Donald Crews is the renowned creator of two Caldecott Honorbooks, Freight Train and Truck. Among his other enormously popularbooks are such favorites as Night at the Fair, Sail Away,Bigmama's, Shortcut, and School Bus. He and his wife, Ann Jonas,live in New York's Hudson River Valley.
　　Donald Crews grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and says that allthrough his childhood the members of his family were always doingsomething with their hands. He was always drawing pictures. Now, inthe old farmhouse where he lives with his wife, the noted authorand illustrator Ann Jonas, Donald Crews is still drawingpictures.
　　After graduating from New York City's Cooper Union, Mr. Crewsspent three years working as a designer. He was assistant artdirector of Dance magazine, on the staff of a small design studio,and did freelance work as a book-jacket designer. But in 1962 hewas inducted into the Army, and for a time his artistic pursuitswere set aside. As the end of his eighteen-month military stint inGermany approached, he assigned himself to the task of writing andillustrating a children's book to add to his portfolio. The resultwas the brilliant concept book We Read: A to Z (Harper & Row,1967), which, nearly twenty years later, was reissued byGreenwillow Books. Ten Black Dots, a counting book, came next, andthen several books for which he did illustrations only. But theturning point came in 1978, when Greenwillow published FreightTrain, a picture book inspired by Mr. Crews's childhood train tripsfrom Newark to visit his grandmother in Florida. It was named aCaldecott Honor Book. Since then, Mr. Crews has created severalother highly acclaimed picture books (including Truck, a 1981Calclecott Honor Book), all painted in the flat, clean colors andbright, unambiguous shapes that are the hallmarks of his strikinggraphics.
　　Donald Crews grew up in Newark, New Jersey, spent his summers inCottondale, Florida, and was graduated from Cooper Union in NewYork City. He and his wife, Ann Jonas, live in Brooklyn, NewYork.
　　When Donald Crews is asked why he focuses on picture books, hefrequently answers, "Why not?" All the tools necessary for thecreation of any piece of art are also elements in a successfulpicture book. Mr. Crews chooses a subject, explores ways to developthe subject visually, writes a story, then produces his finishedillustrations. And the final audience, the children, tell him thatthey like what he does. Why not, indeed! Donald Crews grew up inNewark, New Jersey, spent his summers in Cottondale, Florida, andwas graduated from Cooper Union in New York City.