Peggy Rathmann 1953 – 2026

Biography

Peggy Rathmann was an American author and illustrator of children’s picture books, best known for Good Night, Gorilla and Officer Buckle and Gloria. Born Margaret Crosby Rathmann on March 4, 1953, in St. Paul, Minnesota, she wrote and illustrated at least seven picture books. Good Night, Gorilla, published in 1994, is a nearly wordless bedtime adventure in which a gorilla steals the zookeeper’s keys and is followed home by the zoo animals. Officer Buckle and Gloria, published in 1995, won the 1996 Caldecott Medal for picture book illustration. Her later books included Ten Minutes Till Bedtime and The Day the Babies Crawled Away. She died on November 3, 2026, aged 73.