Picture Book Memoir by Caldecott Medalist Ed Young Portrays Childhood Home as Refuge in World War II China

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y., Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Caldecott Medalist and New York Times-bestselling illustrator Ed Young has crafted a poignant, powerful memoir of his childhood home in China, a house built by his father that sheltered family and friends during World War II. The House Baba Built: An Artist's Childhood in China engages readers of all ages with the story of a home filled with warmth, laughter, and imagination, stunningly illustrated in mixed-media collage by one of the world's most celebrated children's book creators.  

The book, a Junior Library Guild Selection that's received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and Booklist, comes just in time for the author-illustrator's 80th birthday.

As war spreads over Shanghai, Young's father, Baba, builds a house to safeguard his family. Soon it also shelters cousins, friends, and refugees. Food is scarce and fighter planes circle in the sky, but the children play safely, roller skating on the roof, trading silkworm eggs, and enjoying games of hide-and-seek.

The House Baba Built has an astonishing eight gatefolds. Pages open to reveal surprising features of the house, touching moments, and dramatic anecdotes, such as Baba entertaining the family with stories during an air raid. Backmatter includes a timeline, floor plans, and author's note.

Also this fall, Ed Young has illustrated Michelle Cuevas' The Masterwork of a Painting Elephant, a novel for kids ages 6-12 about a boy named Pigeon and the artistically-gifted white elephant on whose back he has lived since infancy. Booklist praised Young's drawings for "conveying remarkable emotional weight in a few gestures."

Ed Young, www.edyoungart.com, has written and/or illustrated more than eighty-five books. Winner of the Caldecott Medal for Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China, he's also the author-illustrator of Seven Blind Mice and illustrator of The Emperor and the Kite, both Caldecott Honor Books. Young has twice been U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the "Nobel Prize" of children's literature, and has received six other international honors and three body-of-work awards. He's received three Boston Globe Horn Book Awards and New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books awards, nine ALA Notables, and numerous awards and honors from School Library Journal, Booklist, Parenting, Parents, and Reading Rainbow.

SOURCE Ed Young

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