Articles: Authors and Illustrators: Sandra Boynton
Sandra Boynton is the well known author and illustrator of more than thirty delightfully cute and quirky children’s board books (and a few fabric ones as well).
But did you know that she also has several recorded albums, including books on CD and fun music performed by an eclectic variety of really well known guests? In addition, she illustrates greeting cards (6,000 and counting), of which tens of millions have been sold around the world. And for those parents out there who wish she’d write a book for you, well, she has! Check out Chocolate: The Consuming Passion.
It’s clear from her books that Sandra Boynton has a wonderful sense of humor and, given that, it may not be so surprising to learn that she says much of her work is decided “somewhat at whim.” How ever she does it, her decades of success prove that her instincts rock!
You might expect a writer to be an English major as an undergraduate, which she was, but what is interesting about Boynton is that she was already a well-established greeting card illustrator when she went on to attend Yale’s School of Drama for graduate work. It was there, in 1977, that she wrote Hippos Go Berserk for a class project. The story was published later that same year and the rest is history.
Sandra Boynton has received the Irma Simonton Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (1985), the National Cartoonists Society Award Greeting Card Division (1992), and the National Parenting Publications Awards Gold Medal (1994).
She is married (to a 1972 Olympian) and has four children. They live in Connecticut, where, perhaps appropriately, she works out of a converted barn. Visit Sandra Boynton’s website for an entirely fun experience.
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