Jon Klassen
Illustrator of Many Fantastic Books
Jon's Childhood
Jon Klassen was born on November 29, 1981 in Ontario, Canada. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California. As a young child, Jon was very musical, he would be in the car seat and he’d sing the lyrics to “Sentimental Ol’ You” before he could really talk in complete sentences, but surprisingly he was not very artistic as a young child, although he did memorize the words to his favorite picture books such as P.D. Eastman’s books. His favorite was Sam and the Firefly. He would actually refuse to do homework that involved drawing for the first two years of school. From the second grade Jon's parents knew he was going to be an artist, he was naturally a good drawer.
Accomplishments
Jon went to school for animation and worked doing illustration and design for animation studios for about 5 years. While working at the animation studios, Klassen got his very first illustration job. This is a great accomplishment because this is really what started his illustration career in book. Canadian writer Jon Klassen's This Is Not My Hat received the Randolph Caldecott Medal for outstanding illustration. He was also given the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for "I Want My Hat Back"