The artist uses a sharp knife or other tool to make thousands of small cuts in the top. The scratchboard is made by placing white clay on a hard surface. At first she created pictures using a method called scratchboard. STEVE EMBER: Barbara Cooney’s first books appeared in the nineteen forties.

She received a second Caldecott Medal for her folk-art paintings in the book, 'Ox-Cart Man.' Cooney gave that speech as she accepted the nineteen fifty-nine Caldecott Medal for 'Chanticleer and the Fox.' The American Library Association gives the award each year to the artist of a picture book for children. Not all will be understood, but some will be understood now and maybe more later.' Yet if I put enough in my pictures, there may be something for everyone. Whom am I pleasing - besides myself? I don't know. 'How many children will know or care?' she said. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Barbara Cooney wondered at times if her concern about details was worth the effort. Barbara Cooney once said that every flower and grass in her pictures grew in Chaucer's time in fourteenth-century England. Cooney made sure that a dress worn by Eleanor as a baby was historically correct down to the smallest details.Īnother example of her detailed work is in her retelling of 'Chanticleer and the Fox.' She took the story from 'Canterbury Tales' by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

One example is in her artwork for the book 'Eleanor.' It is about Eleanor Roosevelt, who became the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. STEVE EMBER: Barbara Cooney was known for her carefully detailed work. It says they tie together 'the basket maker’s natural world and the work of his craft.'

One magazine describes Barbara Cooney's paintings in 'Basket Moon' as quiet and beautiful. His family makes baskets that are sold in town. It tells the story of a boy who lived a century ago with his family in the mountains in New York state. It is called 'Basket Moon.' It was written by Mary Lyn Ray. The last book was published six months before her death. Her name appears on one hundred ten books in all. And she provided pictures for her own books and for books written by others. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: For sixty years Barbara Cooney created children’s books. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the life of Barbara Cooney, the creator of many popular children’s books. MARY TILLOTSON: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA.

Barbara cooney original art