For breathing new life into a classic old tale, Heather Lynn Harris has won the silver medal for preschool picture books in the 2018 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards.
Harris is an assistant professor in St. Bonaventure’s University’s Jandoli School of Communication.
An author and illustrator of three books, Harris was honored for her work on “Five Hungry Mice,” a retelling of Frances A.B. Dunning’s mid-1800s poem, illustrated for contemporary children.
The book follows five hungry mice in Paris who set their sights on a box full of rice, but danger lurks in the night. It’s available for purchase at www.5hungrymice.com.
The Moonbeam Awards bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators and are dedicated to supporting childhood literacy and lifelong reading. The awards are dedicated to identifying the best children’s books published each year.
Educated at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Harris said she’s on a quest to share lost literary treasures with today’s young readers by bringing them to life with her illustrations.
“My hope is that the power of wonder is stirred in all who read these books,” Harris said.
Harris made her publishing debut with Buffalo Heritage Press’s CrissCross Applesauce imprint in 2014 with “The Swing,” a retelling of a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. She then wrote and illustrated “Clover and the Shooting Star,” published in 2017.