Jan Pieńkowski 1936-2022

Image source: Book Trust

Jan Michel Pieńkowski (born August 8, 1936) was a Polish-born British illustrator and author of children's books. He is probably best known for his Meg and Mog books with writer Helen Nicoll and for his pop-up books, including Haunted House (winner of the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal), Robot, Dinner Time, Good Night and 17 others.  Pieńkowski illustrated his first book at the age of eight, as a present for his father. During World War II, Pieńkowski's family moved about Europe, finally settling in Herefordshire, England in 1946. He attended the Cardinal Vaughan School in London, and later read English and Classics at King's College, Cambridge.  After leaving university Pieńkowski founded the Gallery Five greeting cards company. He began illustrating children's books in his spare time, but soon found the work taking over all his time. He began working with children's author Joan Aiken in 1968; he later won the first of two Kate Greenaway Medals in 1972 for his illustrations in Aiken's The Kingdom Under the Sea. Spooky-Kids Fandom

Jan Pieńkowski wrote over 140 books and you are sure to recognise his silhouette style seen in classic fairytales and folktales and of course there are other famous titles such as the books about Meg and Mog. Jan was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen award in 1982 and 2008. He won the Kate Greenaway medal for the book The Kingdom under the Sea by Joan Aitken and for The Haunted House in 1979. He was awarded the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Here is an interview with Jan.

Pienkowski’s exquisite illustrations of paper-cut silhouettes with occasional color or marbled paper effects are of such astonishing detail and great power that they need this larger size to show off their beauty. Kirkus Star review for The Fairy Tales.

I think my first encounters with the unique and very appealing work of Jan Pienkowski came from these two books:

A Necklace of Raindrops

And of course every school library will have books from the Meg and Mog series.  I gifted many of these over the years.

In my first school library I had these terrific pop up books. They were so popular I remember the copies were very worn out - pop up books are such fun. There were twenty books in this series:

Here is a video (with odd spooky music) showing his famous pop up book - The Haunted House. Take a look to see the amazing  paper engineering. 

Over the next few weeks I will be exploring a range of alphabet books in preparation for an IBBY virtual event.  Here is a splendid alphabet poster by Jan Pieńkowski.

Here is the first book Jan Pieńkowski wrote in 1967:

I would really like to see this anthology which was one of four volumes celebrating poems and stories from around the Commonwealth. Volume one was illustrated by Jan; volume two by Poonam Mistry; volume three by Julie Flett; and volume four was illustrated by Emma Butler.

Each volume contains a story or poem from each of the fifty-three countries in the Commonwealth. The themes of the stories and poems are based on four key elements that sustain our planet: water, earth, air and fire. Through the stories, poems and illustrations, students are invited to enter into the imaginations and aspirations of others from across the Commonwealth, to engage with unfamiliar representations of the world (both social and natural), and to consider the challenging issues facing our world. Literacy Trust