Jacqueline Rogers

Birthday: July 17
Cheerful - Maintaining a good-humored, bright, and pleasant attitude toward others and the world around them.

Born in Westport, Connecticut, in 1958, Jacqueline Rogers was the youngest of six children in a family of artists—her mom was a portrait and landscape artist, and her dad was a business man who always had an artsy hobby going on. She attended painting classes with her mom, drawing classes with her sisters, and soon went on to take sculpture lessons.

Rogers went to Rhode Island School of Design to study painting but soon switched to illustration halfway through her second year. She had great teachers like David Macaulay and Chris Van Allsburg. After trying lots of different types of illustration, including magazine, newspaper, advertising, store windows and even scrimshaw, Rogers chose children's books because it seemed to be the most fun and offered lots of room for creativity.

Rogers has been illustrating children's books for twenty years. If you look at her books closely you might be able to find her two daughters, her big, hairy dog, and a neighbor or two.

When she is not working on a book, Rogers loves to just paint—mostly the woods, and sometimes flowers. She also likes to make things out of clay and throw pots, as well as garden and putter around the yard.