In his obituary I read that he was the youngest winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal which he won in 1960 when he was in his twenties and barely out of art school.
Back to his books:
The Tiger Skin Rug seems to be his only picture book still in print. This is a good thing because it is such a good story. No class or child I have read it to has ever commented on its implausibility, but instead revels in the fact that the tiger is triumphant.
Trouble in the Ark is the best book for teaching vocabulary, especially verbs. The cumulative plot where one act is the catalyst for the next introduces students to how many different actions there are words for. All the animals cooped up in the ark with Noah begin making loud noises at each other, and the result is chaos.
"Ahh!" Said Stork is also a deceptively simple cumulative story but it is a great beginning reader because once a child reader knows the pattern they can use the pictures to work out what the words say.
In the library we also has copies of How St Francis Tamed the Wolf and Horrible Hair. The first simply tells the story of St Francis and his love of animals, the second a bad hair day story but the expression Rose is able to add to his characters whether they are people or animals shines through here too.
Perhaps at some point in the future a publisher will deign to feel that many of his books are worthy of republishing!
