Wanda Gág

Wanda Gág : the girl who lived to draw / Deborah Kogan Ray.—New York : Viking, 2008.

[40] p. : col. ill. ; 24 x 27 cm.

At head of title: “The Creator of Millions of Cats”

Audience: Ages 5 up.

Bibliography: p. 40

ISBN: 9780670062928

1. Artists – United States – Biography. 2. Gág, Wanda, 1893-1946. 3. Illustrators -- United States -- Biography.

741.642092

Born to Bohemian parents in Minnesota all the Gag (rhymes with jog, not bag) children were encouraged to actively pursue both the fine and performing arts. Their father, a house painter by trade, was also a painter of pictures and on his deathbed he gave his oldest daughter this commission, “What Papa couldn’t do, Wanda will have to finish.” Starting at age fifteen Wanda began to support the family through the sale of her art. On scholarships she went on to study art in St. Paul and at the Art Students League in New York. At a one-woman show in New York in 1928, she was approached by a children’s book editor, who asked if she had ever considered writing a story. In fact, she had one already written, inspired by the German folktales that she loved as a child. It was called Millions of Cats.

Ray’s gentle and vividly colorful illustrations enliven her picture book biography of her fellow artist.