Tana Hoban

Tana Hoban (February 20, 1917 – January 27, 2006) was an American photographer and creator of children's books including many picture books without any words.

Tana Hoban was born in Philadelphia to immigrants from Russia. Her father, an advertising manager for Jewish Daily World, encourage a career and enrolled her in art classes when she was very young.^[1] In 1938 she earned a fellowship to travel and study painting in Europe. Back in the U.S. she married photographer Edward E. Gallob in 1939 and started photography herself.^[2] In 1980 Hoban won a book Caldecott Honor is "One Little Kitten". Hoban created picture books out of photos and thereby taught educational concepts such as signs and symbols, the alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, animals, opposites, sizes and prepositions. Her early books were in black-and-white, but later books are in color. Beginning 1970 she wrote, designed, illustrated, and published 110 or more titles."^[3]

She died in 2006 at a hospice in Louveciennes, France, outside Paris.^[4] She had lived in Paris for the past 23 years. Her husband at the time, John G. Morris, had been photo editor at The New York Times.^[3]

She was the older sister of writer Russell Hoban.^[2]

Works

A, B, See! Big Ones, Little Ones Black on White Black & White A Children's Zoo Dig, Drill, Dump, Fill Dots, Spots, Speckles, and Stripes Exactly the Opposite I Read Signs I Read Symbols I Walk and Read Is It Larger? Is It Smaller? Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue? Is It Rough? Is It Smooth? Is It Shiny?

Look! Look! Look! More Than One Of Colors and Things One Little Kitten 1, 2, 3 Panda, Panda Red, Blue, Yellow Shoe Round & Round & Round Shadows and Reflections Shapes, Shapes, Shapes Take Another Look 26 Letters and 99 Cents What Is It? White on Black

References

1. "Tana Haban Papers". de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. University of Southern Mississippi. July 2001. Retrieved 2013-06-29. With biographical sketch.
2. "Biography for Tana Hoban". Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Penn State U Libraries (libraries.psu.edu). Retrieved 2011-12-18.
3. "Tana Hoban, 88, an Author Whose Specialty Was Pictures, Dies". Wolfgang Saxon. The New York Times. February 4, 2006. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
4. "Tana Hoban; Reshaped Children's Books". Matt Schudel. The Washington Post. February 10, 2006. Retrieved 2013-06-29.

External links

• Image of a baby enjoying one of Tana Hoban's Books: Black On White
• Tana Hoban at Library of Congress Authorities, with 64 catalog records