Arnold Lobel

Frog and Toad Are Friends (1970) The Ice Cream Cone Coot and Other Rare Birds (Parents Magazine Press, New York, 1971) Hildilid's Night by Cheli Duran Ryan (1971) Frog and Toad Together (1972) Owl at Home (1975) Frog and Toad All Year (1976) Mouse Soup (1977) Grasshopper on the Road (1978) Days with Frog and Toad (1979)

His professional career began during the 1960s, writing and illustrating "conventional" easy readers and fables. His style has been described as minimalist and frequently had animals as the subject matter. Lobel used animals as characters because he felt it helped with the suspension of disbelief. Joseph Stanton, writing in The Journal of American Culture, argues that Lobel's style was "timid" before Lobel started writing easy readers. His second book, A Holiday for Mister Muster, and perhaps others, were inspired by the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn, across from which the Lobels lived. Cartoons his children watched were also an inspiration, as were popular television shows like Bewitched and The Carol Burnett Show. Lobel's writing and illustrations went through several phases in his career. His early works had a broad humor often in verse, a style that he would return to at other points in his career. In 1977 interview for The Lion and the Unicorn, Lobel explained that he wrote these books by imagining what children would want to read. However, as he continued to write, he realized the books he was writing didn't have the "weight" to them he wished and that he was going to have to tap into himself in order to create better writing. Following that epiphany, he began taking inspiration from his own experiences and emotions, and acknowledged that he was writing "... adult stories, slightly disguised as children's stories." In the 1970s Lobel's illustrations shifted from primary colors to a broader spectrum of pastel colors. The solitary individual, whether played seriously or for comic relief, was common in Lobel's work, as were two people who were complementary. Lobel's illustrations served to visualize the rhythm and emotions of the text in a way that could be "cinematic." Lobel's chosen vocabulary, subject matter, and writing style helped to re-conceive what an easy reader book could be. Lobel identified the exploration of his own feelings as a reason that he improved as a writer. In his 1977 The Lion and the Unicorn interview, Lobel discussed the ways he would work through his emotions while still maintaining his children's audience. This was part of Lobel's belief that adult and children emotions were more similar than different. His work was described as "sunny, warm, even cosy." Despite this, the process of writing was "painful" for Lobel, who was far more inclined to want to illustrate than write and only started writing because of the increased royalties. As late as 1983, Lobel felt he was beginning to trust his instincts as a writer. In fact, he never felt comfortable enough with his technical writing skill to consider writing a novel for adults, or a longer book for children. Lobel illustrated close to 100 books during his career which were translated into dozens of languages. Despite the awards he won, Lobel was not always recognized during his lifetime. Lobel loved his work and once said, "I cannot think of any work that could be more agreeable and fun than making books for children"; rather than a writer or author, he called himself a "daydreamer".

Lobel is among a small group of people who have been honored as both an author and illustrator for the Newbery and Caldecott medals. Lobel won the 1981 Caldecott Medal from the American Library Association, recognizing Fables as the year's best-illustrated U.S. children's picture book. His work won the Caldecott Honor in 1971 and 1972 for Frog and Toad are Friends and Hildilid's Night. He won a Newbery Honor Award in 1973 for Frog and Toad Together (1972). He won the Garden State Children's Book Award from the New Jersey Library Association for Mouse Soup (1977). He was also recognized by the National Education Association, the American Library Association, the Boys’ Club, the Society of Children's Book Writers, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Foundation.