Arthur and his sister Violet are selling all their old toys ina Tag Sale. Even Arthur's Honey Bear! But Arthur finds there's morethan one way to say good-bye to an old friend.
Lillian Hoban's books for children have been working magic fornearly thirty years. Her illustrations can help change anunfamiliar setting-like a museum filled with dinosaurs andwhales-into a wondrous adventure, and her words and picturestogether can transform chimpanzees and badgers into very realcompanions for the youngest reader.
Ms. Hoban was born and raised in Philadelphia. Among the firstbooks she illustrated were the ever-popular "Frances" books, andseveral years later she wrote and illustrated Arthur's ChristmasCookies, thereby ushering in her beloved 'Arthur" series.
In 1967 Ms. Hoban was asked to illustrate Will I Have aFriend? by Miriam Cohen. It was the beginning of an enormouslypopular collaboration that produced more that a dozen books aboutJim, Paul, Danny, Anna Maria, and the rest of the first-gradeclasscharacters as familiar to children as their ownclassmates.
Perhaps the key to the unfailing popularity of Ms. Hoban'sstories and illustrations is that she's long been a keen observerof children, having had firsthand experience raising four of herown.
Lillian Hoban lives in Connecticut.
