Gregory John Rogers (19 June 1957 – 1 May 2013) was an illustrator and writer of

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 ...

, especially

picture books 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 ...

. He was the first

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

to win the annual

Kate Greenaway Medal The Kate Greenaway Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) ...

from the

Library Association The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge management, knowle ...

, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a

British subject The term "British subject" has several different meanings depending on the time period. Before 1949, it referred to almost all subjects of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Dominions, and colonies, but excluding protectorates ...

. The book was ''Way Home'' by the Australian writer

Libby Hathorn Elizabeth Helen Hathorn (born 1943) is an Australian writer for children, and a poet who works with schools, institutions and communities. She has received many awards for her books, some of which have been translated into several languages. In ...

, published in the U.K. by

Andersen Press Andersen Press is a British book publishing company. It was founded in 1976 by Klaus Flugge, and was named after Hans Christian Andersen "because it is easier to pronounce and spell than Flugge". Random House has a holding in the company and a s ...

in 1994. In the unnamed city, a boy makes his way home at night and adopts a stray cat en route. The "picture book for older readers" was controversial on grounds both that it was "hardboiled" and that it "romanticised the plight of the homeless"."Libby Hathorn"
AUSTLIT (austlit.edu.au). Retrieved 2015-03-16.

Life and career

Rogers was born on 19 June 1957, in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

to Marie Bohlscheid and Rex Rogers and grew up in

Coorparoo Coorparoo is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Coorparoo had a population of 16,282 people. Geography Coorparoo is by road south-east of the Brisbane GPO. It borders Camp Hill, Holland Park, Stones Corner, ...

. He studied at the

Queensland College of Art The Queensland College of Art (QCA) is a specialist arts and design college located in South Bank, Brisbane, and Southport on the Gold Coast of Queensland in Australia. Founded in 1881, the college is the oldest arts institution in Australia. A ...

(fine art) and worked as a

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

er before taking up freelance illustration in 1987. Rogers has illustrated many books including Margaret Card's ''Aunty Mary's Dead Goat'', Ian Trevaskis's ''The Postman Race'',

Gary Crew Gary David Crew (born 23 September 1947) is an Australian writer of young adult fiction. Awards Crew has won the Australian Children's Book of the Year on four occasions. Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers * 1991 '' Strange ...

's ''Tracks'' and ''Lucy's Bay'', Libby Hathorn's ''Way Home'', and Nigel Gray's ''Running Away From Home''. Beside the Greenaway Medal, ''Way Home'' also won a

Parents' Choice Award The Parents' Choice Award was an award presented by the non-profit Parents' Choice Foundation to recognize "the very best products for children of different ages and backgrounds, and of varied skill and interest levels." It was considered a "prest ...

in the U.S. and was shortlisted for the APBA book design awards. Nevertheless, his most widely held work in

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

participating libraries is the first book he both wrote and illustrated, ''The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, and the Bard''. The

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 ...

was published by

Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an ...

of Australia in 2004 and by

Roaring Brook Press A roar is a type of animal vocalization that is deep and resonating. Many mammals have evolved to produce roars and other roar-like vocals for purposes such as long-distance communication and intimidation. These include various species of big cat ...

that same year in the U.S."Formats and Editions of The boy, the bear, the baron, the bard"
WorldCat. Retrieved 2012-08-30. It features a timeslip to Shakespeare's London by a boy who follows a soccer ball from

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...

, the modern reconstruction, to the original

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...

. With ''Midsummer Knight'' (2006) and ''The Hero of Little Street'' (2009) it constitutes a "wordless picture book series" that ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' calls his work best known in the U.S. Rogers played several musical instruments—the cornetto,

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

, and the

baroque guitar The Baroque guitar (c. 1600–1750) is a string instrument with five courses of gut strings and moveable gut frets. The first (highest pitched) course sometimes used only a single string. History The Baroque guitar replaced the Renaissance lut ...

—performing music of the 16th and 17th centuries. He collected "CDs, antiques, books, and anything that might attract dust". He was also an avid collector of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

items. Rogers died 1 May 2013 in Brisbane from

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

Books

Solo works

According to ''Publishers Weekly'', Rogers was "best known in

he U.S. He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' i ...

for his sequence of three wordless picture books". * ''The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard'' (

Crows Nest, New South Wales Crows Nest is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is also part of the North Sydney region, 5 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council ...

, 2004) * ''Midsummer Knight'' (2006) * ''The Hero of Little Street'' (2009) * ''Omar the Strongman'', text and illustrations (Scholastic Press, 2013),

As illustrator

* ''Enter Bob Dickinson'' (1988) by Kay Arthur * ''Grandma's Memories'' (1989) by Virginia King * ''Zoe At The Fancy Dress Ball'' (1990) by Susan Reid * ''Lucy Meets A Dragon'' (1990) by Susan Reid * ''Aunty Mary's Dead Goat'' (1990) by Margaret Card * ''The Postman's Race'' (1991) by Ian Trevaskis * ''Space Travellers'' (1992) by

Margaret Wild Margaret Wild (born 1948) is an Australian children's writer. She has written more than 40 books for children. Her work has been published around the world and has won several awards. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Childre ...

* ''Tracks'' (1992) by

* ''Lucy's Bay'' (1992) by Gary Crew * ''Great Grandpa'' (1994) by Susan McQuade * ''Way Home'' (Andersen, 1994) by

* ''The Bent-Back Bridge'' (1995) by Gary Crew * ''Running Away From Home'' (1996) by Nigel Gray * ''The Island'' (1996) by Michael O'Hara * ''What Goes With Toes?'' (1996) by Jeri Kroll * ''Beyond The Dusk'' (2000) by

Victor Kelleher Victor Kelleher (born 1939) is an Australian author. Kelleher was born in London and moved to Africa with his parents, at the age of fifteen. He spent the next twenty years travelling and studying in Africa, before moving to New Zealand. Kelle ...

* ''The Platypus'' (2000) by Jo Brice * ''The Gift'' (2000) by Libby Hathorn * ''Princess Max'' (2001) by Laurie Stiller * ''The Rainbow'' (2001) by Gary Crew * ''Theseus and the Minotaur'' (2002) by Janeen Brian * ''Tiddalick the Thirsty Frog'' (2003) by Mark Carthew * ''The Brothers Grim'' (2004) by Janeen Brian * ''It's True! Fashion Can Be Fatal'' (2004) by Susan Green * ''Flitterwig'' (2009) by Edrei Cullen * ''Clearheart'' (2009) by Edrei Cullen * ''Scatterbungle'' (2011) by Edrei Cullen

References

External links