Sandra Boynton

Purple hippos, pastel pink pigs and adorably sweet, not-scary-at-all monsters are what illustrator and author Sandra Boynton is best known for. But did you know that the woman who began designing greeting cards to earn money in college also has a Grammy nomination to her famous name? 

It’s just one of the fun facts about Sandra Boynton, the creative genius who in addition to being one of the most popular children’s book authors has an equally prolific music portfolio that boasts Meryl Streep, Patti Lupone and B.B. King, among others, as featured artists. 

Add to that a line of plush toys based on her characters; calendars, mugs and t-shirts; several books for adults (her book on chocolate tells you how to request it in 14 languages); and a dedicated YouTube channel featuring her own videos and music, and it’s clear the only limit to her success is, well, her own imagination. 

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Sandra grew up in a Quaker household, the daughter of a progressive educator who with her three brothers and sisters attended Germantown Friends School. The arts-focused curriculum led her to develop her creative side; in high school, she opted to take five years of Latin classes because they were held at the same time as the science classes she wanted to avoid.

Sandra attended Yale, from which she graduated in 1974 as a member of the school’s second class to accept women. With her sights set on becoming a theatre director, she attended graduate school in California for a year, transferred to the Yale School of Drama, then decided to leave and focus on illustration work. In 1973, Recycled Paper Greetings signed her to produce greeting cards, which she had been creating since her undergraduate days at Yale. By 2003, her greeting cards had sold more than 500 million copies. 

Hallmark and American Greetings these weren’t. Instead, Sandra’s wide-eyed animal illustrations and pun-based humor appealed to children and adults alike. Her most famous card, “Hippo Birdies Two Ewes,” has been sold more than 10 million times. 

In 1978, Sandra married Jamie McEwan, a writer and Olympic slalom canoeist (he won bronze in Munich in 1972) with whom she raised four children. That same year, she published Hippos Go Berserk!, the first book in what would turn out to be one of the most popular young-children’s book series in publishing history. (Barnyard Dance! and Moo, Baa, La La La were particular favorites in this house.) In all, more than 60 million copies of her books have been sold. 

In addition to publishing books, in 1996 Sandra began writing and producing songs for children with composer Michael Ford. Far from nursery rhymes, Sandra’s music is sophisticated, with a who’s-who of celebrities and musicians appearing on each of her eight albums. The third, Philadelphia Chickens, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2002. 

In 2008 Sandra began directing and producing videos for her most popular songs, creating them as an accompaniment to her books. Her latest compilation, “Be Like a Duck,” features her four adult children, two of whom are actors and writers who appeared separately on previous projects. 

All this is done from her home in rural Connecticut, where Sandra works in a 120-year-old barn that she uses for her studio. It’s filled with plush versions of her characters, copies of her books, photographs of her family and dozens of awards from the National Cartoonists Society (she won its lifetime achievement award in 2008), the Rhode Island International Film Festival (for One Shoe Blues with B.B. King) and dozens of other literary and film organizations. 

Sandra’s most recent video was released in July. It’s a hilarious spoof of a French ballad, sung by a feline chanteuse and featuring Yo Yo Ma on cello and Weird Al Yankovich on accordion. In many ways, it’s a ballad for our times. Enjoy: