McGranahan (1999) and Aunt Minnie and the Twister (2002) - about an irrepressible spinster. Betsy Lewin has also collaborated with Mary Skillings Prigger in two jocular stories - Aunt Minnie Farmer Brown’s cows’ unusual typing skills set off a tale that rings with hilarity and ends with an unexpected - and even funnier - twist. This hilarious spoof on modern technology and labor relations received a Caldecott Honor award.

In 2000, she teamed with author Doreen Cronin to create Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type. Humor filters through most of the artist’s work. The loose strokes Betsy Lewin uses give her images a natural expression, energizing the page, and her smoothly integrated colors add gentleness. Gorilla Walk (1999) for example, features Betsy’s field sketches alongside Ted’s watercolor illustrations of the huge magnificent beasts they saw in Uganda.Ĭlick, Clack, Moo Cows That Type – Betsy Lewin 2000 Sometimes these journeys have culminated in producing a book together for the peripatetic husband and wife. Booby Hatch (1995) is based on experiences in the Galapagos Islands, Chub- bo’s Pool (1998) on a visit to Botswana, What’s the Matter Habibi? (1997) on travels to Egypt and Morocco. Often her subjects are the result of travels to far-flung places with her illustrator husband Ted Lewin. Lewin continues to provide illustrations for other author’s stories while also writing tales of her own. Lewin’s frothy watercolors added warmth and appeal to the going-west tale. The title that brought Lewin her first widespread attention was Karen Ackerman’s Aramintas Paintbox (1990). Long out of print, the book was re-released when Lewin agreed to enliven its appearance with full-color illustrations. A poem, which had originally appeared in Humpty Dumpty’s magazine, was expanded into a thirty-two-page picture book with black-and-white brush line drawings. Her first breakthrough in the children’s book field was Cat Count. Following graduation, she found work as a greeting card designer and then began writing and illustrating stories for children’s magazines. Nevertheless, she persevered, leaving her Pennsylvania home to attend Pratt Institute of Art in New York City.

While Betsy Lewin was encouraged by her parents in her artistic endeavors - she entered and won several art competitions and at age fourteen sold her first painting - they discouraged her from pursuing such an impractical career. Before long, her creations included stories to match the images on the page. Shepard, and Beatrix Potter, and Lewin was soon covering paper bags, napkins, and margins of her own books with self-styled renditions of animals and caricatures of friends and family. Her mother, a kindergarten teacher, read regularly from storybooks filled with pictures by Kate Greenaway, Randolph Caldecott, E. Betsy Lewin’s love of drawing emanates, she contends, from a childhood filled with books and reading.

Doreen cronin and betsy lewin