Janet Ahlberg; Award-Winning Illustrator of Children’s Books

Janet Ahlberg, 50, the illustrator who teamed up with her writer husband to create “The Jolly Postman” and other award-winning books for children. She was bored with her job as a magazine editor and illustrator of craft books when she begged her husband, Allan, to write a children’s story for her to illustrate. “The Brick Street Boys” series began in 1975. Then came “‘Burglar Bill” in 1977, about a burglar who steals a baby. “Each Peach Pear Plum,” with pages of intricately drawn nursery characters, published in 1978, won Mrs. Ahlberg the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration, sponsored by the Library Assn. But her first major success was “The Jolly Postman,” published in 1986 after five years of work. It won the Maschler Award for balance of word and illustration, and Mrs. Ahlberg won another Greenaway Medal. The book, which sold more than 1 million copies, shows a postal carrier delivering letters tucked inside real envelopes, for readers to open and peruse. “The Jolly Christmas Postman” followed in 1991, and “Jolly Pocket Postman” will be published next year. On Nov. 15 in Leicester, England, of cancer.