Cynsations is celebrating its 20th anniversary by switching to a quarterly publishing schedule, featuring in-depth interviews and articles. Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm!
These author-illustrators died earlier this year and were not included in Cynsations spring/summer issue. We hope you find inspiration in their dedication to craft and lifelong commitment to create books for young readers.
CYN NOTE: We honor the memories and contributions of our friends and colleagues who have passed away. They helped carry the conversation of books forward. To each of them and all of them, we say thank you. To their readers, friends, and loved ones, we send our deepest sympathies.
Derek Anderson
“Author-illustrator Derek Anderson, known for his expressive and often humorous acrylics in Lauren Thompson’s Little Quack picture books and numerous self-illustrated books, died on April 26 in St. Paul, Minn. He was 55,” reported Publishers Weekly.
Anderson’s website documents his journey to children’s publishing that started when he graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in fine art in 1991. After several years of discouraging rejection letters, he developed a new strategy. After ditching the old folder he’d used to track publisher submission, he started a new one labeled, The Book Score, deciding to turn the whole thing into a game.
This shift in mindset took the pressure off. “He was free to develop his work and continue growing as a writer and artist. When a publisher sent him a rejection letter after that, he simply added it to his collection. His work grew stronger and more playful… and editors and art directors took notice. He soon began receiving letters of interest and calls about his work,” Anderson’s website states.
In 2001, he was offered a contract to illustrate an early reader for Random House. Ready? Set. Raymond! by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson was published the following year.
Anderson’s career catapulted with the publication of Little Quack by Lauren Thompson (Simon & Schuster, 2003). Anderson was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and the book grew into a series, selling millions of copies around the world.
He made his debut as an author-illustrator with the publication of Gladys Goes Out to Lunch (Simon & Schuster, 2005). He continued illustrating books written by other authors as well as those he worked on alone. His Hot Rod Hamster series, written by Cynthia Lord, won children’s choice awards in multiple states and is a Scholastic Book Fair favorite.
Anderson traveled the country visiting schools and libraries. His family included this quote in his online obituary,
“It’s important to give kids a glimpse into creating stories and pictures. It takes both patience and hard work to create anything. I want students to come away from my presentations knowing that if they’re willing to work hard and believe, they can do absolutely anything in this world.”
Nonny Hogrogian
“Children’s book author, illustrator, and designer Nonny Hogrogian, acclaimed for her vibrant woodcut and mixed-media artwork and twice awarded the Caldecott Medal, died on May 9 in Holyoke, Mass. She was 92,” reported Publishers Weekly.
Hogrogian was born in New York City to parents born in Armenia, both of whom were painters, according to The Armenian Mirror-Spectator. Hogrogian earned a bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Hunter College, then worked as a book designer at Thomas Y. Crowell Co. Her first illustrations—woodcuts—were published in King of the Kerry Fair by Nicolete Meredith (Crowell, 1960).
In 1966, Hogrogian won the Caldecott Medal for Always Room for One More, written by Sorche Nic Leodhas (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1965).
Six years later, Hogrogian again received the Caldecott, this time for One Fine Day (Macmillan, 1971), a book she wrote and illustrated. It’s inspired by an Armenian story of a woman who cuts off a fox’s tail when he steals her milk. After the fox helps a series of people and animals, the woman agrees to sew the tail back on.
The same year, Hogrogian married writer and editor David Kheridan. “Together they created over 30 illustrated children’s books, including Right Now (Knopf, 1983), The Cat Who Loved to Sing (Knopf, 1988), and The Animal (Knopf, 1984),” wrote The Armenian Weekly.
In 1977, Hogrogian received a Caldecott Honor for The Contest (Greenwillow, 1976), which she wrote and illustrated.
The Armenian Weekly shared an excerpt of Hogrogian’s memoir Finding My Name (Tavnon Press, 2004). It describes her first interview at Music & Arts High School when she was asked to do a contour drawing of a model, something she’d never done before, or even understood. After a brief failed attempt, the monitor refused to let her turn the paper over to try again. The incident inspired Hogrogian’s determination. Sitting in the back of her family car that summer on a road trip to California, she practiced.
“I sat in my corner with my feet on the back of the front seat, and with a sketch pad on my lap. I drew my feet in many, many different positions, and all in contour technique…. What I understood, that they seemed to have missed, was that although a person may have innate ability, inherited or otherwise, to do anything well takes a strong wish, hard work, and perseverance.”
Cynsational Notes
Gayleen Rabakukk holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and two regional interest books for adults. She is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
She serves as board member for Lago Vista’s Friends of the Library and also leads a book club for young readers at the library. She’s active in Austin SCBWI and has taught creative writing workshops for the Austin Public Library Foundation. She loves inspiring curiosity in young readers through stories of hope and adventure. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.