Kevin Henkes (pronounced HANK-us[6]) thought he would be an artist until his junior year of high school when one of his teachers encouraged him in his writing efforts. He discovered that children's books combined both his literary and artistic interests. Henkes writes and illustrates children's picture books, many of which feature mice as their main characters. He also writes middle-grade fiction. Henkes wrote his first book during his freshman year in college. The book's theme deals with how a child describes the pleasures of occasional solitude. This theme is common in many of Henkes' later books. Henkes, one of five children, says that many of his storylines are inspired by his family and the neighborhood where he grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. Henkes has written and illustrated around fifty critically acclaimed and award-winning picture books, early readers, and novels in his career thus far. Henkes' first book, All Alone, was published in 1981 by Greenwillow Books. More than 50 books followed, including Chrysanthemum and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. In 1994 Henkes was a runner-up for one of the premier American Library Association (ALA) children's book awards, the Caldecott Medal for Owen, one of his mouse books. In 2004, he was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal for Olive's Ocean. The next year he won the Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon, recognizing that as the year's best children's picture book published in the U.S. All of his books to date have been published by Greenwillow Books. Henkes won the inaugural Phoenix Picture Book Award in 2013 for Owen. The Phoenix Awards from the Children's Literature Association recognize the best books that did not win major awards when they were first published twenty years earlier.[7][8] In 2014, he received a Newbery Honor for his book, The Year of Billy Miller.[9] In 2020 Henkes was awarded the ALA's Children's Literature Legacy Award, celebrating his entire body of work.[10] Henkes and his wife, Laura Dronzek, have been collaborating on a series of picture books based on the four seasons. Henkes writes the story, while Dronzek provides the acrylic painting illustrations. The next title expected is Winter is Here.[11]
Early and personal life
Henkes was born November 27, 1960, in Racine, Wisconsin.[2] He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[12] He lives in Madison with his wife, artist Laura Dronzek, and their two children.[13]
Awards and honors
Henkes has won numerous awards for both his books and as an author. In 2007, Henkes delivered the Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, an honor bestowed upon "an individual of distinction in the field of children’s literature ... chosen to write and deliver a lecture that will make a significant contribution to the world of children’s literature."[14] In 2008, he won the Council for Wisconsin Writers' Major Achievement Award.[15] In 2009, he was a finalist for the Astrid Lindgren Prize[16] and won the Jeremiah Ludington Award, which honors "an individual who has made a significant contribution to the paperback book business."[17] Lastly, in 2020, he won the Children’s Literature Legacy Award honoring an author or illustrator, published in the United States, whose books have made a "significant and lasting contribution to literature for children."[5] In 1987, Library of Congress named Once Around the Block one of the Best Books of the Year. In 2017, the American Booksellers Association inducted Kitten's First Full Moon into their Picture Book Hall of Fame.[18]The Year of Billy Miller was a New York Times bestselling book.[19]Kirkus Reviews and The Horn Book Magazine named it one of the best books of 2013.[19][20]Waiting was a New York Times bestselling book.[21]Kirkus Reviews and The Horn Book named it one of the best books of 2013.[21][20]The Horn Book has included many of Henkes's other books on their lists of the best children's books of the year: Jessica (1989), Julius, the Baby of the World (1990), Chrysanthemum (1991), Words of Stone (1992), Owen (1993), Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse (1996), Olive’s Ocean (2003), A Good Day (2007), Old Bear (2008), Birds (2009), Penny and Her Doll (2012), Penny and Her Marble (2013), Waiting (2015), Egg (2017), A Parade of Elephants (2018), Penny and Her Sled (2019), Billy Miller Makes a Wish (2021), and Oh, Sal (2022).[20]
Awards for Henkes's books
Year
Title
Award
Result
Ref.
1986
Grandpa & Bo
Council of Wisconsin Writers Children’s Book Award
