Beth and Joe Krush are a husband-and-wife team of children's books illustrators, both born in 1918. (Beth Krush died in 2009.) They illustrated a variety of children's novels, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s. Here is a selection of some of their best-known work.
The Borrowers Series
This series by Mary Norton tells about tiny people who live in secret hiding places in a house in England, where they borrow things from humans in order to furnish their own homes. There are five titles in the series:
- The Borrowers (1952)
- The Borrowers Afield (1955)
- The Borrowers Afloat (1959)
- The Borrowers Aloft (1961)
- The Borrowers Avenged (1982)
Books by Beverly Cleary
The Krushes illustrated five works by beloved author Beverly Cleary: her sole historical fiction novel (Emily's Runaway Imagination) and the four titles in her young adult "first love" series:
- Fifteen (1956)
- The Luckiest Girl (1958)
- Jean and Johnny (1959)
- Sister of the Bride (1963)
Other Novels
Miracles on Maple Hill (1956)
by Virginia Sorenson
This Newbery Medal winning novel tells of a young girl's year in Maple Hill with her family as her father deals with post-traumatic stress disorder associated with his experiences as a prisoner of war.
Gone-Away Lake (1957)
by Elizabeth Enright
In this 1958 Newbery Honor book Portia and her cousin Julian discover an abandoned lakeside community and make friends with a pair of elderly siblings who still inhabit two of the rundown houses.The Krushes also illustrated the 1961 sequel, Return to Gone-Away.
All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown (1972)
by Sydney Taylor
This series, about a charming family of five girls and one boy living in early 20th century Manhattan, has had a number of illustrators. The Krushes provided the drawings for just this one volume.
