| Peter Sís | |
|---|---|
| Born | Petr Sís 1950 Brino, Czechoslovakia) |
| Occupation | disk jockey, |
| Years active | 49 |
| Spouse | Madalenka |
| Children | Madeleine, Matej |
Peter Sís (born 1950 in Brno, Czechoslovakia) is an award-winning children's book writer and illustrator.[1] Sís attended the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London. In addition to writing and illustrating books, Peter's editorial illustrations have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Esquire, and The Atlantic Monthly.
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Peter Sís was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1949. His father was a film-maker and his mother was an artist,[2] and he has a younger sister, Hana.[3] [4] As a teenager, Sís developed an interest in Western culture, Allen Ginsberg’s beat poetry, long hair for men, blue jeans and rock and roll, particularly the music of The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones.[5] Sís was educated at The High School of Applied Arts, the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague[3] and the Royal College of Art in London, where he studied with Quentin Blake.[4] When he graduated, he began a career as a film-maker, later winning a Golden Bear Award for an animated short, Hlavy, at the 1980 West Berlin Film Festival.[6]
Peter Sís has won The New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year award six times. He was also awarded with the American Library Association's Caldecott Honor for the illustrations of his 1996 book, "Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei",1998 book "Tibet Through The Red Box" as well as his 2007 work, "The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain." The latter book also received the ALA's 2008 Robert Silbert Medal for the most distinguished informational book for young readers. He has received a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award twice: for Tibet Through The Red Box (1999) and The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain (2008)[7]
He won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for "Tibet Through the Red Box".
Sís has won the Golden Bear Award at the 1980 West Berlin Film Festival for an animated short. He has also won the Grand Prix Toronto and the Cine Golden Eagle Award.