Ellen Raskin facts for kids

Ellen Raskin
Quick facts for kids Ellen Raskin
Born	March 13, 1928; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	August 8, 1984 (aged 56); New York City, New York
Occupation	Writer, illustrator
Nationality	American
Education	University of Wisconsin–Madison
Genre	Children's novels, picture books
Notable works	The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel); Figgs & Phantoms; The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues; The Westing Game;
Notable awards	Newbery Medal; 1979 The Westing Game;
Spouse	Dennis Flanagan (m. 1965, second husband)

Ellen Raskin (March 13, 1928 – August 8, 1984) was an American children's writer and illustrator. She won the 1979 Newbery Medal for The Westing Game, a mystery novel, and another children's mystery, Figgs & Phantoms, was a Newbery Honor Book in 1975.

In 2012 The Westing Game was ranked number nine among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with a primarily-U.S. audience.

Life

Raskin was born in Milwaukee and grew up during the Great Depression. She was educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a major in fine art. She had one daughter in her first marriage, which ended in divorce.

Raskin was an accomplished graphic artist. In New York City she worked as a commercial artist for about 15 years. Among other things she designed more than 1000 dustjackets for books including the first edition of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, the 1963 Newbery Medal winner.

In 1960 she married Dennis Flanagan, editor of Scientific American.

Raskin died at the age of 56 on August 8, 1984, in New York City, the result of a connective-tissue disease.

Education

Raskin entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison at age 17 with the intention of majoring in journalism.

Works

Children's picture books

Raskin wrote and illustrated twelve picture books, published by Atheneum Books except as noted.

Nothing Ever Happens on My Block, 1967
Silly Songs and Sad, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1967
Spectacles, 1968
Ghost in a Four-Room Apartment, 1969
And It Rained, 1969
A & The, or, William T. C. Baumgarten Comes to Town, 1970
The World's Greatest Freak Show, 1971
Franklin Stein, 1972
Moe Q. McGlutch, He Smoked Too Much, Parents, 1973
Who, Said Sue, Said Whoo?, 1973
Moose, Goose & Little Nobody, 1976
Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, 1976

Children’s novels

Raskin wrote four novels, all published by E. P. Dutton.

The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel), 1971
Figgs & Phantoms, 1974
The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, 1975
The Westing Game, 1978

As illustrator

Raskin also illustrated more than twenty books by other writers.

Happy Christmas: Tales for Boys and Girls, edited by Claire H. Bishop, Ungar, 1956
A Child's Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas (1950); J. M. Dent, 1968
Mama, I Wish I Was Snow, Child You'd Be Very Cold, by Ruth Krauss, Atheneum, 1962
Philosophy and History. The Ernst Cassirer Festschrift, ed. Raymond Klibansky and H. J. Paton, 1963 (second edition)
Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, selected by Dwight MacDonald, Crowell, 1965
We Dickinsons, by Aileen Fisher and Olive Rabe, Atheneum, 1965
The Jewish Sabbath, by Molly Cone, Crowell, 1966
Paths of Poetry: Twenty-Five Poets and Their Poems, ed. Louis Untermeyer, Delacorte, 1966
Songs of Innocence (Volumes 1 & 2), by William Blake (1789, 1794), music and illustrations by Ellen Raskin, Doubleday, 1966
D. H. Lawrence: Poems Selected for Young People, ed. William Cole, Viking, 1967
Ellen Grae, by Vera and Bill Cleaver, Lippincott, 1967
Poems of Robert Herrick, ed. Winfield T. Scott, Crowell, 1967
Probability: the Science of Chance, by Arthur G. Razzell and K. G. O. Watts, Doubleday, 1967 ‡
This Is 4: the Idea of a Number, by Razzell and Watts, Doubleday, 1967 ‡
Books: A Book to Begin On, by Susan Bartlett, Holt, 1968
Inatuk's Friend, by Suzanne Stark Morrow, Atlantic/Little, 1968
Lady Ellen Grae, by Vera and Bill Cleaver, Lippincott, 1968
A Paper Zoo: A Collection of Animal Poems by Modern American Poets, edited by Renee K. Weiss, Macmillan, 1968
Piping Down the Valleys Wild: Poetry for the Young of All Ages, edited by Nancy Larrick, Delacorte, 1968
Symmetry, by Razzell and Watts, Doubleday, 1968 ‡
We Alcotts, by Aileen Fisher and Olive Rabe, Atheneum, 1968
Circles and Curves, by Razzell and Watts, Doubleday, 1969 ‡
Come Along!, by Rebecca Caudill, Holt, 1969
Shrieks at Midnight: Macabre Poems, Eerie and Humorous, edited by Sara and John E. Brewton, Crowell, 1969
Three and the Shape of Three, by Razzell and Watts, Doubleday, 1969 ‡
Elidor, by Alan Garner (1965), Walck, 1970
Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti (1862), Dutton, 1970

‡ Raskin illustrated at least five volumes in a series of 32- and 48-page mathematics books by Arthur C. Razzell and Kenneth George Oliver Watts, which was inaugurated by Doubleday in 1964.

Ellen Raskin (Volume 579 of Twayne's United States Authors Series: Children's Literature), Marilynn Strasser Olson, Twayne Publishers, 1991;