Caldecott Medalist Uri Shulevitz, widely celebrated for his distinctive ink and watercolor images that capture a child’s viewpoint, and stories often drawn from his evocative childhood memories, died on February 15, two weeks short of his 90th birthday.
Shulevitz was born February 27, 1935, in Warsaw, Poland to Abraham and Szandla Shulevitz. He began drawing at the age of three and credited his creatively talented parents’ encouragement as a major influence on his own creative pursuits. “All children draw, but I never stopped,” he told PW in 2020. “Even before I saw myself as an artist, I do think I had an artist’s intuition.”
In autumn 1939, when Shulevitz was four years old, the Germans invaded Poland, heavily bombing Warsaw. “I vividly remember the streets caving in, the buildings burning, and a bomb falling into the stairwell of our apartment building one day when I was home,” he told Something About the Author. In the wake of this horror, Shulevitz’s Jewish family fled Warsaw and moved as refugees through Poland, parts of the Soviet Union, and Germany for eight years before settling in Paris in 1947. Shulevitz chronicled their harrowing journey in Chance (FSG, 2020), his graphic memoir for middle grade readers, and recounted how his childhood artistic leanings—even drawing with a stick in the dirt or burning a twig to use as charcoal—helped sustain him through the war. “Drawing enabled me to create worlds, real or fantastic; characters, funny or sad, young or old; streets or cities, mountains or oceans,” he wrote in that book. “If I could create such worlds, how could I ever be lonely?”
In Paris, Shulevitz said that he spent much time browsing the book stalls on the Quai de la Seine and was especially enamored with French comic books—so much so that he and a classmate created their own, with Shulevitz providing the art and his friend writing the text. Shulevitz’s talent earned notice, and at 13 years old he won a drawing contest held across all the grammar schools in his district.
In 1949, Shulevitz and his family moved to Israel where he attended high school at night while earning money working odd jobs—including apprenticing to a rubber stamp maker, painting houses, and issuing dog licenses at Tel Aviv City Hall—during the day. He continued to carve out time for his art, and at 15, he became the youngest person to exhibit work in a group drawing show at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
After Shulevitz graduated, he studied literature and science at the Teacher’s Institute and art at the Institute for Israeli Art, both in Tel Aviv, and took private art lessons from the painter Ezekiel Shtreichman.
During the Sinai War in 1956, Shulevitz began his mandatory term in the Israeli Army. Two years later, with his military stint completed, he joined the Ein Geddi kibbutz near the Dead Sea, a collective farming settlement started by some of his friends. He lived and worked on the kibbutz for about a year and then at age 24 he left Israel for New York City, where he pursued freelance art projects and studied painting at the Brooklyn Museum Art School.
One of Shulevitz’s earliest illustration jobs was working within very rigid parameters for a publisher of Hebrew children’s books. Shulevitz told SATA that such a regimented atmosphere helped him improve his pen and brush skills and, ultimately, “I discovered a style which I made my own,” he said. The first book he both wrote and illustrated for children, The Moon in My Room, featuring a boy whose room contains “a whole world” including his own sun, moon, and stars, was published by Harper & Row in 1963.
Shulevitz’s childhood memories and experiences inspired numerous picture books. In addition to his own stories, Shulevitz illustrated texts by other authors, including Arthur Ransome’s retelling of the Russian tale The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968), which won the 1969 Caldecott Medal. Shulevitz was also awarded three Caldecott Honors, for The Treasure, Snow, and How I Learned Geography, all published by FSG. Among other numerous accolades for his books, Shulevitz was named a 2024 Carle Honors honoree in the artist category, a distinction awarded by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
In total, Shulevitz created more than 40 works for young people and had completed a new project before his death. In August, FSG will posthumously release The Sky Was My Blanket: A Young Man’s Journey Across Wartime Europe, a work of narrative nonfiction inspired by the adventures of Shulevitz’s uncle Yehiel, who was a member of the Spanish Republican Army as well as the Jewish Resistance in Vichy France.
Michael di Capua, the editor of several of Shulevitz’s earliest books, said in a statement: “Uri had an innate, untaught sense for effectively shaping the narrative of a picture book, a gift that many well-known illustrators wish they shared. And his distinctive visual style, as unique as his fingerprints, is unmistakable. His books will last.”
Wesley Adams, executive editor at FSG and Shulevitz’s most recent editor, provided this remembrance: “Uri was a true night owl when he worked. We had many marathon-length late-night phone calls about Chance and about his new book, The Sky Was My Blanket, going over edits and the layouts, line by line, page by page. Starting during the Covid lockdown, this became an important interaction for both of us and it grew into a real education for me. Often, he would spend a lot of time considering the wording of a sentence or the size and position of an illustration that looked perfectly fine to me. Uri always found ways to make it even better, sometimes with the tiniest and most deft of adjustments. I never stopped learning from him. And it always felt like a particularly special achievement when the designer and I shared a layout with him and heard back that he was happy and had no further changes.”
Margaret Ferguson, publisher of her eponymous imprint at Holiday House, was Shulevitz’s longtime editor during her tenure at FSG. “I have known Uri for over 40 years—most of my publishing career,” she wrote in a statement. “I remember the first time I met him at FSG I was fairly new to children’s books and he was delivering art for The Treasure. I had never seen anything like it—so beautiful!—and that was the beginning of my love for picture books. Later we went on to work on many wonderful books together and when he delivered the art for each one it was no less thrilling. In many ways Uri was my mentor but most of all, a dear, dear friend.”
Jennifer Schantz, executive director of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, said, “Uri Shulevitz’s life and art remind us that resilience and imagination can transform even the darkest journeys into stories of hope. From drawing on any scrap of paper as a four-year-old fleeing the Warsaw blitz to illuminating the world of children’s literature with his Caldecott Medal- and multiple Caldecott Honor-winning works, Uri showed us that a single picture, a single word, can open endless worlds. We were so proud to celebrate Uri last fall as the 2024 Carle Honors Artist and are honored that much of his archive will be donated to the Carle’s permanent collection so that his versatile and beautiful artworks can inspire generations to come.”
And author-illustrator Aram Kim, former designer and art director at Macmillan, recalled working closely with Shulevitz, one of her idols. “I couldn’t believe my luck when I was assigned to work on Uri Shulevitz’s graphic memoir Chance. His book Writing with Pictures had been my north star for years! On the day Uri visited our office, I nervously brought my copy of Writing with Pictures hoping for an autograph but hesitant to ask. Uri immediately put me at ease with his warm smile and genuine kindness. With one confident stroke, he drew a beautiful illustration and signed my book! My admiration for him only deepened.
What struck me most while working on Chance wasn’t just his remarkable ballpoint pen illustrations and captivating storytelling, but also his collaborative spirit. It humbled me to witness how the master of his craft welcomed feedback and ideas, always eager to discuss details while remaining steadfast in his artistic vision and commitment to excellence. In my decade in publishing, I’ve collected many wonderful memories, but working with Uri Shulevitz remains the highlight of my career. I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to know him.”
A celebration of Shulevitz’s life and work is being planned for the fall.
