Peter Brown Wins 2014 Bull-Bransom Award

Author and artist Peter Brown has won the 2014 Bull-Bransom Award for his illustrations for Mr. Tiger Goes Wild (Little Brown), which he also wrote.

The panel of judges called the book “an exceptional tribute to the wild and rambunctious energy in all children” praising the way the book “plays around with the idea of ‘wildlife’ in very visual ways.”

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild is the story of an anthropomorphic tiger who grows bored with his very proper town life and decides to get in touch with his wild side. Brown said that this is “perhaps my most autobiographical book to date. I was fortunate enough to grow up with easy access to streams and forests and fields and the animals that inhabited those places. But in today’s world, fewer and fewer children have access to the natural world, and therefore, are less likely to feel connected to it. And so I try to tell stories that will pique every child's curiosity and appreciation for nature,” says Brown, who adds that he’s “thrilled and honored” to receive the Bull-Bransom Award and “have my book recognized by such a prestigious institution.”

The National Museum of Wildlife Art named the award for Charles Livingston Bull and Paul Bransom, among the first American artist-illustrators to specialize in wildlife subjects. The winner is presented with a medal and $5,000 cash award.

Also nominated:

• Cheer Up, Mouse! by Jed Henry (Houghton Mifflin)
• FROG SONG by Brenda Guiberson (Henry Holt)
• if you want to see a whale by Julie Fogliano (Roaring Brook Press)
• I’m the Scariest Thing in the Jungle by David G. Derrick, Jr. (Immedium)