David McLimans (edit name/settings)

David McLimans was born and raised in Green Bay, where he was encouraged to pursue art by his high school art teacher. After attending the University of Minnesota and earning his MFA from Boston University, he returned to Wisconsin and has lived in Madison since 1985. McLimans is well known for his political cartoons and editorial illustrations for The Progressive magazine, as well as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly. McLimans entered the field of children's books later in his career, publishing his first picture book, Gone Wild: An Edangered Animal Alphabet (Walker, 2006), to great critical acclaim; it was named as one of the Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2006 by the New York Times and it received a Caldecott Honor in 2007. He published a second picture book, Gone Fishing: Ocean Life by the Numbers (Walker), in 2008.

Those who know McLimans' political art will no doubt recognize his style in the picture books where he uses bold, flat graphics that demand the viewer's attention. Gone Wild is an ingenious alphabet book that introduces twenty-six endangered animals, each one stylized in black and white in the shape of its initial letter. Each animal is accompanied by an elegant red rectangle that offers additional scientific information, a more realistic rendering of the animal, and the animal's status as a threatened species. McLimans uses the same inventive approach to ocean life in his second book, Gone Fishing, using the numbers from one to ten as a vehicle. Although McLimans is new to the children's picture book world, he has already made quite an impression with his progressive vision and unique style.