Robert Kraus; Cartoonist Wrote Children’s Books

Robert Kraus, cartoonist turned author who wrote, illustrated and edited more than 100 children’s books including “Leo the Late Bloomer,” has died at 76.

Kraus, who also drew 21 covers and 450 cartoons for the New Yorker magazine, died Aug. 7 of congestive heart failure in a nursing home in Kent, Conn.

His books, including the 1970 favorite “Whose Mouse Are You?” earned American Library Assn., Horn Book and Children’s Trade Book awards.

The charming, encouraging 1971 tale of little Leo, the underachieving lion who learns that simply trying is an achievement, was read on national television 10 years ago by then-First Lady Barbara Bush in her literacy campaign.

The book, like many written by Kraus, reflected his philosophy to “do your best,” which he learned at his mother’s knee.

“I find that things my mother used to say come back to me and sometimes appear in a book,” Kraus said in the publication Something About the Author Autobiography Series. “[Some] of her mottoes that I use are ‘do your best’ and ‘never give up.’ You have to believe in yourself, and I don’t try to get this across in my books, but this comes out. This is my philosophy. I want the children who read my books to feel good when they’re through reading.”

Kraus’ theme of “do your best” spelled out in the “Leo” book and its sequels also may have had early roots in a cartoon contest he won at age 10. The contest was staged by his hometown newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal, and his award was a plaque he kept throughout his life that said, “Do Your Best.”

The paper printed Kraus’ winning cartoon and two years later hired the boy to produce a weekly cartoon called “Public Nuisances.”

As a teenager, Kraus sold cartoons to such humor magazines as Judge, Gags and Nifty, and by 16 he saw his work printed in more prestigious publications, including the Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.

Excluded from military service during World War II because of a vision problem, Kraus aimlessly hitchhiked across the country and took odd jobs. But he soon applied himself and began studying at Milwaukee’s Layton Art School and continued at New York’s Art Students’ League.

After selling a few cartoons to the New Yorker, he was hired by the magazine as a contract artist, placing 50 cartoons in his first year. In 15 years with the magazine, he created the 21 artistic covers, mostly in a seven-year period, and once created three in a week.

Always restless to try new things, Kraus began illustrating--and writing--children’s books, with Harper publishing his first, “All the Mice Came,” in 1955.

A decade later, the budding author decided to establish a children’s book publishing house, dubbing it Windmill and installing himself as president. His idea was to ask artist friends to create the books--but he soon learned they were more interested in illustrating than writing.

So he wrote the stories, albeit painfully, recalling: “I love drawing. . . . Giving my stories to somebody else was like giving away a child.”

Kraus’ publishing house hired well-known writers to complement its artists, including Charles Addams and the illustrators of Kraus’ “Leo” books, Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey. The respected Windmill Books also published innovative glow-in-the-dark calendars, pop-up books and the Tubby series of waterproof books that float in the bathtub.

After 20 years, failing fortunes forced Kraus to sign over Windmill to Simon & Schuster. He devoted himself to writing and illustrating children’s books, featuring such humanized animal heroes as assorted mice and the actor owl Owliver, the octopus Herman and the problem-solving Spider.

A Times review particularly praised Kraus’ “Old-Fashioned Raggedy Ann & Andy ABC Book” illustrated by Johnny Gruelle. “Evoking nostalgia, this simple--yet elegant--dictionary is based on the-way-it-used-to-be stylized illustrations and delightful rhymes,” the review stated. “Raggedy Ann and Andy cavort through the alphabet, encountering D for dragon, E for elephant and Z for zigzag.”

Kraus is survived by his wife, illustrator Pamela Wong Kraus; two sons; and four grandchildren.