Emily Arnold McCully (born July 1, 1939) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

writer and illustrator who is best known for

children's books A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

. She won the annual

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

for U.S.

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

illustration in 1993 recognizing ''

Mirette on the High Wire ''Mirette on the High Wire'' is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully. Published in 1992, the book tells the story of Mirette, a French girl who learns to walk on the tightrope. McCully won the 1993 Caldecott ...

'' which she also wrote.

Biography

Arnold was born in

Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria. At the 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical ...

, but grew up in

Garden City, New York Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...

. She graduated from Pembroke College, now a part of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, in 1961 and earned an M.A. in Art History from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. At Brown she acted in the inaugural evening of Production Workshop and other plays, co-wrote the annual musical, Brownbrokers, and earned a

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

key. In 1976, she published a short story in ''

The Massachusetts Review ''The Massachusetts Review'' is a literary quarterly founded in 1959 by a group of professors from Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It receives financial support from Five Col ...

''. It was selected for the ''O'Henry Collection: Best Short Stories of the Year''. Two novels followed: ''A Craving'' in 1982, and ''Life Drawing'' in 1986. In 2012, McCully published ''Ballerina Swan'' with Holiday House Books for Young People, written by legendary prima ballerina

Allegra Kent Allegra Kent (born August 11, 1937) is an American ballet dancer, actress, children's book author and columnist. Life and career Iris Margo Cohen was born to Jewish parents, Harry Herschel and Shirley (née Weissman) Cohen, and later changed her n ...

. It has received rave reviews from ''The New York Times'', ''Kirkus Reviews'', and ''School Library Journal''.
2014-04-11: unavailable after May 2013; conversion and migration to new website (slj.com) is in ongoing. As an actor, she performed in Equity productions of

Elizabeth Diggs Elizabeth Diggs is an American playwright. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre. Early life and education Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1939 to attorney James B. Diggs and Virginia Francis Diggs, Diggs attended Brown University, where she fir ...

’ ''Saint Florence'' at Capital Rep in Albany and The Vineyard Theater in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Among other awards and honors, McCully has received a

Christopher Award The Christopher Award (established 1949) is presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, films and television specials that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit". It is given by The Christophers, a Christian organization ...

for ''Picnic'', the two children's book of

for ''

'', the Jane Addams Award, the Giverney Award, and an honorary doctorate from

Partial bibliography

Children's picture books

* ''The Bed Book'' (1976) *Grandmas series ** ''The Grandma Mix-Up'' (1988) ** ''Grandmas at the Lake'' (1990) ** ''Grandmas at Bat'' (1993) ** ''The Mixed-Up Grandmas Treasury'' (1997) ** ''Grandmas Trick-Or-Treat'' (2001) * Mirette Series ** ''

'' (1992) ** ''Starring Mirette & Bellini'' (1997) ** ''Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls'' (2000) * ''The Pirate Queen'' (1998) * ''Hurry!'' (2000) * ''Mouse Practice'' (2001) * ''The orphan singer'' (2002) * ''Battle for St. Michaels'' (2002) * ''Picnic'' (2003) * ''First Snow'' (2004) * ''Squirrel and

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...

'' (2004) * ''School'' (2005) * ''The Bobbin Girl'' (2009) * ''Ballerina Swan'' (2012), written by

* ''Popcorn at the Palace '' (2014) * ''Clara : the (mostly) true story of the rhinoceros who dazzled kings, inspired artists, and won the hearts of everyone ... while she ate her way up and down a continent!''

Children's non-fiction

* ''Manjiro: The Boy Who Risked His Life for Two Countries '' (2008) * ''My Heart Glow:

Alice Cogswell Alice Cogswell (August 31, 1805 – December 30, 1830) was the inspiration to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet for the creation of the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. Cogswell and Gallaudet At the age of two, Cogswell became il ...

Thomas Gallaudet Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (December 10, 1787 – September 10, 1851) was an American educator. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first permanent institution for the education of the deaf in North America, and he becam ...

, and the Birth of American Sign Language'' (2008) * ''The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux'' (2010) * ''Wonder Horse: The True Story of the World's Smartest Horse'' (2013), non-fiction picture book about

Beautiful Jim Key Beautiful Jim Key was a famous performing horse around the turn of the twentieth century. His promoters claimed that the horse could read and write, make change with money, do arithmetic for "numbers below thirty," and cite Bible passages "where t ...

. * ''Marvelous Mattie: How

Margaret E. Knight Margaret Eloise Knight (February 14, 1838 – October 12, 1914) was an American inventor, notably of a machine to produce flat-bottomed paper bags. She has been called "the most famous 19th-century woman inventor". She founded the Eastern Paper ...

Became an Inventor'' (2013) * ''

Strongheart Etzel von Oeringen (October 1, 1917 – June 24, 1929), better known as Strongheart, was a male German Shepherd who was one of the early canine stars of feature films. Biography Born October 1, 1917, Etzel von Oeringen was a male German Shepherd ...

: The World's First Movie Star Dog '' (2014) * ''Queen of the Diamond: The

Lizzie Murphy Mary Elizabeth Murphy (April 13, 1894 – July 27, 1964), known as "The Queen of Baseball", was the first woman to play professional baseball, competing with male athletes in 1922. She played baseball for seventeen years as a first baseman; ...

Story'' (2015) * ''Caroline's Comets: A True Story '' (2017), biography of

Caroline Herschel Caroline Lucretia Herschel (; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German born British astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigolle ...

References

External links

*
Emily Arnold McCully
at Balkin Buddies
Emily Arnold McCully
at publisher Scholastic * 1967 to October 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:McCully, Emily Arnold 1939 births American children's writers American women illustrators American children's book illustrators Caldecott Medal winners People from Galesburg, Illinois People from Garden City, New York Pembroke College in Brown University alumni Columbia University alumni Writers from Illinois Writers from New York (state) Living people 21st-century American women