Bugs & Frogs & Toads! Oh My! Original Children’s Book Illustrations by Nancy Winslow Parker

Some crawl, some jump, some fly, some bite.  Some pester, and some delight. This exhibition of over forty charming illustrations by Nancy Winslow Parker introduces children (and the young at heart) to the amazing world of insects and amphibians in captivating scenes of everyday encounters. Parker, a successful children’s book illustrator and author since 1974, devised these original drawings to serve as illustrations in her children’s books Bugs (1987) and Frogs, Toads, Lizards, and Salamanders (1990). The original drawings -- some playful and humorous, others scientifically instructive—encourage learning about the most diverse creatures on our planet.

Born, raised and educated in Maplewood, New Jersey, Parker received her B.A. in Fine Arts from Mills College in California. In the early 1970s, after working for two decades in sales and advertising in New York City, she decided to pursue a career as a writer and illustrator of children’s books. In 1974, she published her first book, The Man with the Take-Apart Head. Since then, Parker has produced fifty fiction and non-fiction books for children, most of them as author and illustrator. Ranking among the most successful are Bugs and Frogs, Toads, Lizards, and Salamanders – both authored with Joan Richards Wright. Parker spent a considerable time researching natural history subjects for these books, as well as historically appropriate items that appear as illustrations in her other children’s books, several of which have won awards. Parker is a long-time resident of New York City, often summering in Mantoloking, New Jersey.

The exhibition is open to the public on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, as well as during first Tuesday evenings of the month. 

Organized by Marilyn Symmes, Director of the Zimmerli’s Morse Research Center for Graphic Arts and Curator of Prints and Drawings with Leeza Cinar, a Rutgers University undergraduate student assistant