David Wiesner is an artist who has been illustrating children's stories since 1980. However, in 1988, he illustrated the first book which he also wrote, Free Fall, which was named as a Caldecott Honor book in 1989. Since then, he has become only the second author in the history of the Caldecott Medal to win the pretigious award three times:- 2007 Flotsam
- 2002 The Three Pigs
- 1992 Tuesday
His illustrations are beautiful pieces of art. Original paintings from Tuesday were displayed in a special exhibit in the Dallas Museum of Art several years ago, and I never would have thought I'd use the word "breathtaking" to describe pictures of flying frogs, but the pieces were beautiful.
Wiesner's fantasies fall into two categories - stories with words and stories without. Tuesday, Free Fall, and Sector 7 are some which fall into the wordless category. But the reader will have no trouble reading these stories. The art is engaging and easy to follow. His work is often described as cinematic for their ability to portray not only a snapshot of an exact moment, but also what led up to the moment and what followed. If you have never read a wordless picture book, Wiesner is the perfect place to start.
His books which have words are equally fascinating. My favorite may be Hurricane which has some of my favorite paintings. I particularly love looking for the boys' cat Hannibal in each piece of art. However, for those who love to collect variations on traditional literature, The Three Pigs is a must have. As the three brothers wander off the pages of their own folktale and head into the pages of others, all the while rescuing characters who are about to meet an untimely demise and enticing others to follow them in their adventure, the 
reader will be left wondering how this tale will turn out. This is a wonderful addition for the collector who already has variants on the traditional tale (some where the pigs get eaten, some where they don't, for example) as well as the fractured fairy tale The True Story of the Three Pigs by A. Wolf (Jon Scieszka, 1989).Of course, when you have time, check out Wiesner's web page at Houghton Mifflin:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/authors/wiesner/home.html
