Kevin Henkes Who is Kevin Henkes Kevin was

Kevin Henkes

Who is Kevin Henkes? • Kevin was born in a small town called Racine in the state of Wisconsin. • He grew up taking regular trips to the local library and the art museum with his family. • Henkes always loved reading and drawing and painting. • He has written and illustrated over 30 children’s books and novels! • He now lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife, son, and daughter.

What does he do? • Kevin writes and illustrates picture books and novels for children. • He sometimes writes books for other people to illustrate, and sometimes illustrates books that other authors have written! • Kevin knew in college that he wanted to become and author and illustrator. He published his first book when he was 21 years old! •

How does he write his stories? • Kevin likes to use his own childhood memories and experiences to get ideas for his books. • The first thing that Kevin does when writing a new story is develop his main character. He says that “Books begin with character; character is the seed from which a book grows. ” • Kevin likes to create characters and stories that young children can relate to. He uses many different themes such as friendship, growing up, sadness, and happiness. • Henkes is famous for creating characters that are funny and life-like. His characters are often animals in the roles of children.

How does he create his illustrations? • Kevin uses mostly watercolor paints and draws lines with a pen for his illustrations. • He loves to use a lot of different colors in his pictures. • He also likes to use thin lines to provide more details and thicker lines for his more simple illustrations.

What tools does he use? • Kevin uses paintbrushes and watercolor paints. He also uses a crow-quill pen to draw his lines.

What are we going to do? • We will be reading seven of Kevin Henkes books as a class! We will talk about his characters, themes, and how his words and illustrations work together. • To begin our study we will read the first book that Henkes published called All Alone. Then we will visit his website to learn a little bit more about him! http: //www. kevinhenkes. com/

Sources • (2010). Kevin Henkes. Something About the Author. (Vol. 207, pp. 66 -73. ) • Harper Collins Publishers • Kevin Henkes Website • Google Images