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Born March 21, 1953, Caldecott winner (Golem, 1997) David Wisniewski’s family moved frequently when he was a child as a result of his father’s career in the Air Force.
Later he traveled with the Ringling Brothers Circus and Vargas Circus where he worked as a puppeteer. It was during this time he met his wife and formed Clarion Shadow Theater, a touring puppet company. The shadow puppetry he used influenced his illustration in subsequent books The Warrior and the Wise Man (1989); Rain Player (1991); and Sundiata: Lion King of Mali (1992).
Wisniewski’s humorous side came to the fore in The Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups (1998), a spoof showing kids what’s really going on behind the rules, and Tough Cookie (1999), a tongue-in-cheek take-off of detective stories with sophisticated dialogue and homage to movie detectives of the 30s and 40s. Mr. Wisniewski died on September 11, 2002, at the age of 49.