Award-winning children's book author and illustrator Peter Spier, "who depicted Noah's biblical journey, told the story of the Erie Canal to the words of the song 'Low Bridge, Everybody Down' and gave voice to the sounds of hundreds of animals like hippos ('RRUMMPF) and starlings ('FEE-YOU')," died April 27, the New York Times reported. He was 89.
Spier's dozens of books, which "are filled with meticulously drawn and brilliantly colored images," include Caldecott Medal winner Noah's Ark; Circus!; People; We the People: The Constitution of the United States; The Erie Canal; and The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night. He said that he created children's books "for the kids and the child within myself."