Evaline Ness was an American commercial artist, illustrator, and author of children’s books. She illustrated more than thirty books for young readers and wrote several of her own. She is noted for using a great variety of artistic media and methods.

As illustrator of picture books she was one of three Caldecott Medal runners-up each year from 1964 to 1966 and she won the 1967 Medal for Sam, Bangs and Moonshine, which she also wrote. In 1972 she was the U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children’s illustrators.

Ness was born Evaline Michelow in Union City, Ohio and grew up in Pontiac, Michigan. As a child she illustrated her older sister’s stories with collages cut from magazine pictures. She studied at Ball State Teachers College 1931–32 to become a librarian, then at Chicago Art Institute 1933–35 to become a fashion illustrator. For a while she was also a fashion model.

Her first illustrations for publication in a children’s book were for Story of Ophelia by Mary J. Gibbons (Doubleday, April 1954) —using “charcoal, crayon, ink, pencil and tempera”. Kirkus Reviews said, “Evaline Ness’ color pictures of elongated, human-looking animals express in their flimsiness, a searching quality.” Although successful as a commercial artist, she focused on children’s literature beginning with her second illustrated book, The Bridge by Charlton Ogburn. From 1958 to 1963 she illustrated about a dozen books and produced cover art for others including Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (1960).

Her three Caldecott Honor Books were published 1963 to 1965: All in the Morning Early by Sorche Nic Leodhas, A Pocketful of Cricket by Rebecca Caudill, and Tom Tit Tot: An English Folk Tale retold by Virginia Haviland. She herself wrote the Caldecott-winning Sam, Bangs and Moonshine (1966), about a fisherman’s daughter, illustrated with line and wash drawings. “Sam” (Samantha) tells lies or “moonshine”, which finally endanger her pet cat “Bangs” and a neighbor boy; she learns responsibility for what she says. About this time, Ness did the colorful front and back covers and the maps of Prydain for the popular series by Lloyd Alexander, The Chronicles of Prydain (1964 to 1968). Meanwhile, there were two Prydain picture books that she illustrated. Source: Artvee.