~P.J. Lynch

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Patrick James Lynch  was born March 2 1962
P. J. Lynch has worked as a Children’s
Book Illustrator since leaving
Brighton College of Art in England in 1984.
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He has won many awards including the
Mother Goose Award, the Christopher Medal three times,
and the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal on two
occasions , first for "The Christmas Miracle of
Jonathan Toomey" by Susan Wojciechowski, and
again for “When Jessie Came Across the Sea” by Amy Hest.
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Born in Belfast, Lynch was the youngest of five children.
He was interested in art from an early age, often
choosing to spend his free periods during school in
the art department. According to Lynch, Belfast
was a "scary" place for a teenager in the 1970s
(see The Troubles), and he used drawing and reading
as a "way of escaping for a while from the horrors
that were happening around me in the real world."
He attended the Brighton College of Art, leaving in 1984
to begin his career as a children's book illustrator.
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Lynch's first book, a collection of folklore tales from
England and Wales entitled A Bag of Moonshine
(written by Alan Garner), was published in 1986.
This was the beginning of a recurring theme in Lynch's work;
many of his books focus on traditional stories, legends,
and fairy tales. For his illustrations in A Bag of Moonshine
Lynch received the Mother Goose Award,
given to the "most exciting newcomer to British
children's book illustration".
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"The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey”
has sold more than a million copies in the United States
alone, and has recently been made into a motion picture
starring Tom Berenger and Joely Richardson.
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Lynch has illustrated about 20 books:

*A Bag of Moonshine, by Alan Garner
*Raggy Taggy Toys, by Joyce Dunbar
*Melisande, by E. Nesbit
*Fairy Tales of Ireland, by William Butler Yeats
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*East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon,
translated by George W. Dasent
*The Steadfast Tin Soldier, by Hans Christian Anderson
*The Candlewick Book of Fairy Tales, by Sarah Hayes
*The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Anderson
*Catkin, by Antonia Barber
*The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
by Susan Wojciechowski
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*The King of Ireland's Son, by Brendan Behan
*When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest
*An ABC Picture Gallery, by P.J. Lynch
*Grandad's Prayers of the Earth, by Douglas Wood
*The Names Upon the Harp:
*Irish Myth and Legend, by Marie Heaney
*Ignis, by Gina Wilson
*The Bee-Man of Orn, by Frank R. Stockton
*A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
*The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
*Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells
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http://pjlynchgallery.blogspot.com/
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