Introducing Henry Cole

For the past month, I have been enjoying the fruits of Henry Cole's labor! Wow, what an amazing collection that exhibits Henry's talents of writing and illustration.

I met Henry at the Warrensburg Children Literature Festival in 2011. But he's been a family friend since 2006, when he came to Iola's Young Authors' Celebration with Pamela Duncan Edwards.

Here's a little bit about Henry and his life:

Henry Cole was born in Virginia and lived on a diary farm. There were four things Henry loved when he was a child: his family, drawing, nature/wildlife, and school. His gift of drawing was nurtured by his mother, who was herself a fashion illustrator. He had many amazing misadventures on the farm, thanks to his brother, Jimmy. Somehow he survived and left home to go into Forestry at Virginia Polytechnic and State University.

His love of nature led him to become an elementary science teacher. But he kept up his artistic skills by illustrating many of his teaching aids for himself and other teachers.

When authors or illustrators would come visit his school, he thought seriously about changing careers to become an illustrator. Working together with the school librarian, Pamela Duncan Edwards, they created the book Some Smug Slug that was published in 1996.

Since this time, Henry has taken off in his career to both illustrate and write his own books like Trudy, Unspoken, and his first chapter book, Nest for Celeste.

Check out Henry's books at your local library!