Jonathan Bean

Narrative Illustration, Drawing, Design, and Publishing

• B.A. in Studio Art from Messiah College
• MFA in Art from School of Visual Art

• Illustration

Jonathan grew up in Pennsylvania where he enjoyed, among many things, hiking, bird watching, and drawing the landscape. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Messiah College he moved to New York City in 2003 to attend graduate school at the School of Visual Arts. He received his first job illustrating for children's literature when hired by Cricket in 2004. Since then, he's worked for numerous publishers and his illustrations and writing have received widespread recognition. Jonathan currently lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Jonathan's clients include The New York Times, Cricket Magazine, Scholastic, Simon and Schuster, Henry Holt, Bloomsbury, Houghton Mifflin, Penguin, Sterling and Farrar, Straus and Giroux.His first two authored picture books, At Night and Building Our House, won prestigious Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award for writing. His illustrations for The Apple Pie that Papa Baked won the Ezra Jack Keats Award for new talent and Publishers Weekly named him a newcomer to watch.

Jonathan has even begun exploring children’s books as both the author and the illustrator. His illustrations for his book, This is My House, This is my School, are currently in the Murray Library collection. This book was also recognized by the New York Times in this article.