eceived two Caldecott Medals and one Honor
forThe Hello, Goodbye Window, by Norton
Juster; and for his own A Ball for Daisy; and his
Yo! Yes? Five of his titles have been named
New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s
Books, including Mysterious Thelonious and A
Poke in the I.
Chris Raschka
Chris Raschka never meant to be an illustrator.
Certainly he had no thought of becoming a
picture book artist. Though in his school days
he always drew and painted, he studied
science and was ready to enter a career in
medicine. But on the eve of that next step, he
understood that taking it would finally mean
the end of his painting life, which was after all
what he wanted most. So he just didn’t go.
Instead he opened the newspaper to find a
part-time job, one which happened to find him
his first steady employment as an illustrator:
illustrating all of the articles each month in a
law journal (his job had been factotum to a
private attorney). For the next three years he
created illustrations for magazines and
newspapers in Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan,
before moving to New York City.
This city would be the place he required to
complete his education. Chris Raschka has
created over sixty books for children. He has
He was the US nominee for the Hans Christian
Andersen Award in 2012 and 2016. Chris
Raschka was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania,
in the USA, in 1959. He studied biology, music,
and art, in Minnesota, and since 1989, has
lived with his family in New York City.
Chris Raschka’s illustrations have been exhibited
throughout the United States, including a
solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
in 2007 through 2008. In Europe his work has
appeared at Bad Berleburg, Germany, and in
Italy at Bologna, Padua, and Rome.
"We are as close as sienna is to umber and
umber is to ochre, which is to say, very close
indeed. We are made with the same strokes,
of the same materials. Peace is not that
hard.”
Chris Raschka | April 2018
It’s Not That Hard
Watercolor on colored paper
48 x 48 cm | 2017
www.nccil.org/artists/chris-raschka