Bill Peet

Early Life

• Indianapolis, Indiana
• drawing
• outdoors, animals, farming
• paperboy

School, Jobs

• John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis
• department store ads
• illustrating greeting cards
• entered paintings into local contests

Walt Disney, 27 years

• Pinocchio
• Dumbo
• Cinderella
• Alice in Wonderland
• Peter Pan
• Sleeping Beauty
• 101 Dalmatians
• The Sword in the Stone

Book List

• 35 children's books
• Chester the Worldly Pig
• Jennifer and Josephine
• Smokey
• Cowardly Clyde
• Farewell to Shady Glade
• Ella
• The Ant and the Elephant

Importance to Children's Lit - themes

• overcoming hardships, trying when there's not much hope
• compromise
• accepting others and self as is
• environmental conservation
• caring for others

Ella

• Ella the elephant, star of the circus
• Hides from train, changes her mind too late
• Works on farm
• A little hard work never hurt anyone

Ella

• conceited
• mire
• brood
• hound
• outwit
• blunderbuss

Jennifer and Josephine

• Jennifer - old car
• Josephine - stray cat
• Mr. Frenzy - man in a hurry, leaves the two stuck in the mud in the woods
• Friendship

Jennifer and Josephine

• Never explains what Mr. Frenzy's big hurry was

Special Info

• "I am an author/illustrator of children's books - and yet - I must confess I don't do the books for the kids... I write them so I can illustrate them."
• "Chester is the one book of mine that reflects my past more than any other."

Additional Accolades

• winner of Pioneer Award for innovation in the field of animation
• winner of Annie Award for distinguished contribution in the field of animation
• nominated for Academy Award for Goliath II
• Caldecott Honor for Bill Peet An Autobiography

Other interests

• trains
• circus
• animals
• nature
• conservation

More Bill Peet online

• not on any social media
• billpeet.com
• old 'Goofy Shorts' available online
• "I Read Story Books" youtube
• justbooksreadaloud.com

Resources

• Peet, B. (1989). Bill peet: An autobiography. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
• www.billpeet.com