Bud Werner Memorial Library

For over twenty years, Steve Jenkins has created picture books for children combining science and the natural world with stunning visual images. He is a graphic designer, illustrator and author with over thirty books and numerous awards under his belt. Jenkins has collaborated with many authors as an illustrator, including both his father and his wife, Robin Page. Their collaboration on the book, “What do you do with a tail like this?” earned Steve Jenkins a Caldecott Honor medal in 2004. Steve’s art medium of choice is paper collage, which brilliantly captures animals in their habitats. Steve’s work often starts with a photograph from a book or those taken while visiting zoos or aquariums. He outlines the drawing and chooses a color palate for the paper collage. Then he cuts and tears. According to answers.com, Steve says that part of the appeal of collage art for young readers is that, the kids "are filling in part of the information. So not only is it satisfying for me to find a piece of paper that is at the same time a hippopotamus's skin, but I think kids get the same satisfaction from filling in the details and making it into a hippo as well as a piece of paper."

Steve Jenkins' Website