Mary Jane Begin
Mary Jane Begin is a Rhode-Island-based award-winning Illustrator known in particular for her acclaimed and much-
beloved children’s picture books. Her portfolio includes The Wind in the Willows, A Mouse Told His Mother, Little
Mouse's Painting, Before I Go To Sleep, The Porcupine Mouse, and Jeremy's First Haircut. In the Fall of 2005 she
released her own retelling of the classic The Sorcerer’s Apprentice for Little Brown and Company, and R is for Rhode
Island Red for Sleeping Bear Press, a paean to her home state of Rhode Island. The first two books in her own series
for Little Brown and Company, have just been published, Willow Buds, The Tale of Toad and Badger in April 2008 and
Willow Buds, When Toady Met Ratty, in October 2008.
She is the recipient of many awards, including The Steven Donahos Award and multiple Certificates of Merit from the
Society of Illustrators, multiple Awards of Excellence from Communications Arts, the Irma Simonton Black Award, the
Critici Erba Prize at the Bologna Book Fair, Italy, and First Place, Juvenile Trade, at the New York Book Show, New
York and the Providence Art Club’s Ruth W. Finley Award. Her work has been featured in Communication Arts
Magazine, the Society of Illustrators Annual of American Illustration, and American Art in Review Magazine, Antiques
and the Arts Weekly, Maine Antiques Digest, the Newton Bee.
Her illustrating career began as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she has been teaching as a
member of the faculty in the Illustration Department for 17 years. When not teaching or painting, she can be found
reading bedtime stories to her husband and two children in Barrington, RI.
Mary Jane Begin is a Rhode-Island-based award-winning Illustrator known in particular for her acclaimed and much-
beloved children’s picture books. Her portfolio includes The Wind in the Willows, A Mouse Told His Mother, Little
Mouse's Painting, Before I Go To Sleep, The Porcupine Mouse, and Jeremy's First Haircut. In the Fall of 2005 she
released her own retelling of the classic The Sorcerer’s Apprentice for Little Brown and Company, and R is for Rhode
Island Red for Sleeping Bear Press, a paean to her home state of Rhode Island. The first two books in her own series
for Little Brown and Company, have just been published, Willow Buds, The Tale of Toad and Badger in April 2008 and
Willow Buds, When Toady Met Ratty, in October 2008.
She is the recipient of many awards, including The Steven Donahos Award and multiple Certificates of Merit from the
Society of Illustrators, multiple Awards of Excellence from Communications Arts, the Irma Simonton Black Award, the
Critici Erba Prize at the Bologna Book Fair, Italy, and First Place, Juvenile Trade, at the New York Book Show, New
York and the Providence Art Club’s Ruth W. Finley Award. Her work has been featured in Communication Arts
Magazine, the Society of Illustrators Annual of American Illustration, and American Art in Review Magazine, Antiques
and the Arts Weekly, Maine Antiques Digest, the Newton Bee.
Her illustrating career began as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she has been teaching as a
member of the faculty in the Illustration Department for 17 years. When not teaching or painting, she can be found
reading bedtime stories to her husband and two children in Barrington, RI.
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