David Small facts for kids

David Small (born February 12, 1945) is an American writer and illustrator. He is famous for creating amazing picture books for children. His books have won many important awards, including the Caldecott Medal, which is one of the biggest honors for children's picture books. He has also won two Caldecott Honor awards.

About David Small's Life

David Small was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1945. He was the second son in his family. David started drawing when he was only two years old! He spent a lot of time at home when he was a child because of health issues. This gave him plenty of time to practice and get really good at drawing. He went to Cass Technical High School and wrote plays when he was a teenager.

When he was 21, David decided to focus on art. He earned a special art degree from Wayne State University. Then he got another advanced art degree from Yale University. For many years, Small taught art at colleges. He also ran a film series and drew funny pictures for campus newspapers. His very first book, Eulalie and the Hopping Head, which he both wrote and illustrated, came out in 1981.

In 1997, Small won a Caldecott Honor award for his book The Gardener. He created this book with his wife, Sarah Stewart, who is also a writer. She also won the Michigan Author Award in 2007.

Small won the top award, the Caldecott Medal, in 2001 for his book So You Want to Be President?. This book cleverly mixes political cartoons with children's book illustrations. He received another Caldecott Honor in 2013 for drawing the pictures in Toni Buzzeo's One Cool Friend. David Small's drawings have even appeared in famous newspapers and magazines like the New Yorker and the New York Times.

In 2020, it was announced that Western Michigan University Libraries would keep David Small and Sarah Stewart's important collections. These include their original artwork, sketchbooks, journals, and all their published and unpublished writings. David Small and his wife Sarah Stewart live in an old, beautiful house in Mendon, Michigan.

Stitches - A Graphic Memoir

Small's graphic memoir, Stitches, was published in 2009. A graphic memoir is like a comic book that tells a true story about someone's life. This book shares David's journey from being a sick child to a teenager who ran away from home at age sixteen to become an artist. Stitches was reviewed by major newspapers like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Stitches became a #1 New York Times Best Seller. It was also named one of the ten best books of 2009 by Publishers Weekly and Amazon.com. The book was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Stitches has been translated into seven different languages and published in nine different countries around the world.

David Small's Books

Books Written and Illustrated by David Small

• Eulalie and the Hopping Head (Macmillan, 1982) – named a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
• Imogene's Antlers (Crown Publishers, 1985)
• Paper John (Farrar, Straus and Giroux [FSG], 1987)
• Ruby Mae Has Something to Say (Crown, 1992)
• Hoover's Bride (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1995)
• Fenwick's Suit (FSG, 1996)
• George Washington's Cows (FSG, 1997)
• Stitches (W.W. Norton, 2009)
• Home After Dark (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2018)

Books Illustrated by David Small with Sarah Stewart

David Small has illustrated several books written by his wife, Sarah Stewart. These books were published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG).

• The Money Tree (FSG, 1994)
• The Library (FSG, 1995)
• The Gardener (FSG, 1997) – Caldecott Honor Book
• The Journey (FSG, 2001)
• The Friend (FSG, 2004)
• The Quiet Place (FSG, 2012)
• This Book Of Mine (FSG, 2019)

Books Illustrated by David Small with Other Writers

• Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift (William Morrow & Co., 1983)
• The Dragon Who Lived Downstairs, Burr Tillstrom (William Morrow & Co., 1984)
• Company's Coming, written by Arthur Yorinks (Knopf, 1988)
• A Surfeit of Similes, Norton Juster (William Morrow & Co., 1989)
• Petey's Bedtime Story, Beverly Cleary (HarperCollins, 1993)
• The Christmas Crocodile, Bonnie Becker (Simon & Schuster, 1998)
• Huckabuck Family: And How They Raised Popcorn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back, Carl Sandburg, (FSG, 1999) – one of the 1923 Rootabaga Stories
• So You Want to Be President?, Judith St. George (Penguin Philomel, 2000) – winner of the 2001 Caldecott Medal
• Company's Going, Arthur Yorinks (Hyperion Books for Children, 2001)
• The Mouse and His Child, Russell Hoban (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2001)
• So You Want to Be an Inventor?, Judith St. George (Philomel, 2002)
• The Essential Worldwide Monster Guide, Linda Ashman (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
• So You Want to Be an Explorer?, Judith St. George (Philomel, 2005)
• My Senator and Me: A Dog's Eye View of Washington, D.C., Ted Kennedy (Scholastic Books, 2006)
• Once Upon a Banana, Jennifer Armstrong (Simon & Schuster, 2006)
• When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, Elise Broach (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007)
• That Book Woman, Heather Henson (Atheneum, 2008)
• The Underneath, Kathi Appelt (Atheneum, 2008)
• One Cool Friend, Toni Buzzeo (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012) – Caldecott Honor Book
• Long Road to the Circus, Betsy Bird (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2021)