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Perhaps best known for giving the world Frog and Toad, Arnold Lobel was born in Los Angeles, California, on May 22, 1933. He was raised by his grandparents in New York. He loved checking out books from the library when he was a little boy and sharing with his classmates the stories he had written and illustrated.
Lobel graduated with a bachelor s degree in Fine Arts from the The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, in 1955. At Pratt he met and later married a fellow art student named Anita Kempler.
His first artwork published in a children's book came in 1961. The Red Tag Comes Back was written by Fred Phleger and was the story of a salmon who swims upstream to lay her eggs. In 1962, he wrote and illustrated A Zoo for Mister Munster. These books began his long career in the field of children's literature.
At times, Lobel collaborated with his wife Anita who is also a children's writer and illustrator. Their first book was How Rooster Saved the Day. They worked together on three other books: A Treeful of Pigs, a 1979 ALA Notable Book; On Market Street, a 1982 Caldecott Honor Book; and The Rose in My Garden, a 1984 Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book.
In recognition of his distinguished work in children's book illustration, Lobel received a Caldecott Medal for Fables (1981) and two Caldecott Honors for Frog and Toad Are Friends (1971) and Hildilid's Night by Cheli Duran Ryan (1972). In recognition of distinguished writing, Lobel received a Newbery Honor for Frog and Toad Together (1973).
Some of Mr. Lobel's most popular books feature those two brown and green, pop-eyed best buddies, Frog and Toad. They share walks together and yummy ice cream cones. They swim together and plan surprises for each other. They're best friends. Always together. Now and forever!
Lobel died on December 4, 1987 in New York, New York, but he left a legacy of over seventy children's books that were published throughout his twenty-six year career.
EXTENSION IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES
* Access a lesson plan for second/third graders at Collaborative Thematic Unit-Theme: Reptiles and Amphibians (http://www.libsci.sc.edu/ miller/Reptiles.htm).
* TeacherView: Fables is a lesson plan for Reading Level 3 that focuses on Arnold...