Trina Schart Hyman celebrated her birthday on April 8, 1939, and was hailed as one of the great romantic illustrators of our time. She studied art in Philadelphia, Boston, and Stockholm and served as the art director for Cricket for seven years. She launched her highly successful illustrating career with Toffe Och Den Lilla Bilen in 1961. She illustrated more than 230 books and won a Caldecott in 1985 for Margaret Hodges St. George and the Dragon.
“I don’t do sketches. I think about it instead. I think about the story and about what it means and about how it can be brought to life in pictures. I think about the characters and what makes them tick and where they’re coming from and where they might be going. I think about this a lot. I think about it so much that eventually I start to dream about it. And when my dreams start to become the dreams of the characters in the book, when their reality becomes part of my subconscious, when I can live in their landscape, when I put on a little red cape with a hood and tie red ribbons under my chin, then I know what to do with my pictures.” Sadly, Ms. Hyman died in November of 2004.
— Vicki Palmquist