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