Wilder AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

want to thank the American Henderson, North Carolina. Their farm Library Association and the As- roots produced people with the need I sociation for Library Service to and ability to find inventive solutions Children—especially the Laura Ingalls to everyday problems. Those solutions Wilder Committee—for selecting me had to be crafted from whatever ma- for this award. Thank you to the chair, terials were at hand. Artistic solutions Karen Nelson Hoyle, and to Christo- sometimes; practical solutions always. pher Brown, Kathleen Horning, Jane Marino, and Ellen Hunter Ruffin. And My mother was an accomplished special thanks to Greenwillow Books, seamstress. She worked in the gar- from the beginning until now, for our ment industry in Newark and was long and wonderful association. apparently one of their best workers. She followed patterns and preset in- I was astonished when I got the call structions and found creative alterna- informing me of your choice. Truly I tives when she had to. I remember her thought it must be a mistake. Thank- turning brightly colored feed bags into fully it was not. I cannot consider ac- cotton dresses for my sisters. cepting this honor you’ve given me Donald Crews received the 2015 without sharing it with my late wife, Almost every year we spent the sum- (Laura Ingalls) Wilder Medal for his Ann Jonas. Without her, I would not mer months in Florida, at my grand- substantial and lasting contribution have begun the journey toward this parents’ farm. As I wrote in my book to literature for children. His place nor been able to stay the course Bigmama’s, “We called our Grandma acceptance remarks were delivered that got me here. Bigmama, not that she was big, but at the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder she was Mama’s Mama.” She didn’t Banquet on Sunday, June 28, The journey has been long and won- read well, and my ability to read to her 2015, during the American Library derful. How did we do it? I’m not a impressed her. She declared early on Association Annual Conference. believer in destiny, although it might that I was clever and smart and would look that way from what I am about someday be somebody. Of course, to say. most Bigmamas say that about their grandsons. But I didn’t know that then Yogi Berra, the legendary New York and considered it as a prophecy meant Yankees catcher famous for his apho- for me alone. Failure was impossible. risms, said, “When you come to a fork My mother, as well, was always very in the road, take it.” We did. encouraging. She passed away in 2009 at the age of 105. She especially liked my My family lived in Newark, New Jersey. autobiographical books—Bigmama’s Both my parents have Southern back- and Shortcut. My father took a more grounds. My mother was from Cotton- nuanced view and mostly wanted me dale, Florida, and my father was from just to succeed at something. He was

Author and illustrator Donald Crews was born in Newark N.J. to a dressmaker and For more information railroad trackman. He graduated from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science about the Wilder Award, visit and Art in New York City in 1959. His first book,We Read: A to Z, was published in http://bit.ly/wilder-medal. 1967, and is still in print. Crews is a two-time Caldecott honoree for Freight Train, a 1979 Honor Book, and Truck, a 1981 Honor Book. Crews married author/illustrator Ann Jonas and they had two daughters, Nina, also a children’s book creator, and Amy.

FUN FACT: Donald was drafted into the U. S. Army and was sent, in 1963, to Frankfurt, Germany, where he married Ann Jonas, also a Cooper Union graduate. Wilder AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

not specific about what that might be. He Union, you will take the test, you will be worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad by admitted, and you will do well.” Then he night and as an independent small-job walked away. Once again, failure was im- provider during the day. His work on the possible. We stayed in touch until his death. SELECTED TITLES railroad got us free passage for our yearly BY DONALD CREWS trips to Florida. Fork in the Road

As children, our lives in Newark were spent Cooper Union was a fantastic place to mainly in school or playing on the streets. be in the fifties. It was full of like-minded Our apartment was very small. We made students and instructors who appreciated our own wagons and scooter, forts and willing learners. It was an ideal place from cabins. We staged plays and made the cos- which to discover museums and music tumes and scenery. We made one working and film and the electric environment of bicycle out of two that didn’t work, and New York City. Our graphics instructor, Ten Black Dots. one scooter out of a pair of skates. It might Rudolph de Harak, gave each student a Crews, Donald. have been possible to buy some of those private evaluation early on in his class. Illus. by the author. things, but not as much fun. When my turn came he said, “Don, you Scribner, 1968 don’t have very much talent, but you do We all did fairly well in school, but I devel- have the determination to stay with a oped a tendency to doodle in the margins problem until you make something of it.” of papers instead of solving the problem Later he denied having said it, but I con- at hand. My mother was summoned to sidered it a compliment. school for consultation more than once. Our school had a small library, and indi- Ann and I met in the second-year graph- vidual classrooms had books. Art was a part ics class. We had an immediate attrac- Freight Train of most days, and Saturday art classes were tion and quickly became fast friends. We Crews, Donald. available at Newark’s Arts High School. We shared a reserved reluctance about ex- Illus. by the author. had books at home—lots of books illustrat- changing personal information—except Greenwillow, 1978 ed with pictures, which extended the plea- with each other. We graduated in 1959. sure and understanding of the words. Ann went to work in Rudy de Harak’s graphic design offices right after gradu- Fork in the Road ation, having been without a doubt the most talented of his students. In late 1959 I applied to and was accepted at Newark’s he hired me as assistant art director at Arts High School. This magnet school at- Dance Magazine, where he was the art tracted students from a citywide pool and director. My job required meetings in his opened the possibility of new friends. design offices, which brought Ann and Truck The most significant person for me was me together again. Our friendship blos- Crews, Donald. a teacher I met my senior year: Seymour somed into a lifelong love affair lasting Illus. by the author. Landsman. He was instructional and in- fifty-one years. We did briefly discuss the Greenwillow, 1980 spirational and patient. He introduced us social impediments of a black/white rela- to art and culture. We read the New Yorker tionship, but we decided that we had no and designed covers for it. We copied art problem with it and would avoid anyone from books and posters. He got us into the who did. Our now-friend Rudy suggested habit of reading the New York Times and that since we were artists, nontraditional taking advantage of the Newark Museum. behavior was expected from us—and was even an asset. Nothing major ever seri- At some point that year he asked me about ously challenged our lives. Bigmama’s. my plans after graduation, and then he sug- Crews, Donald. gested—no, announced—the plan I should I was drafted in 1961—drafted and de- Illus. by the author. follow. He said, “You will apply to Cooper ployed to Frankfurt, Germany. Ann and I Greenwillow, 1991 Wilder AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

talked about what this would do to our rela- campaign. We did jackets for such books Fork in the Road tionship. She decided that ending it was not as Adventures in Electrochemistry and In- an option. Shortly after I left for Germany, troduction to Thermodynamics. Very few I took his advice and began to think she placed her cats in a good home and authors of those books ever thought to about another picture book. The re- came to Frankfurt to work and be near me. comment on the success or failure of our sult was Freight Train. I submitted it to cover choices. Among the first art directors Greenwillow Books, where both Libby Fork in the Road, for Us Both I met was Ava Weiss, who is miraculously and Ava now were, and they and Susan here tonight. She gave me some of my first Hirschman responded to the dummy We were married after about six months assignments, and when they were com- with the kind of enthusiasm that keeps in Germany. Our first daughter, Nina, was pleted she’d look at them and proclaim creative juices flowing. Susan wanted to born there. As a married soldier I lived that I was a genius. Failure was impossible. buy Freight Train before she had seen off-post and had time to refurbish and I would duck into her office sometimes on the entire dummy, but I told her she rework my portfolio. Some of my favor- the way to other appointments, for a “ge- couldn’t have it until she had looked at ite designers—Paul Rand, Bruno Munari, nius” recharge. all of it. and Charles Eames—had worked on projects for children. I decided I would In due course, I met the editor Elizabeth Freight Train was the first book in my new include a book for children in the mix Shub at Harper & Row. She asked if I had career as a full-time children’s book cre- of samples of what I could do. I was en- ever considered doing a picture book. ator. And largely due to the attention it amored of the spare, abstract approach I said that I had done one, but not for received from librarians—from all of you of the Swiss Design movement, and so I publication (not a really proactive re- here tonight—it was a good beginning. used abstract images to introduce the al- sponse). Libby insisted on seeing it, and After that, the things that had pleased me phabet and words in a book I called We she passed it on to Ursula Nordstrom. as a child—trucks, planes, boats, buses, Read: A to Z. The German couple with We Read: A to Z was published by Harper and bicycles—seemed like appropriate whom we shared our house was very ex- in 1967. I was elated but not yet con- subjects. Many of my books are taught in cited by it and suggested I submit it to vinced that children’s books should be school and catalogued as transportation, German publishing houses. I did—and it my main focus, so Ann and I continued and that’s fine with me. I enjoy finding the was promptly and reasonably rejected. It as freelance designers. But I was curious exciting details of a vehicle’s trip through was, after all, a primer written in English. enough about my ability to create some- thirty-two pages. The German rejections were all very po- thing else for children—this time in- lite and in German, and since I didn’t read tending it for publication from the start. The only figures in those early books a lot of German, the sting of rejection was I designed and illustrated Ten Black Dots, were drivers and pilots and engineers. minimal. And the book was, of course, an introduction to basic numbers. Libby Then, in 1983, in Parade, I added a cam- simply meant to be a portfolio piece. had moved to Scribners by then, and it eo of myself—a sort of Hitchcock mo- was published there in 1968. ment. And once I started adding figures Fork in the Road to my stories, I thought I could make Fork in the Road people the central characters. In the au- Back in the USA, we were now four peo- tobiographical books, Bigmama’s and ple: Ann and me and our two daughters, As a design organization, Ann and I were, Shortcut, I had the opportunity to put Nina and Amy. Ann was determined that at best, not first call. We had a good repu- a physical black presence in my books. we could find freelance work that would tation for creativity and reliability, but My world is full of black people, and they make the most of our talents. “We’ll eat,” we never got major assignments. A good had always been in my books when a she said. While Ann stayed home with the friend, John Condon, had some advice for person was needed. But now they were children, I secured jobs for us to work on. me. He explained that, as we both knew, the very subject of the book—the lead We designed jackets for adult and young freelance work was ephemeral and that characters of the story. The locale in adult books, college texts, and mysteries. styles changed. He said, “Find something both books is Cottondale, and the char- We designed record covers and brochures that only you can do, and be the only one acters are my grandparents, my mother, and all matter of printed material. We who can supply it.” What came to my brother, sisters, and cousins. I was back even provided the art for a congressional mind was my books. to my beginning. Wilder AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

My decision to focus all my attention she was. Round Trip, Reflections, and The accomplished what we had started. I can’t on books caused the number of outside Quilt speak for themselves. say that too loudly or too often. jobs to dwindle. Ann needed to continue creating, and I suggested that she try Ann is the love of my life—first, last, and Any honor that comes to me I unreserv- a picture book. She did, and she was always. She is, as I said at the beginning, edly share with her. And we would not successful, as I knew she would be. most responsible for giving me—us—the have made this journey without all of you. Convincing her to use her maiden name courage to try to be successful artists in We thank you. was a bit of a problem. I wanted her to New York. She supplied the will to stay on be appreciated on her own merits—and course and to try and try again until we

2015 LAURA INGALLS WILDER AWARD COMMITTEE Karen Nelson Hoyle, Chair, Emerita, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minn. Christopher A. Brown, Free Library of Philadelphia Kathleen T. Horning, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison Jane B. Marino, The Nyack (N.Y.) Library For more information about the Wilder Ellen Hunter Ruffin, deGrummond Children’s Literature Collection, Award, visit http://bit.ly/wilder-medal University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg