Kevin Henkes

by: Amy Lemons and Katie King

table of contents:

1 Young and Inspired

2 High School Years

3 College Bound

4 Big City Dreams

5 Eek! Mice

6 Award Winners

Young and Inspired

Kevin Henkes is one of today’s most popular children’s authors. His journey all started when he was a little boy growing up in Wisconsin. He loved taking trips to the library with his family and bringing home lots of picture books. He was inspired to become an author by those very books!

High School Years

While in high school Kevin dreamt of becoming an artist. He wasn’t sure how he would make this a career until a librarian introduced him to a book titled American Picturebooks from Noah’s Ark to The Beast Within. Henkes felt inspired by the book and continued on his journey to becoming a children’s book author!

CollegeBound

Henkes went to college at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He became an art major and went to work studying picture books and what it would take to become an author. After his freshman year of college he set off for New York City to see if he could make his dreams come true.

The founder of the company hired him on the spot! Henkes took the fall off from school to begin working on that book. The result was his first published picture book, All Alone, published in 1981. He has written dozens of books since then!

Big Citydreams

Henkes went to New York City with one goal in mind: to find a publisher! He had written a book when he was still in high school and he took that with him. His first stop was at Greenwillow Books.

In 1986, Henkes introduced his first book with mice characters, A Weekend with Wendall. Henkes has become known for his adorable mice characters in books such as Chrysanthemum, Chester’s Way, Owen, and Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. These books are incredibly endearing and allow students to learn lessons from the characters.

Eek! Mice!

Kevin Henkes has won several awards for his books. Kitten’s First Full Moon won the Caldecott Medal for its illustrations in 2005. The book is about a kitten who thinks the moon is a bowl of milk! He also received a Caldecott Medal for Owen. Owen is about a little mouse who is very resistant to giving up his baby blanket. Kids can learn a lot from the compromise that Owen and his parents come up with!

Award Winners