Trina

My favorite artist is Trina Schart Hyman. She is a children's illustrator and was the art director at Cricket magazine during the '70s, which is how I got to know her work. She's illustrated 150+ books, and won several Caldecott honors. And, as my sister's kids tell me, if the book has a medal on it, that means the pictures are REALLY good.

I've always wanted to meet her. I learned at the LA Times Book Festival a few years ago, that she's rather reclusive and rarely goes to book signings or events of that nature. An autographed TSH book is a rare treasure.

So, I've made it a hobby to collect her books. Sometimes I pull the pages out of the books and frame them, and give them as gifts. Being on a limited budget, I don't have all of her work yet. I look for her books on ebay every now and then, and that's usually how I build my collection.

I suppose that is how the fact escaped me that she died of cancer at the end of 2004.

I'm very sad to learn this today. She was very important. I have never seen work like hers. I am glad that she was here for so long and was able to share her talent and leave such a huge legacy. We are lucky. But I am sad that it is over and I didn't get to say hello to her.