Uri Shulevitz (Hebrew: אורי שולביץ; February 27, 1935 – February 15, 2025) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He won the 1969 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration, recognizing The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, an Eastern European fairy tale retold by Arthur Ransome in 1916.
Uri Shulevitz was born in Warsaw, Poland, on February 27, 1935. During the bombing of Warsaw in 1939, a bomb fell into a stairwell of his apartment building when he was at home. The family fled from Warsaw, first to Bialystok, later to Turkestan, experiences that Shulevitz would later capture in his 2020 memoir Chance: Escape from the Holocaust, which the Wall Street Journal then listed among the 20 best children's books of the past 20 years. Eventually, they settled in Paris by 1947, then moved again to Israel in 1949. During the Sinai War in 1956, Shulevitz joined the Israeli Army. Later, he joined the Ein Gedi kibbutz.
Shulevitz moved to New York City in 1959, studying painting at Brooklyn Museum Art School and working as an illustrator for a Hebrew children's book publisher. In 1962, an editor at Harper & Row saw his freelance portfolio and suggested that Shulevitz write children's books. He created his first picture book, The Moon in My Room, in 1963. Shulevitz wrote over three dozen books; the last, The Sky Was My Blanket, about his uncle, who fought alongside the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War and the French Resistance during World War II, will be published in August 2025.
Shulevitz lived in New York City with his wife, Paula Brown.
He died from complications of influenza and pneumonia at a Manhattan hospital on February 15, 2025, 12 days before his 90th birthday.
1969: Caldecott Medal, The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
1980: Caldecott Honor, The Treasure
1999: Charlotte Zolotow Award, Snow
1999: Golden Kite Award, Picture Book Illustration, Snow
2005: National Jewish Book Award in the Illustrated Children's Book category for The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela
2009: Caldecott Honor, How I Learned Geography
Uri Shulevitz profile at publisher Macmillan US
Uri Shulevitz at the Library of Congress, with 50 library catalog records
Uri Shulevitz discography at Discogs
Interview with Uri Shulevitz regarding Chance: Escape from the Holocaust, American Writers Museum in partnership with the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center (October 13, 2020).