ANNA DEWDNEY ’87

ANNA DEWDNEY, a children’s author, illustrator, and educator, died Sept. 3, 2016, after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. She was 50. After receiving her degree in art, she worked at several jobs, including teaching art and history at a boarding school. Her dream to become a full-time author and illustrator began with her artwork for The Peppermint Race (Henry Holt, 1994). She went on to illustrate a number of other children’s chapter books in the 1990s. In 2005, Viking published the first picture book she both wrote and illustrated, Llama, Llama Red Pajama. That was the genesis of a series that now contains more than 10 titles and has sold more than 10 million copies combined. An animated series is due out in 2017. She made many school, library, and event appearances, where she spoke passionately about her work and children’s literacy. She published a 2013 opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in which she wrote that “empathy is as important as literacy” when introducing children to reading. By reading with a child, “we are teaching that child to be human,” and the act enables the child “to see the world through someone else’s eyes.” She is survived by her partner, Reed Duncan, and two grown daughters.