Amy Schwartz, whose books captured childhood, dies at 68
Amy Schwartz, the author and illustrator of dozens of picture books that captured the lives of children — from the nighttime feedings of infancy to the first day of kindergarten and beyond — with a sprightly touch that made her a favorite of kids and grownups alike, died Feb. 26 at her home in Brooklyn. She was 68.
She had cardiovascular disease, said her husband, Leonard S. Marcus, a historian and authority on children’s literature.
Schwartz made her literary debut in 1982 with the publication of the picture book “Bea and Mr. Jones,” the story of a kindergarten-age girl who trades places with her father, reporting for work at his office while he, an advertising executive, goes to school in her stead.
The book landed a spot on “Reading Rainbow,” the television show hosted by LeVar Burton, and marked the beginning of Schwartz’s long career in children’s literature.
Over the next four decades, she kept up a steady output of books — more than 50 in all — that showcased her narrative wit and artistic whimsy. The quality that most distinguished her work, however, was her sense of childhood, which remained undimmed despite the passage of time.
“I can’t think of anyone whom I think understood and portrayed the day-to-day routines of families with young children with more intelligence and joy,” Mary Cash, the editor in chief of Holiday House, one of Schwartz’s several publishers, said in a statement after her death. “Amy was an acute observer of all the tiny details that together make up a child’s life. Her wonderful books celebrated, laughed at, and offered so much insight into that existence.”
In the book “Busy Babies” (2019), she documented the many ways that babies fill their time — among them “visiting ducks” and “playing trucks,” “building blocks” and “removing socks.”
Her book “I Can’t Wait!” (2015), geared toward children who had advanced beyond baby- and toddlerhood to the more mature years of preschool, explored the interminable marking of time that children endure, often without knowing what they are waiting for.
In her “100 Things” series — including “100 Things That Make Me Happy” (2014), “100 Things I Love to Do With You” (2017) and “100 Things I Know How to Do” (2021) — Schwartz helped children scale that Mount Everest of early numeracy, 100, while also indulging their love of lists. (“100 Things That Make Me Happy” included “hula-hoops” and “double scoops,” “Grandpa’s tools” and “swimming pools.”)
Amy Margaret Schwartz was born in San Diego on April 2, 1954. Her father was a real estate investor and writer, and her mother taught chemistry at a community college.
The third of four daughters, Schwartz called upon her memories of her family for the volume “Annabelle Swift, Kindergartner” (1988), about a rising kindergartner and her worldly, wise older sister, who coaches her in what to expect.
Schwartz recalled that as a girl she was almost always reading. “I developed the ability to read while walking home from school,” she wrote in a biographical sketch, “as well as that of reading aloud to my grandmother and silently reading ahead, simultaneously.”