Yesterday we heard the sad news that John Burningham had passed away. It was only last year that he received the Booktrust lifetime achievement award, along with his wife Helen Oxenbury.
Borka: the Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers, his first picture book published in 1963, won the Kate Greenaway Medal, as did Mr Gumpy’s Outing which was published in 1970.
Judith Kerr said that Burningham’s picture book Humbert, a story about a working horse pulling the Lord Mayor’s coach inspired her own career (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/07/john-burningham-childrens-author-and-illustrator-dies-aged-82)
My favourite story by Burningham is Granpa which captures the loving relationship between Granpa and his granddaughter and has a very emotional ending.
If you have a favourite story by John Burningham, we would like to invite you to share it with us here.
very sad news about John Burningham. So many brilliant books, I love COME AWAY FROM THE WATER SHIRLEY, two stories working alongside each other, which Meek used to show how the reader needs to span both pages to gain full meaning. I always like to think that the beach Mum, Dad and Shirley go to is Brighton Beach, I can imagine the Palace Pier in the corner.