Because Barbara: Barbara Cooney Paints Her World

by Sarah Mackenzie, illustrated by Eileen Ryan Ewen

🌟 “Will intrigue many adult readers as well as children, particularly those familiar with Cooney’s timeless picture books.” —Booklist Starred Review

Legendary picture book creator Barbara Cooney once noticed that the library in her little town by the sea needed attention. A library, she knew, should be a kind of paradise. And because Barbara did whatever she set her mind to, she made it one.

Barbara Cooney set her mind to lots of things―none so dear as capturing the beauty of the world in her paintings. These paintings would form the settings for her award-winning picture books, including Chanticleer and the Fox, Ox-Cart Man, Miss Rumphius, Roxaboxen, and others.

Follow Barbara from New York to Maine, from the shores of Greece to the mountains of Appalachia, as she captures their beauty and creates some of the most magnificent books for children ever published.

A picture book biography about one of America’s best-loved children’s book illustrators.