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Monday, December 26, 2011

Simms Taback RIP (1932-2011)

The Legacy of Simms Taback

Simms Taback was an illustrator that became "an overnight success" after working decades in children's books.  The fact that intrigues young readers is that, in 1979 McDonald's rolled out their first happy meals and Simms was the illustrator who created the box.


Visit the artist's official website  at http://www.simmstaback.com.

Simms Taback's most well known book is probably his Caldecot Award winning Joseph Had a Coat This book introduced him to EVERYONE in the world of children's books.

His last book before his death on Christmas Day, 2011 is Postcards from Camp.
Simms and his wife Gail moved from New England to Ventura, California and 2006 and it is there that he died of cancer.  Simms Taback is survived by his wife Gail, three children (a daughter, a son, and a step-daughter), and five grandchildren - and hundreds (if not thousands) of readers who learned to love reading from his books.

“You do picture books to get kids interested in books; they go on from there. You can learn about the whole world if you’re interested in reading.”
-- Simms Taback, 2009 Ventura (CA) County Star.

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