Trina Schart Hyman facts for kids

Trina Schart Hyman (born April 8, 1939 – died November 19, 2004) was an American illustrator who drew pictures for children's books. She illustrated more than 150 books, including fairy tales and Arthurian legends. She won the famous 1985 Caldecott Medal for her amazing pictures in the U.S. picture book Saint George and the Dragon, which was retold by Margaret Hodges.

About Trina Schart Hyman

Trina was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. She loved to read and draw from a very young age. Her favorite story when she was a child was Little Red Riding Hood. She even wore a red cape for a whole year, just like the character!

She started studying art at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art in 1956. Later, she moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1959. She finished her art studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1960.

After that, Trina lived in Stockholm, Sweden, for two years. There, she studied at the Konstfackskolan (Swedish State Art School). It was in Sweden that she illustrated her very first children's book, called Toffe och den lilla bilen (which means Toffe and the Little Car).

In 1963, Trina had a daughter named Katrin Tchana. In 1968, Trina and Katrin moved to Lyme, New Hampshire. Trina worked with children's writer and editor Barbara Rogasky on several projects.

Trina was also the first art director for Cricket Magazine. She worked there from 1973 to 1979. She continued to draw pictures for the magazine regularly until she passed away.

Her illustrations were often very detailed and clever. For example, in one picture from Saint George and the Dragon, the dragon's tail actually stretches onto the border of the next page!

Trina was also known for being one of the first white American illustrators to regularly include black characters in her drawings. She believed this was important. Her grandchildren, who are biracial, even appeared in some of her books.

Trina and her daughter, Katrin Tchana, worked together on several books. These include The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women (2000), Sense Pass King: A Tale from Cameroon (2002), and Changing Woman and Her Sisters: Goddesses from Around the World (2006).

Awards and Special Recognitions

Trina Hyman won many awards for her amazing illustrations.

• Caldecott Medal: She won the annual Caldecott Medal in 1985 for Saint George and the Dragon. This award is given by the American Library Association for the best-illustrated U.S. children's picture book of the year. The story was retold by Margaret Hodges from Edmund Spenser's version of the Saint George legend.
• Boston Globe–Horn Book Award: She also won this award for picture books for King Stork (1973), which had text by Howard Pyle.
• Golden Kite Award: In 1984, she won this award for her illustrations in her own version of Little Red Riding Hood.

Trina also received three Caldecott Honors, which means her books were recognized as being among the best. These were for:

• Her own retelling of Little Red Riding Hood (1984)
• Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel (1990)
• A Child's Calendar by John Updike (2000)

Additionally, two of her picture books were runners-up for the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award:

• All in Free but Janey by Elizabeth Johnson (1968)
• On to Widecombe Fair by Patricia Gauch (1978)

The book The Golem, written by Barbara Rogasky and illustrated by Trina Hyman, won the 1997 National Jewish Book Award in the Children's Literature category.

Books Trina Wrote and Illustrated

• How Six Found Christmas, 1969
• The Sleeping Beauty, retold from the Brothers Grimm, 1977
• A Little Alphabet, 1980
• Self-Portrait: Trina Schart Hyman, 1981
• Little Red Riding Hood, retold from the Brothers Grimm, 1983
• The Enchanted Forest, 1984

Books Trina Illustrated

• Hertha von Gebhardt, Toffe och den lilla bilen, 1961
• Laurence Rittenhouse, God Created Me, 1963
• Carl Memling, Riddles, Riddles, from A to Z, 1963
• Melanie Bellah, Bow Wow! Meow!, 1963
• Sandol S. Warburg, Curl Up Small, 1964
• Edna Butler Trickey, Billy Finds Out, 1964
• Eileen O'Faolain, Children of the Salmon, 1965
• All Kinds of Signs, 1965
• Ruth Sawyer, Joy to the World: Christmas Legends, 1966
• Joyce Varney, The Magic Maker, 1966
• Virginia Haviland, reteller, Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Czechoslovakia, 1966
• Edna Butler Trickey, Billy Celebrates, 1966
• Jacob D. Townsend, The Five Trials of the Pansy Bed, 1967
• Elizabeth Johnson, Stuck with Luck, 1967
• Josephine Poole, Moon Eyes, 1967
• John T. Moore, Cinnamon Seed, 1967
• Paul Tripp, The Little Red Flower, 1968
• Joyce Varney, The Half-Time Gypsy, 1968
• Elizabeth Johnson, All in Free but Janey, 1968
• Norah Smaridge, I Do My Best, 1968
• Betty M. Owen and Mary MacEwen, editors, Wreath of Carols, 1968
• Tom McGowen, Dragon Stew, 1969
• Susan Meyers, The Cabin on the Fjord, 1969
• Peter Hunter Blair, The Coming of Pout, 1969
• Clyde R. Bulla, The Moon Singer, 1969
• Ruth Nichols, A Walk Out of the World, 1969
• Claudia Paley, Benjamin the True, 1969
• Paul Tripp, The Vi-Daylin Book of Minnie the Mump, 1970
• Donald J. Sobol, Greta the Strong, 1970
• Blanche Luria Serwer, reteller, Let's Steal the Moon: Jewish Tales, Ancient and Recent, 1970
• Mollie Hunter, The Walking Stones: A Story of Suspense, 1970
• Tom McGowen, Sir Machinery, 1970
• Phyllis Krasilovsky, The Shy Little Girl, 1970
• The Pumpkin Giant, retold by Ellin Greene, 1970
• Wylly Folk St. John, The Ghost Next Door, 1971
• Osmond Molarsky, The Bigger They Come, 1971
• Osmond Molarsky, Take It or Leave It, 1971
• Carolyn Meyer, The Bread Book: All about Bread and How to Make It, 1971
• Elizabeth Johnson, Break a Magic Circle, 1971
• Ellin Greene, reteller, Princess Rosetta and the Popcorn Man, 1971
• Eleanor Cameron, A Room Made of Windows, 1971
• Eleanor Clymer, How I Went Shopping and What I Got, 1972
• Dori White, Sarah and Katie, 1972
• Ruth Nichols, The Marrow of the World, 1972
• Eva Moore, The Fairy Tale Life of Hans Christian Andersen, 1972
• Jan Wahl, Magic Heart, 1972
• Phyllis Krasilovsky, The Popular Girls Club, 1972
• Paula Hendrich, Who Says So?, 1972
• Myra Cohn Livingston, editor, Listen, Children, Listen: An Anthology of Poems for the Very Young, 1972
• Carol Ryrie Brink, The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein, 1972
• Eve Merriam, reteller, Epaminondas, 1972
• Howard Pyle, King Stork, 1973
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling and Two Other Stories, edited by Lillian Moore, 1973
• Phyllis La Farge, Joanna Runs Away, 1973
• Ellin Greene, compiler, Clever Cooks: A Concoction of Stories, Recipes and Riddles, 1973
• Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie Woodlawn, revised edition, 1973
• Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Wanderers, 1973
• Eleanor G. Vance, The Everything Book, 1974
• Doris Gates, Two Queens of Heaven: Aphrodite and Demeter, 1974
• Dorothy S. Carter, editor, Greedy Mariani and Other Folktales of the Antilles, 1974
• Charles Causley, Figgie Hobbin, 1974
• Charlotte Herman, You've Come a Long Way, Sybil McIntosh: A Book of Manners and Grooming for Girls, 1974
• Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Snow White, translated from the German by Paul Heins, 1974
• Jean Fritz, Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?, 1974
• March Wiesbauer, The Big Green Bean, 1974
• Tobi Tobias, The Quitting Deal, 1975
• Margaret Kimmel, Magic in the Mist, 1975
• Jane Curry, The Watchers, 1975
• Louise Moeri, Star Mother's Youngest Child, 1975
• Jean Fritz, Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?, 1976
• Daisy Wallace, editor, Witch Poems, 1976
• William Sleator, Among the Dolls, 1976
• Tobi Tobias, Jane, Wishing, 1977
• Spiridon Vangheli, Meet Guguze, 1977
• Norma Farber, Six Impossible Things before Breakfast, 1977
• Betsy Hearne, South Star, 1977
• Patricia Gauch, On to Widecombe Fair, 1978
• Betsy Hearne, Home, 1979
• Norma Farber, How Does It Feel to Be Old?, 1979
• Pamela Stearns, The Mechanical Doll, 1979
• Barbara S. Hazen, Tight Times, 1979
• Daisy Wallace, editor, Fairy Poems, 1980
• J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan, 1980
• Elizabeth G. Jones, editor, Ranger Rick's Holiday Book, 1980
• Kathryn Lasky, The Night Journey, 1981
• Jean Fritz, The Man Who Loved Books, 1981
• Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Rapunzel, retold by Barbara Rogasky, 1982
• Margaret Mary Kimmel and Elizabeth Segel, For Reading Out Loud! A Guide to Sharing Books with Children, 1983
• Mary Calhoun, Big Sixteen, 1983
• Astrid Lindgren, Ronia the Robber's Daughter, 1983
• Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol: In Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, 1983
• Myra Cohn Livingston, Christmas Poems, 1984
• (With Hilary Knight and others) Pamela Espeland and Marilyn Waniek, The Cat Walked through the Casserole: And Other Poems for Children, 1984
• Margaret Hodges, Saint George and the Dragon, A Golden Legend Adapted from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen, 1984
• Elizabeth Winthrop, The Castle in the Attic, 1985
• Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales, 1985
• Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, The Water of Life, retold by Barbara Rogasky, 1986
• Vivian Vande Velde, A Hidden Magic, 1986
• Myra Cohn Livingston, compiler, Cat Poems, 1987
• Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1988
• Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, adapted by Barbara Cohen, 1988
• (With Marcia Brown and others) Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, compiler, Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child's Book of Poems, 1988
• Swan Lake, retold by Margot Fonteyn, 1989
• Eric Kimmel, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, 1989
• Margaret Hodges, The Kitchen Knight: A Tale from King Arthur, 1990
• (With Steven Kellogg and others) Ann Durell, Marilyn Sachs, compilers, Lois Lowry, writer, The Big Book for Peace, 1990
• Barbara Rogasky, compiler and editor, Winter Poems, 1991
• Lloyd Alexander, The Fortune-Tellers, 1992
• Marion Dane Bauer, Ghost Eye, 1992
• Michael J. Rosen, Speak!: Children's Book Illustrators Brag about their Dogs, 1993
• Eric A. Kimmel, reteller, Iron John, 1994
• Eric A. Kimmel, reteller, The Adventures of Hershel of Ostropol, 1995
• Barbara Rogasky, The Golem: A Version, 1996
• Margaret Hodges, adapter, Comus, 1996
• Angela Shelf Medearis, Haunts: Five Hair-Raising Tales, 1996
• Howard Pyle, Bearskin, 1997
• John Updike, A Child's Calendar, 1999
• Katrin Tchana, reteller, The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women, 2000
• Sherry Garland, Children of the Dragon: Selected Tales from Vietnam, 2001
• Katrin Tchana, Sense Pass King: A Tale from Cameroon, 2002
• Dean Whitlock, Sky Carver, 2005
• Contributor of illustrations to textbooks and Cricket magazine.
• Katrin Tchana, Changing Woman and Her Sisters: Goddesses from Around the World, 2006

Book Adaptations

Some of Trina Schart Hyman's illustrated books were made into other forms of media:

• Dragon Stew was adapted into a filmstrip with a record in 1975.
• Tight Times was filmed as a Reading Rainbow special for PBS-TV in 1983.
• Little Red Riding Hood was adapted into a filmstrip with a cassette in 1984.