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Donald Crews is an American illustrator and writer of children's picture books.
Donald Crews is an American author and illustrator who was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1938 and was raised in the greater New York City area.

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Donald Crews facts for kids

Donald Crews (born August 30, 1938) is an American illustrator and writer of children's picture books. In 2015, the American Library Association (ALA) honored him with the Children's Literature Legacy Award, recognizing his lasting contribution to children's literature.

His works Freight Train (1978) and Truck (1980) were Caldecott Honor recipients.

Early life

Donald Crews was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1938. His mother worked as a seamstress, and his father worked at the railroad and several other odd jobs. Raised in Newark, Crews spent summers at his grandparents' home in rural Cottondale, Florida, with his mother and three siblings. These summers were inspiration for the autobiographical books Bigmama's (1991) and Shortcut (1992).

Encouraged by a high school teacher, Crews pursued art as a career. He attended Cooper Union in New York City and graduated in 1959. While at Cooper Union, Crews met his future wife, graphic artist Ann Jonas.

Career

Crews was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1963, and sent to Frankfurt, Germany. While in Ge

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Donald Crews, Ann Jonas, and Nina Crews

Boyhood summers spent in Cottondale, Florida, at his grandparents', with his mother and siblings, constituted a considerable departure from the family's life in Newark, New Jersey, where Donald Crews was born in 1938. Years later, the compelling books that Crews would write about his Cottondale summers would be a dramatic shift from his previous picture books. The annual train trips south provided Crews with a visual experience that would first inspire him to create the graphic concept book, Freight Train (1978); later, he relived the summers by writing and illustrating two autobiographical books about the Florida experiences, Bigmama's (1991) and Shortcut (1992).

In between trips to Cottondale, Crews spent his formative years in Newark with an older brother and two sisters, one younger, the other older. While his mother worked as a seamstress, also designing and making clothing for his sisters and herself, Crews's father worked both for the railroad and as a jack-of-all-trades. Both parents used artis

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During picture book month, our spotlight is on Donald Crews, an award-winning author and illustrator. Recently, Crews received the 2015 Wilder Award, which recognizes recipients for their “substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.”

Crews, a native of New Jersey, is the son of a railroad worker and seamstress. His father’s profession and his mother’s family would later figure prominently in some of his most celebrated books. As a child, he read a lot of comics and eventually developed an interest in art. He recalled that his teachers nurtured his skills. One high school teacher mentored and challenged him to go to art school and assisted him with obtaining all the information needed for enrollment. Crews believes that “teachers are the first people who can show confidence in children outside of family members—and the opinions of outsiders usually make a stronger impression than relatives.”

Crews graduated from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and worked as a graphic artist but was later drafted into the military and sent to Germany.