Hilda van Stockum

Born on February 9, 1908, in Rotterdam, Holland, Hilda van Stockum grew up in Ireland. She wrote and illustrated her first book at age 5, giving it to her younger brother Willem. She attended art school in Dublin, Amsterdam, and Washington, DC. Her first book for children, A Day on Skates: the Story of a Dutch Picnic, was published by May Massee at Viking and received a Newbery Honor in 1935.

She often wrote and illustrated chapter books about her childhood and her own five children. In The Cottage at Bantry Bay, she populates her story with memories and experience of her childhood in Ireland. In the five-book The Mitchells series, the family is based on her children and their lives in Washington, DC, and Canada. In the 1960s, she reached back to World War II for two books set among the Dutch Resistance movement, The Winged Watchman and The Borrowed House.

A much-admired illustrator and painter, Ms. van Stockum had several gallery exhibits and one of her still life paintings was chosen for a postage stamp in Ireland.

Ms. van Stockum died in November 2006 at the age of 98, having contributed a great deal to the world and to the field of children's literature.