Picture of author.

Ruth Krauss (1901–1993)

Author of The Carrot Seed

60+ Works 9,741 Members 177 Reviews

About the Author

Ruth Krauss was born on July 25, 1901 in Baltimore, Maryland. She attended the Peabody Institute of Music. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Parsons School of Fine and Applied Art and studied anthropology at Columbia University. In 1941, she married David Johnson Leisk, who wrote and show more illustrated children's books as Crockett Johnson. They occasionally worked together. Her first book, A Good Man and His Good Wife, was published in 1944. She was credited as being one of the first authors to use minimal text, concentrating on precise language and working closely with an illustrator. She wrote more than 30 children's books during her lifetime including The Carrot Seed, I Can Fly, and A Hole Is to Dig: A First Book of First Definitions. She received the Caldecott Medal for The Happy Day in 1950 and A Very Special House in 1954. She also wrote verse plays and poetry for adults. She died on July 10, 1993 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Ruth Krauss

The Carrot Seed (1945) 4,122 copies
The Happy Day (1949) 1,254 copies
A Hole is to Dig (1952) 868 copies
I Can Fly (1950) 510 copies
Bears (1948) 433 copies
A Very Special House (1953) 376 copies
The Carrot Seed Board Book (1892) 375 copies
I'll Be You and You Be Me (1954) 223 copies
The Growing Story (1947) 219 copies
The Happy Egg (1967) 195 copies
Open House for Butterflies (1960) 193 copies
The Bundle Book (1951) 139 copies
Is This You? (1955) 127 copies
The Backward Day (1950) 99 copies
Big and Little (1987) 62 copies
And I Love You (2010) 52 copies
Roar Like a Dandelion (2019) 45 copies
Everything Under a Mushroom (1973) 22 copies
The birthday party (1957) 20 copies
Somebody Spilled the Sky (1979) 9 copies
How to Make an Earthquake (1954) 5 copies
What A Fine Day For... (1967) 4 copies
My Little Library (1998) 3 copies
The Great Duffy (1946) 2 copies
Monkey day (1973) 2 copies
The Cantilever Rainbow (1965) 2 copies
I Write It (1970) 2 copies
This breast gothic (1973) 2 copies
Lifestories (1993) 1 copy
i can fly 1 copy
Una storia che cresce (2017) 1 copy
If Only 1 copy
Under Twenty (1970) 1 copy

Associated Works

My Song Is Beautiful (1994) — Contributor — 66 copies
Wonders: Writings and Drawings for the Child in Us All (1980) — Contributor — 18 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 6, February 1975 (1975) — Contributor — 5 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 8, April 1974 (1974) — Contributor — 4 copies
Locus Solus II (1961) — Contributor — 3 copies
Telephone #9 — Contributor — 1 copy
Telephone #11 — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

animals (136) bears (115) BFIAR (47) board book (52) carrot (67) carrots (102) children (153) children's (260) children's book (55) children's books (62) children's literature (101) collection:Fiction (64) family (81) fiction (279) food (56) garden (119) gardening (176) gardens (49) growing (52) hardcover (76) hibernation (67) humor (48) imagination (59) nature (49) paperback (64) patience (101) perseverance (99) picture book (583) planting (83) plants (255) poetry (64) read (54) science (102) seasons (69) seeds (158) shelf:Fiction (64) spring (138) to-read (53) vegetables (57) winter (88)

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Krauss, Ruth Ida
Birthdate
1901-07-25
Date of death
1993-07-10
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Place of death
Westport, Connecticut, USA
Places of residence
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Education
Parsons School of Design (BA|1929)
Occupations
children's book author
poet
Relationships
Johnson, Crockett (husband)
Awards and honors
Caldecott Medal (1950 | 1954)
Short biography
Ruth Krauss was born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from the Parson School of Design in New York City. During the 1940s, she was a member of the Writers' Laboratory at the Bank Street College of Education. In 1943, she married Crockett Johnson, a children's book author and illustrator. They collaborated on many books for children, among them such classics such as The Carrot Seed (1945). Her book A Hole Is to Dig (1952) was illustrated by Maurice Sendak. She produced more than 30 books for children in her career and also wrote poems for an adult audience.

Members

Reviews

Absolutely charming book illustrating joyous imaginary play.
 
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FamiliesUnitedLL | 9 other reviews | Oct 15, 2023 |
This was a fun read. We got it from the library and didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t realize it was an abc book but the statements were so off the wall at times it didn’t seem like an abc book. My kids 10-6 were all laughing and enjoying it together.
 
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hooligansmama | 2 other reviews | Oct 3, 2023 |
Meh. It's fun to see an alphabet book where verbs are the starting letter as opposed to nouns. But it also wasn't a super great book either.
 
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msgabbythelibrarian | 2 other reviews | Jun 11, 2023 |
The art is great.
 
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JRobinW | 3 other reviews | Jan 20, 2023 |

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Associated Authors

Crockett Johnson Illustrator
Maurice Sendak Illustrator
Esther Gilman Illustrator
Marc Simont Illustrator
Mary Blair Illustrator
Steven Kellogg Illustrator
Mary Chalmers Illustrator
Han G. Hoekstra Translator
Jane Dyer Illustrator

Statistics

Works
60
Also by
8
Members
9,741
Popularity
#2,450
Rating
3.9
Reviews
177
ISBNs
197
Languages
11

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