Illustrator Spotlight - WNDB's own Don Tate - Official Tumblr of We Need Diverse Books

Illustrator Spotlight - WNDB’s own Don Tate

Don Tate is WNDB’s Artist Outreach Coordinator and is the person who single-handedly brought together all these amazing illustrators for the WNDB Art projects. Today, we are thrilled to get to talk about our own resident artist!

Don is the illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed books for children including DUKE ELLINGTON’S NUTCRACKER SUITE (Charlesbridge), SHE LOVED BASEBALL (HarperCollins), and RON’S BIG MISSION (Penguin). Don’s illustrations also appear regularly in newspapers and magazines, and on products for children such as wallpaper, textiles, calendars, apparel, and paper products.

With a bold, dynamic style, Don’s oil and acrylic paintings bring to life the pages of the children’s books he illustrates. His art has been noted for it’s versatility of style, though Don does not feel his art represents any so-called trademark style.

IT JES’ HAPPENED: WHEN BILL TRAYLOR STARTED TO DRAW, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, (Lee & Low Books, 2012) (ages 4-up) marks his debut as an author. It Jes’ Happened is a Lee & Low New Voices Honor winner, and an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor winner, 2012. It received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and School Library Journal, as well as being selected as a Kirkus Best Children’s Books List Selection, a Booklist Editors’ Choice, 2012, and a New York Public Library Top 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, and more! Also honored as a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2012.

And here’s Don’s beautiful piece for the WNDB Art Poster! For more information about Don and all his amazing work, go to his website at dontate.com. And don’t forget for a small donation, you can own the WNDB Art Poster with Don’s beautiful art! igg.me/at/diversebooks

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