Award-winning children's book author and illustrator Simms Taback died December 25, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 79. Included among his best known works were his 1998 Caldecott Honor Book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and his Caldecott Medal-winning adaptation of the Yiddish folk song "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat." Taback was a founding president of the Illustrators Guild in New York City and a founding member and president of the New York Graphic Artists Guild.
