Father of Shrek, Grandfather of Tweet

Those who missed his hilariously morose graphic commentaries in The New Yorker (starting 1930 he created over 100 covers and countless cartoons) may remember Steig as a children’s book author and illustrator. He won the Caldecott Medal with his Sylvester and the Magic Pebble in the early 1970s and other honors quickly followed for his quirky takes on the venerable children’s picture book. He often focused his pathos and bathos on innocent young folk and young folk-like animals as they routinely ran into problems and obstacles in their quests for happiness and fulfillment. Roland of Roland the Minstrel Pig narrowly misses being crushed; Sylvester, a donkey, is turned into a rock. Amos the mouse in Amos and Boris falls overboard in mid-ocean while Boris the whale is beached after a hurricane. Abel, another mouse in Abel's Island, is marooned for a year, and Pearl, a young pig in The Amazing Bone, is almost cooked by a pesky fox. Shrek was, of course, a poor, misunderstood ogre, who rises from the muck to become a wealthy, better understood ogre. Eventually all find redemption, but you’ll have to read them yourself to find out how (and why).