Happy Birthday, Kevin Henkes!

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Born November 27, 1960. Author and illustrator of picture books, easy readers, and novels, including 2004 Newbery Honor winner Olive's Ocean and 2005 Caldecott Medal winner Kitten's First Full Moon.

Five Fun Facts: 

• Kevin Henkes is married to Laura Dronzek, who is the illustrator of his picture book, Birds, as well as of George Shannon's White is for Blueberry.
• Kevin Henkes says he doesn't have any particular affinity for mice; he just started to use animal characters to match the humor of his stories.
• Kitten's First Full Moon is the result of a failed attempt at writing a concept book for young kids about circles. 
• Kevin Henkes pronounces his name like this. 
• Kevin Henkes wrote the draft of his first picture book while he was still in high school.

Quotation: 
As she wove in and out of all the people - rushing, talking, eating, laughing; some in clumps, some alone - she realized that no one, no one at all in the airport, or on the entire planet for that matter, knew her thoughts, knew what she was carrying inside her head and heart. And at that very minute, what was inside her head and heart made her feel as though there was no one else in the whole world she would rather be. (from Olive's Ocean) 

Katie Says: I was an adult when I learned that Kevin Henkes had written Jessica, but even though I didn't remember the author, I remembered loving the story, and especially Ruthie's insistence all along that Jessica is real. As a librarian, I continue to love his books. A Good Day and My Garden are perennial story time favorites, and his new easy reader series about Penny is one I constantly recommend to families with beginning readers.

Visit Kevin Henkes online at http://www.kevinhenkes.com. 

Sources: 

• Henkes, Kevin. Olive's Ocean. New York: Greenwillow, 2003. Print.  
• Kevin Henkes." 2011. Books & Authors. Gale. Gale Internal User 17 Nov 2012 <http://bna.galegroup.com/bna/start.do?p=BNA&u=gale>
•  "Kevin Henkes." TeachingBooks.net Audio Name Pronunciation. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://www.teachingbooks.net/pronounce.cgi?aid=621>.
• "A Q&A with Kevin Henkes." Kevin Henkes A QA with Kevin Henkes Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://www.kevinhenkes.com/?page_id=329>.
• "TEACHERS." Scholastic Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. <http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/kevin-henkes>