Gina Calleja, born Jean Gadsby, (March 12, 1928 – March 7, 2017) was an author and illustrator of children's books in Canada.

Personal life and education

Calleja was born Jean Gadsby in Lowestoft, England. She studied art at

Reading University The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

and London University's

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

. She married Joseph Calleja, a painter and sculptor from Malta, and the pair moved to Canada in 1958. She died March 7, 2017.

Career

Calleja worked as a secondary school teacher in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. In 1980, she created the illustrations for Caroline Beech's ''Peas again for lunch''. Soon after, she illustrated two of Frank Etherington's stories, ''The Spaghetti Word Race'' and ''Those Words''. Calleja created her first children's book as an author in 1983, entitled ''Tobo Hates Purple''. She continued to write and illustrate over the next two decades; her most recent book is ''Great Food for Happy Kids'' in 2001.

Publications

As author

*''Tobo Hates Purple'', 1983 *''Wizzo and the Cookie Babies'', 1994 *''Bloor and Christie'', 1998

As illustrator

*''Peas Again for Lunch'', 1980. *''The Spaghetti Word Race'', 1981 *''Those Words'', 1982 *''Great Food for Happy Kids'', 2001 "Great Food for Happy Kids"
review by Thelma Barer-Stein in ''The Culinary Historians of Ontario'', Spring 2002, Issue 32, page 6.

References

External links

WorldCat report"Gina Calleja"
Family placed obituary in the Toronto Star, March 10, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Calleja, Gina 1928 births 2017 deaths Canadian children's book illustrators People from Lowestoft English emigrants to Canada Canadian expatriates in England Alumni of the University of Reading Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Canadian women illustrators Canadian children's writers Canadian women children's writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian writers 20th-century Canadian artists 20th-century Canadian women artists