Ted Lewin, who illustrated and wrote more than 200 children's and YA books, died on July 28 at age 86. Among his many awards were a Caldecott Honor for Peppe the Lamplighter in 1994. In 2015, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, and in 1998, he won the Society of Illustrators' Stevan Dohanos Award. He was raised in Buffalo, N.Y. in a house full of exotic animals, including an iguana, a rhesus monkey, a chimpanzee and a lion, all of which Lewin liked to sketch. His two older brothers, Donn and Mark, were professional wrestlers. Lewin financed his Pratt Institute education by working as a part-time wrestler, which he pursued for 26 years and documented in I Was a Teenaged Professional Wrestler.
Lewin began his non-wrestling career doing illustrations for adventure magazines, but eventually he began working on books. He was also an avid traveler, and many of his books were inspired by trips around the world, including his ALA notable book, Market!, published in 1996 and showcasing markets in Uganda, Ireland, Ecuador and other countries. He collaborated on some books with his wife, Betsy, including How to Babysit a Leopard: And Other True Stories from Our Travels Across Six Continents. Look!, part of the I Like to Read series, pairs simple text with realistic watercolors of many African animals. It is available from Holiday House.
