Lionni leo biography books list

Dutch-Italian artist and children's writer

"Tillie and the Wall" redirects here. For the American musical group, see Tilly and the Wall.

Leo Lionni (5 May – 11 October ) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Born in the Netherlands, he moved to Italy and lived there before moving to the United States in , where he worked as an art director for several advertising agencies, and then for Fortune magazine.

Princess diana biography books: A cleverly told and beautifully illustrated tale of self-discovery from four-time Caldecott Honor winner Leo Lionni. Top Authors in Holidays. Here in one sumptuous collection are four timeless picture book classics by Leo Lionni: Frederick, Swimmy, Alexander and the W Then one day a chameleon has an idea to remain one color forever by staying

He returned to Italy in and started writing and illustrating children's books.^[1] In , his book Inch by Inch was awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.

Family

Lionni was born in Amsterdam but spent two years in Philadelphia before moving to Italy during his teens. His father worked as an accountant and his mother was an opera singer.

His father was assigned to an office in Italy part way through Leo's time in high school. He married Nora Maffi, the daughter of Fabrizio Maffi, a founder of the Italian Communist Party, and they had two sons, Louis and Paolo, grandchildren Pippo and Annie and Sylvan, and great-grandchildren Madeline, Luca, Sam, Nick, Alix, Henry and Theo.

Leo Lionni died October 11, , at his home in Tuscany, Italy, at the age of

Career

From to , he was a well-known and respected painter in Italy, where he worked in the Futurism and avant-gardestyles.

Lionni leo biography books list Everyone loves Willy the wind-up mouse, while Alexander the real mouse is chased away with brooms and mousetraps. Six Crows by Leo Lionni 3. I measure things. Letters Pantheon, New York,

In he received a degree in economics from the University of Genoa. During the later part of this period, Lionni devoted himself more and more to advertising design.

In , he moved to Philadelphia and began full-time work in advertising, at which he was extremely successful, acquiring accounts from Ford Motors and ChryslerPlymouth, among others.

He commissioned art from Saul Steinberg, the then neophyte Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, and Fernand Léger.^[2] He was a member of the Advertising Art Hall of Fame.

In , he accepted a position as art director for Fortune, which he held until He also maintained outside clients, designing The Family of Man catalogue design for the Museum of Modern Art, and was design director for Olivetti, for whom he produced ads, brochures and showroom design.

In , he moved back to Italy, and began his career as a children's book author and illustrator. Lionni produced more than 40 children's books.

Biography books for 4th graders The tree tells them her name is Woody, and the mice promise to visit her all year ro A new board book for the youngest fans of Leo Lionni--inspired by his bestselling books and perfect for baby showers and springtime reading! Geraldine the Music Mouse by Leo Lionni 3. A Busy Year.

He received the American Institute of Graphic Arts (A.I.G.A.) Gold Medal and was a four-time Caldecott Honor Winner—for Inch by Inch (), Swimmy (), Frederick (), and Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse ().^[3] He also won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in

Over the course of his career, Lionni also held several teaching posts, beginning in , when he taught advertising art at Black Mountain College.

He also taught at Parsons School of Design in ; the Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India, in ; the University of Illinois in ; and Cooper Union from to

Lionni always thought of himself as an artist. He worked in many disciplines including, especially, drawing, painting, sculpture and photography. He had one-man shows in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

He continued to work as an artist until just before his death in ^[4]

Children's author and illustrator

Lionni became the first children's author/illustrator to use collage as the main medium for his illustrations. Reviewers such as Booklist and School Library Journal have said that Lionni's illustrations are "bold, sumptuous collages" that include "playful patches of color" and that his "beautifully simple [and] boldly graphic art [is] perfect to share with very young children." Book World said that "the translucent color of the pictures and the simplicity of the text make a perfect combination." Many of Lionni's books deal with issues of community and creativity, and the existential condition, rendered as fables which appealed to children.

He participated in workshops with children and even after his death school children continue to honor him by making their own versions of his books.

Princess diana biography books

Biography books list

Most popular biography books

Leo Lionni would usually draw pictures as he told stories to his grandchildren, but one time he found himself on a long train ride with no drawing materials. Instead, he tore out circles of yellow and blue from a magazine to help him tell the story he had in mind. This experience led him to create his first book for children, Little Blue and Little Yellow ().

Lionni uses earth tones in his illustrations that are close to the actual colors of the objects found in nature. In his book Inch by Inch, for example, he uses realistic shades of brown and burnt orange in his collage of a robin, while the tree branches are shades of brown with dark green leaves. Mice are consistently found as characters in Lionni's books, such as the star character in Frederick and the title character in the Caldecott Honor Book Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse.

Lionni's illustrations have been compared to those of Eric Carle as both often employ animals, birds, insects, and other creatures to tell a story about what it is to be human.^[5]

Parallel Botany

Among Lionni's books that were not intended for children, the best known is probably Parallel Botany (; first published in Italian as La botanica parallela, ).

This detailed treatise on plants that lack materiality—in other words, imaginary plants—is richly illustrated with drawings of plants in charcoal or pencil and photographs of "parallel botanists". The text is a rich mix of plant descriptions, travel tales, "ancient" myths, and folk etymologies, leavened with historical facts and grounded in actual science.

As an imaginary taxonomy, it is invoked by Italo Calvino as a precursor to the Codex Seraphinianus of Luigi Serafini.

Selected works

• Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse
• The Alphabet Tree
• The Biggest House in the World
• A Busy Year
• A Color of His Own
• Colors to Talk About
• Cornelius
• An Extraordinary Egg
• Fish is Fish
• A Flea Story
• Frederick (listed by the National Education Association as one of its "Teachers' Top Books for Children" based on a online poll^[6])
• Geraldine, the Music Mouse
• The Greentail Mouse
• In the Rabbitgarden
• Inch by Inch
• It's Mine
• Let's Make Rabbits
• Let's Play
• Letters to Talk About
• Little Blue and Little Yellow (a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year, ^[7])
• Matthew's Dream
• Mouse Days: A Book of Seasons
• Mr.

  McMouse

• Nicolas, Where Have You Been?
• Numbers to Talk About
• On My Beach There are Many Pebbles
• Parallel Botany
• Pezzettino
• Six Crows
• Swimmy (named by the National Education Association one of its "Teachers' Top Books for Children" based on a online poll^[6])
• Theodore and the Talking Mushroom
• Tico and the Golden Wings
• Tillie and the Wall
• What?: Pictures to Talk About
• When?: Pictures to Talk About
• Where?: Pictures to Talk About
• Who?: Pictures to Talk About
• Words to Talk About

References

External links