According to a recent report from Isthmus, the School of Education’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) left a lasting impression on the 2020 Children’s Literature Legacy Award winner Kevin Henkes, who was once a student at UW-Madison.
Henkes, who studied with the School of Education’s Art Department, took on a work-study job at the CCBC while he attended UW–Madison.
K.T. Horning, the director of the CCBC, remembers meeting Henke all those years ago. “I think what distinguishes Kevin is that he has written broad books for young children, he’s written picture books for a variety of ages, he’s written novels for young readers, and he’s also a wonderful illustrator,” Horning tells Isthmus. “It’s very unusual to have someone who’s so talented in all of those aspects of the children’s literature field.”
Henkes journeyed to New York at 19 in search of publisher and landed his first book deal for “All Alone.”
“The Cooperative Children’s Book Center was instrumental in preparing me for that first trip,” Henkes recalls. “I looked at books really intensely and tried to figure out which publisher published which kind of book, and where what I was working on might best fit in. That’s how I began my professional life, and it’s the only job I’ve ever had.”
Read more about Henkes and the CCBC here.