. I make lists in my sleep. So naturally, when Jane asked me to take on a book list (did I mention I'd get to type up the titles and authors, too?) I jumped on it. It was actually kind of fun, looking through so many good kids' books that I remembered from my childhood.



One illustrator that kept popping up on the book cart and making me smile was Eloise Wilkin. Remember her? Little Golden Books? I can still picture We Help Daddy, Baby's Christmas, and My Little Book About God. The muted landscapes and chubby baby fingers and cheeks mesmerized me when I was little. I'm sure we still have those Little Golden Books around here, somewhere. Seeing them all again yesterday just put a smile on my face for the rest of the afternoon.

Do you have a favorite children's illustrator/author? (I'm also thinking of Norman Bridwell, Stephen Kellogg, . . .) What about you?