By Walter Minkel

David Wisniewski, the author/illustrator who won the 1997 Caldecott Medal for his book The Golem (Clarion, 1996), died in a hospice September 11 near his home in Monrovia, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC. The cause of his death was listed as a "neurological illness." He was 49.

Wisniewski began his career as a circus clown, and then became a shadow puppeteer. It was in the fine shaping and cutting of the shadow puppets that he mastered the paper-cutting technique that he put to such effective use in his collage illustrations. When he spoke, he would talk about how he would cut paper shapes with an X-Acto knife, and how he would go through as many as 1,000 blades to produce the illustrations for one book. His earlier books were often based on legends and folktales. His first book, The Warrior and the Wise Man (Lothrop, 1989), told the story of a Japanese emperor with twin sons, and The Golem told the legend of a man made of clay and brought to life by a Prague rabbi to save t he city's Jewish community.

His more recent books followed more assorted themes, such as The Secret Knowledge of Grownups (Lothrop, 1998), about the real reasons for the "rules" adults force children to follow, and Tough Cookie (Lothrop, 1999), a Raymond-Chandler-style detective story with cookies as the characters. His most recent book was Halloweenies (HarperCollins, 2002).

"His having had a career as a puppeteer, and his translating that skill so effectively to the book format, gives his work a dimension beyond a typical picture book," says Caroline Ward, coordinator of children's services for the Ferguson Library in Stamford, CT. "He put theater into his books. His particular brand of theater added a tremendous depth to his work. It's a great loss."