About the Director
John Warren Stewig has published 104 articles in 47 periodicals and is the author or co-author of 12 scholarly books, as well as ten published picture books for children. Highly respected in his field, he was elected the chairman of the 1998 Caldecott Award Committee of the American Library Association, which awards the coveted Caldecott Medal, the highest award for children's book illustration in the United States.

Dr. Stewig's areas of research and teaching are visual literacy and children's picture books, issues in children's literature, language arts curriculum, and drama in the curriculum. For several years he has taught methods classes in public schools so that he could demonstrate working directly with children to maintain his credibility as a teacher. Professor Stewig has led writers' workshops and Authors-in-the-Schools programs for various school districts.

Dr. Stewig's picture books are:

  • Sending Messages (1978), Houghton, nonfiction
  • The Fisherman and His Wife (1988), Holiday House, retelling
  • Stone Soup (1991), Holiday House, retelling
  • The Moon's Choice (1993), Simon and Schuster, retelling
  • Princess Florecita and the Iron Shoes (1995), Knopf, retelling
  • King Midas (1999), Holiday House, retelling
  • Clever Gretchen (2000), Marshall Cavendish, retelling
  • Mother Holly (2001), North-South, retelling
  • Making Plum Jam (2002), Hyperion, fiction
  • Whuppitie Stourie (2004), Holiday House, retelling
  • The Animals Watched (forthcoming), Holiday House
Dr. Stewig has also authored a book to help teachers and librarians encourage children to develop their observation skills and increase their ability to process visual information.

He is the director of the Center for Children's Literature. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from UW-Madison. jstewig@carthage.edu
(262) 552-5480