Donald Crews

Donald Crews (born August 30, 1938, in Newark, New Jersey) is an American children’s book author, illustrator, and graphic designer best known for his bold, graphic picture books and autobiographical stories. He studied at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, graduating in 1959. Crews’s work frequently explores themes of transportation, modern technology, and family memories, and he is the creator of the Caldecott Honor books Freight Train (1978) and Truck (1980). In 2015, the American Library Association recognized his lasting contribution to children’s literature with the Children’s Literature Legacy Award (formerly the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal).

Crews is also the author and illustrator of Bigmama’s, an autobiographical picture book inspired by the summers he spent visiting his grandparents in Cottondale, Florida, where “Bigmama” was his grandmother. His annual train trips from Newark to Florida and his family’s Southern roots strongly shaped this and another autobiographical book, Shortcut (1992). Crews has long been associated with a family of children’s book creators: his late wife Ann Jonas was an author-illustrator, and their daughter Nina Crews is also a children’s book author and illustrator.