Jon Klassen
| Jon Klassen | |
|---|---|
Jon Klassen in 2016.
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| Born |
November 29, 1981 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Occupation | Illustrator, writer |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Period | 2005–present |
| Genre | Children's picture books, animation |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards |
Governor General's Award 2010 Caldecott Medal 2013 Greenaway Medal 2014 |
Jon Klassen (born November 29, 1981) is a Canadian writer and illustrator of children's books and an animator. He won both the American Caldecott Medal and the British Kate Greenaway Medal for children's book illustration, recognizing the 2012 picture book This is Not My Hat, which he also wrote. He is the first person to win both awards for the same work.
This Is Not My Hat is a companion to Klassen's preceding picture book, I Want My Hat Back (2011), and his first as both writer and illustrator. Both books were on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than 40 weeks; by April 2014 one or the other had been translated into 22 languages and they had jointly surpassed one million worldwide sales. Both books were recommended for children ages 5+ by the Greenaway judges.
Klassen was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in 1981 and grew up in Niagara Falls and Toronto, Ontario. He studied animation at Sheridan College, graduated in 2005, and moved to Los Angeles.
That year he made an animated short with Daniel Rodrigues, An Eye for Annai. He worked on animation of the feature films Kung Fu Panda (2008) and Coraline (2009) and he was art director for the 2009 animated music video of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" by U2.
Klassen told Illustration Mundo at the end of 2008, "I work at an animation studio right now on things that won't come out for years and years. ... it can sometimes feel like the equivalent of emptying a glass of water into a lake."
In 2010, Klassen achieved international recognition when he was awarded the Governor General's Award for English-language children's illustration for his work on the picture book Cats' Night Out, written by Carolyn Stutson. He also illustrated The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood, the first novel in a HarperCollins series called The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place along with the second and third, and the first edition hardcover of the fourth novel in the series.
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