Children’s Book Illustrator Margot Zemach

Margot Zemach, a highly regarded children’s book illustrator and writer, died Sunday of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) at her Berkeley home.

The Los Angeles native, who attended the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts on a Fulbright scholarship and then went on to capture many of the highest honors in children’s literature, was 57.

Over her career of more than 30 years she illustrated or wrote more than 40 children’s books, among them “Duffy and the Devil,” “The Little Tiny Woman,” “To Hilda for Helping,” “The Judge,” “A Penny a Look: An Old Story” and “It Could Always Be Worse.”

The illustrations for one of her most recent works--”Two Foolish Cats,” a new version of a Japanese folk tale--were praised for “capturing the humor and trickery of the tale” in a 1986 Times review.

In 1974 she won the Caldecott Medal, considered the most prestigious American honor for children’s book illustration, for “Duffy and the Devil.” “The Judge: An Untrue Tale” was named a Caldecott honor book for its illustrations in 1968. The Caldecott awards come from the American Library Assn.

Her other prizes included the Lewis Carroll Book Shelf Award in 1972 and 1975 for “Duffy” and the Kerlan and Hornbook awards in 1979 for “Self Portrait: Margot Zemach.”

Twice she was the American nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustration, the most prestigious children’s book honor in the world.

She and her husband, Harvey Zemach, who died in 1974, collaborated on several works. “Small Boy Is Listening” was their first, in 1959. Other of their joint works, in which he did the texts and she the drawings, included “A Hat With a Rose,” “Nail Soup,” “Mommy, Buy Me a China Doll” and “The Princess and the Froggie.”

At her death she was at work on a picture book of Mother Goose rhymes.