Sandra Boynton

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Sandra Boynton
Boynton around 2005
Born (1953-04-03) April 3, 1953 (age 70)
Education
Occupations
WebsiteOfficial website

Sandra Keith Boynton (born April 3, 1953) is an American humorist, songwriter, director, music producer,

children's author, and illustrator. Boynton has written and illustrated over seventy-five books for children and seven general audience books,[1] as well as over four thousand greeting cards
, and five music albums. She has also designed calendars, wallpaper, bedding, stationery, paper goods, clothing, jewelry, and plush toys for various companies.

Early life and education

The third of the four daughters of Jeanne (née Ragsdale) and Robert W. Boynton, Sandra was born in Orange, New Jersey, and grew up in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia.[2] Her father was a noted progressive educator, scholar (collaborating on textbooks with Shakespearean scholar Maynard Mack), and publisher and co-founder of Boynton/Cook Publishers. Boynton/Cook Publishers is now owned by Heinemann.

Boynton's parents became

Quakers when she was two years old. From kindergarten through 12th grade, she and her sisters attended Germantown Friends School, where their father taught English and was Head of the Upper School. Boynton has frequently cited Germantown Friends' arts-centered curriculum as central to her own "upbeat offbeat" sensibility as well as its thorough integration of the values of pacifism, independent inquiry, and individualism. She also spent part of her 10th grade year at Ackworth School near Pontefract
, England.

Boynton studied Latin for five years in high school, mostly in order to avoid science classes, the scheduling of which invariably conflicted with Latin.

She went to

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Carnegie Hall, under the direction of Leopold Stokowski
. Boynton has described herself as "an enthusiastic but undistinguished alto".

At her graduation from Yale in 1974, she received a Special Master's Magna solemnly bestowed by Charles Davis, the Master of Boynton's residential college,

Calhoun College
. Unbeknownst to the graduation audience, the honor was actually a fiction. Boynton's grade point average did not in fact entitle her to any degree honor; but shortly before the ceremony, she had told Professor Davis in mock earnest that "my parents are here, so I'd really appreciate it if you could just mumble some Latin after my name".

Boynton intended to become a theater director. She attended the

Yale School of Drama
D.F.A. program, however she did not complete the program. With the birth of her first child in 1979, Boynton postponed indefinitely a career in the theater, judging the demands of that profession not easily compatible with raising a family.

During her undergraduate and graduate years, her teachers included

plainchant in Latin and Pig Latin
) as "the culmination of a lifetime spent joyfully squandering an expensive education on producing works of no apparent significance".

Career

Greeting cards

Boynton's greeting card designs for Recycled Paper Greetings were at the forefront of the Alternative Cards commercial movement that began in the mid-1970s. According to RPG co-founder and president Mike Keiser, nearly 500 million copies of Boynton's distinctive humorous cards—featuring an assortment of unnamed cartoon animal characters, spare layout, and droll messages—sold between 1973 and 2003. The best known of these is a 1975 birthday card bearing images of four animals and the message "Hippo Birdie Two Ewes", a pun playing on the phrase "Happy Birthday to You". The card has sold over ten million copies to date.[3]

Books

Since the 1977 release of Hippos Go Berserk!, Boynton has published many children's books, as well as several illustrated humor books for the general market. Her books are most typically for very young children, offered in the laminated paperboard format known as

New York Times best sellers: Chocolate: The Consuming Passion (1982); Yay, You! (2001); Consider Love (2002); and Philadelphia Chickens (2002), which reached the number one position on the list, and was on the list for nearly a year. Six Boynton books were on the 2001 Publishers Weekly All-Time Bestselling Children's Books list: Moo, Baa, La La La!, The Going to Bed Book, Barnyard Dance, A to Z, Blue Hat, Green Hat, and Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!.[4] More than 85 million copies of her books have been sold.[citation needed
]

Theater

In May 1995, Boynton wrote and directed a benefit reading, On Stage—featuring

Off-Off-Broadway
at Alternate Stages.

Music

In 1996, Boynton began writing and producing songs—which she has described as "renegade children's music" — with composer Michael Ford; these songs have been released as albums (

certified gold by the RIAA. In November 2010, Boynton produced and released a full-length 300-kazoo plus orchestra performance of Maurice Ravel's Boléro
, titled Boléro Completely Unraveled, performed by the Highly Irritating Orchestra. Boynton played solo kazoo on this recording noting "I am at the perfect level of musical incompetence for this."

She has written the text for four choral pieces composed by Fenno Heath, Director Emeritus of the Yale Glee Club, all of which have been performed by the Yale Alumni Chorus on international tour.

Boynton is currently working on a

Patti Lupone, Yo-Yo Ma, Zooey Deschanel, and many others. [5]

Music videos

In 2008, Boynton ventured into filmmaking, creating and directing music videos of her most popular recorded songs. Her first music video released in November 2009 as a book/DVD combination, was "One Shoe Blues", starring B.B. King and a cast of assorted

John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting, "Philadelphia Chickens" which is mostly animation and includes cameos by Kevin Bacon and Michael Bacon
, and "Be Like a Duck" which features all four of her children.

Awards

Boynton received the

Grammy Award Nomination for Philadelphia Chickens, the Eustace D. Theodore Fellowship (Yale University), the National Cartoonists Society Greeting Card Award for 1992, and the National Cartoonists Society Book Illustration Award for Blue Moo: 17 Jukebox Hits From Way Back Never, in 2008. She is the 2008 recipient of the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Cartoonists Society's highest honor. Hippos Go Berserk! was awarded Mathical Hall of Fame status.[6]

She has received the following film festival awards for her film shorts: the Rhode Island International Film Festival Providence Prize 2010 for One Shoe Blues starring B. B. King; the Flickers North Country Film Festival 2010 Crystal Image Award for emerging artist, as director of all four films; the 2D or Not 2D Animation Festival 2011 Golden Pencil Award for Philadelphia Chickens; the Forster Film Festival 2012 Winner of Song Category for "Be Like a Duck"; and the Wilmette International Children's Film Festival 2012 Best of Fest Live Action Short Film Winner for One Shoe Blues.

Personal life

Boynton was married to writer and Olympic Bronze medalist (and fellow

Brahmaputra) in Tibet, an ill-fated trip detailed in The Last River by Todd Balf, and in Courting the Diamond Sow by expedition leader Wickliffe W. Walker. Boynton has illustrated two of McEwan's five children's books. They have four children: Caitlin McEwan, an actress and director; Keith Boynton, a playwright and filmmaker; Devin McEwan, a Whitewater Slalom racer and member of the 2001-2016 U.S. Teams, including the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team; and Darcy Boynton, a writer and teacher. All four children sang on Philadelphia Chickens
and BLUE MOO.

Boynton has appeared on numerous national television, newspaper and radio programs. Media include

Boynton works in a reconstructed 120-year-old barn on her property in rural Connecticut.[15]

Albums

  • Rhinoceros Tap (1996)
  • Grunt: Pigorian Chant (1996)
  • Philadelphia Chickens (2002)
  • Dog Train: A Wild Ride on the Rock-and-Roll Side (2005)
  • Blue Moo: 17 Jukebox Hits from Way Back Never (2007)
  • Boléro Completely Unraveled (2010)
  • Sandra Boynton's Frog Trouble (2013)
  • Hog Wild!: A Frenzy of Dance Music (2017)

Books

Children's books

  • Hippos Go Berserk! (1977)
  • Hester in the Wild (1979)
  • If At First (1980)
  • A to Z (1982)
  • Blue Hat, Green Hat (1982)
  • Doggies (1982)
  • Horns to Toes (1982)
  • The Going to Bed Book (1982)
  • Moo, Baa, La La La! (1982)
  • Opposites (1982)
  • But Not the Hippopotamus (1982)
  • A is for Angry (1983)
  • Good Night, Good Night (1985)
  • Chloe and Maude (1985)
  • The Story of Grump & Pout (written by Jamie McEwan) (1988)
  • Birthday Monsters! (1993)
  • Barnyard Dance! (1993)
  • One, Two, Three! (1993)
  • Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs! (1993)
  • Snoozers (1997)
  • Dinosaur's Binkit (1998)
  • Bob and 6 More Christmas Stories (1999)
  • Dinos To Go (2000)
  • Hey!, Wake Up! (2000)
  • Pajama Time! (2000)
  • The Heart of Cool (written by Jamie McEwan) (2001)
  • Snuggle Puppy! (2003)
  • Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy (2003)
  • Moo Cow Book (cloth) (2004)
  • Belly Button Book! (2005)
  • Your Personal Penguin (book with song download) (2006)
  • What's Wrong, Little Pookie? (2007)
  • Bath Time! (2007)
  • Fifteen Animals! (2008)
  • Barnyard Bath! (2008)
  • Let's Dance, Little Pookie (2008)
  • Night-Night, Little Pookie (2009)
  • One Shoe Blues (book and DVD) (2009)
  • Happy Birthday, Little Pookie (2010)
  • Perfect Piggies (2010)
  • Are You a Cow? (customizable board book) (2010)
  • Amazing Cows (2010)
  • Happy Hippo, Angry Duck: a book of moods (2011)
  • Little Pookie (2012)
  • Christmas Parade (2012)
  • Tickle Time! (2012)
  • Are You a Cow? (2012)
  • The Bunny Rabbit Show (2014)
  • Spooky Pookie (2015)
  • Eek! Halloween! (2016)
  • Dinosaur Dance! (2016)
  • But Not the Armadillo (2018)
  • Merry Christmas, Little Pookie (2018)
  • I Love You, Little Pookie (2018)
  • Dinosnores (2019)
  • Silly Lullaby (2019)
  • Your Nose! (2020)
  • How Big is Zagnodd? (2020)
  • Christmas Parade (2020)
  • Jungle Night (Soundtrack with Yo Yo Ma on cello) (2021)
  • Boo!, Baa, La La La! (2021)
  • Woodland Dance! (2021)
  • Moo, Baa, Fa La La La La! (2022)
  • Pookie's Thanksgiving (2022)
  • Peekaboo Rex! (2023)

General market books

  • Gopher Baroque (1979)
  • The Compleat Turkey (1980)
  • Chocolate: The Consuming Passion (1982)
  • Don't Let The Turkeys Get You Down (1986)
  • Christmastime (1987)
  • Yay, You! (2001)
  • Consider Love (2002)

References

  1. ^ "Boynton, Sandra". WorldCat Identities. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d Phyllis, K (February 17, 2008). "The Power of Whimsy". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  3. ^ CBS Sunday Morning, May 11, 2010.
  4. ^ Roback, Diane; Britton, Jason, eds. (December 17, 2001). "All-Time Bestselling Children's Books". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 248, no. 51. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  5. ^ "Illustrator Sandra Boynton: The Queen of Cards - CBS News". CBS News.
  6. ^ "Mathical Book Prizes 2021" (PDF).
  7. ^ Bass, Carolyn (June 19, 2014). "In Memoriam: paddler and poet". Yale Alumni Magazine. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  8. ^ McCarthy, Ellen (September 12, 2017). "Hippos, birdies, T. rexes, pigs: How Sandra Boynton built an empire and won your child's heart". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  9. ^ "Sandra Boynton: 'The best children's work is for everyone'". MSNBC.
  10. ^ "At home: Order a soda, sit a spell with author/artist Sandra Boynton". USA Today.
  11. ^ "Sandra Boynton Greeting Cards". American Profile. October 7, 2010.
  12. ^ "Kids' Favorite Sandra Boynton Makes Music Video". NPR.
  13. ^ "Sandra Boynton goes country with "Frog Trouble"" – via www.youtube.com.
  14. ^ Boynton, Sandra (July 8, 2015). "A Week in the Life of Sandra Boynton". The Wall Street Journal.
  15. ^ Lewine, Edward (2013). "Talking to the Animals, and Drawing Them, Too". The New York Times. Retrieved September 15, 2013.

External links