Bond, Higgins 1951-

Personal

Born December 14, 1951, in Little Rock, AR; daughter of Henry Higgins and Edna Washington North; married Benny Bond (a recreation therapist), January 20, 1973; children: Benjamin Garnett. Education: Attended Phillips University, 1969-70; Memphis College of Arts, B.F.A. (advertising design), 1973.

Addresses

Home—Nashville, TN. Agent—Anita Grien Agency, 155 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016. E-mail—bhigginsbond@netscape.net.

Career

Illustrator, fine artist, and designer. Freelance illustrator, 1974—. Russ Berrie Company, Oakland, NJ, designer/illustrator, 1982-83; illustrator of periodicals, calendars, ceramics, and commemorative stamps; guest lecturer at colleges and universities. Exhibitions: Work exhibited at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, 1974; DuSable Museum of African-American History, Chicago, IL, 1977; Children's Museum, Indianapolis, IN, 1981; Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN, 1988; Tennessee State University, 1992; and Talladega College, 2002.

Member

Society of Illustrators.

Awards, Honors

21st Annual National Exhibition Certificate of Merit, Society of Illustrators, 1979; Communications Excellence to Black Audiences Award of Merit, 1979, for work in Black Enterprise Magazine; presented key to the city of Indianapolis, IN, 1981; Medal of Honor, Arkansas Sesquicentennial Committee, 1986; Parents' Choice designation, 1998, for Song of La Selva by Joan Banks; inducted into Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, 1997; Green Earth Award for nonfiction, Society of School Librarians International, 1997, for A Place for Butterflies.

Illustrator

Raymond M. Corbin, 1999 Facts about Blacks, Beckham House Publishers, 1986.

Toyomi Igus, When I Was Little, Just Us Books (Orange, NJ), 1992.

Daniel Cohen, Ancient Rome, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1992.

Claire Chapelle, Time for Sleep, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1993.

Walter Dean Myers, Young Martin's Promise, Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 1993.

Denise Jordan, Suzie King Taylor: Destined to Be Free, Just Us Books (Orange, NJ), 1994.

Garnet Nelson Jackson, Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice, Modern Curriculum Press (Cleveland, OH), 1994.

Garnet Nelson Jackson, Toni Morrison, Author, Modern Curriculum Press (Cleveland, OH), 1995.

Sheri Tan, Handshake in Space, Soundprints (Norwalk, CT), 1998.

Joan Banks, Song of La Selva: A Story of a Costa Rican Rain Forest, Soundprints (Norwalk, CT), 1998.

Melvin and Gilda Berger, Why Do Volcanoes Blow Their Tops?: Questions and Answers about Volcanoes and Earthquakes, Scholastic Reference (New York, NY), 1999.

Melvin and Gilda Berger, Do Whales Have Belly Buttons?: Questions and Answers about Whales and Dolphins, Scholastic Reference (New York, NY), 1999.

Melvin and Gilda Berger, Do Tornadoes Really Twist?: Questions and Answers about Tornadoes and Hurricanes, Scholastic Reference (New York, NY), 2000.

Melvin and Gilda Berger, Do Penguins Get Frostbite?: Questions and Answers about Polar Bears, Scholastic Reference (New York, NY), 2000.

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Easton Press, 2001.

Suszette Haden Elgin, adaptor, Jesus Is Born (based on Luke 2.1-21), American Bible Society, 2002.

Suszette Haden Elgin, adaptor, Jesus Prays to His Father (based on Matthew 26.36-45), American Bible Society, 2002.

Melvin and Gilda Berger, Where Did the Butterfly Get Its Name?: Questions and Answers about Butterflies and Moths, Scholastic Reference (New York, NY), 2002.

Audrey Fraggalosch, Trails above the Tree Line: A Story of a Rocky Mountain Meadow, Soundprints (Norwalk, CT), 2002.

Mary Batten, Hey, Daddy! Animal Fathers and Their Babies, Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 2002.

Linda Viero, The Seven Seas: Exploring the World Ocean, Walker (New York, NY), 2003.

Susan Korman, Groundhog at Evergreen Road, Soundprints (Norwalk, CT), 2003.

Martha Whitmore Hickman, Then I Think of God, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 2003.

Mary Batten, Who Has a Belly Button?, Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 2004.

Richard H. Schneider, The Christmas Pea Coat, Ideals (Nashville, TN), 2004.

Michael Rose Ramirez, Pen Pals, Mondo (New York, NY), 2004.

Claire Rudolf Murphy, I Am Sacajawea, I Am York: Our Journey West with Lewis and Clark, Walker (New York, NY), 2005.

Linda Viera, The Mighty Mississippi: The Life and Times of America's Greatest River, Walker (New York, NY), 2005.

Melissa Stewart, A Place for Butterflies, Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 2006.

Laura Gates Galvin, Alphabet of Space, Soundprints/Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC), 2007.

Contributor of illustrations to periodicals, including Black Enterprise and Essence.

Sidelights

Higgins Bond is a prolific artist whose detailed paintings have appeared in magazines and on posters as well as being adapted for reproduction on commemorative U.S. postage stamps, collector plates, and other items. She is also well known to generations of children due to her work as an illustrator of nonfiction books for young people. A versatile artist who often depicts chil-

dren and wildlife in her paintings, Bond has dozens of books to her credit, among them The Seven Seas: Exploring the World Ocean by Laura Viero, Who Has a Belly Button? by Mary Batten, and Young Martin's Promise, a biography of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. with a text by Walter Dean Myers.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Bond developed an interest in art as a young child. After high school, she enrolled at Phillips University, then transferred to the Memphis College of Art where she earned her B.F.A. in advertising design in 1973. Her first illustration project, Raymond M. Corbin's 1999 Facts about Blacks, was published in 1986; her second, Toyomi Igus's picture book When I Was Little, appeared six years later, in 1992. The years since have found Bon producing the bulk of her illustration work for children's books.

Reviewers have consistently praised Bond's work. According to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, in her illustrations for Igus's nostalgic When I Was Little, Bond's "strikingly naturalistic, richly hued paintings" are juxtaposed against "black-and-white drawings," a technique "that effectively evoke the lifestyle" of Igus's rural African-American family during the early years of the twentieth century. Discussing Bond's work for Linda Viera's The Mighty Mississippi: The Life and Times of America's Greatest River, Booklist contributor John Peters wrote that Bond brings to life the history of this major U.S. waterway in "a patchwork of richly colored paintings" in which life along the Mississippi is "inset into grand, sweeping river vistas." The characteristically detailed acrylic paintings she contributes to Batten's Hey Daddy! Animal Fathers and Their Babies were praised by Booklist reviewer Kay Weisman for "exhibit[ing] a rich color palate and almost photographic detail." Calling the work "a lovely book to look at," Cathie Bashaw Morton wrote in her School Library Journal appraisal that Bond's illustrations "nicely reflect the text" and accurately depict the wildlife habitat of the story's various "characters."

During her long career, Bond has amassed a number of prestigious honors, among them a medal of honor from the Arkansas Sesquicentennial Committee, delivered in 1986 from then-Governor Bill Clinton. Her paintings have been included in exhibitions staged at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Chicago's DuSable Museum of African-American Art, and galleries at her alma matter and several other colleges. In addition to appearing on three stamps created for the U.S. Postal Service, Bond's art has appeared on four stamps for the U.N. Postal Administration. In 2006 she participated as one of five judges for the annual Federal Duck Stamp Contest sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Art Direction, April, 1976.

Artist Market (annual), 1983, p. 146.

Booklist, March 1, 1993, Ilene Cooper, review of When I Was Little, p. 1236; October 1, 2002, Kay Weisman, review of Hey, Daddy! Animal Fathers and Their Babies, p. 328; November 15, 2003, John Peters, review of Groundhog at Evergreen Road, p. 601; October 1, 2005, John Peters, review of The Mighty Mississippi: The Life and Times of America's Greatest River, p. 54; March 15, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of A Place for Butterflies, p. 52.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2003, review of The Seven Seas, p. 542; March 1, 2004, review of Who Has a Belly Button?, p. 219; October 15, 2005, review of The Mighty Mississippi, p. 1147; March 1, 2006, review of A Place for Butterflies, p. 241.

Publishers Weekly, January 4, 1993, review of When I Was Little, p. 73.

School Library Journal, August, 1993, Anna DeWind, review of When I Was Little, p. 146; July, 1995, Anna DeWind, review of Suzie King Taylor: Destined to Be Free, p. 87; February, 2001, Eunice Weech, review of Do Tornadoes Really Twist?: Questions and Answers about Tornadoes and Hurricanes, p. 138; December, 2002, Cathie Bashaw Morton, review of Hey, Daddy!, p. 116; July, 2003, Helen Foster James, review of The Seven Seas, p. 120; September, 2003, Suzanne Crowder, review of When I Think of God, p. 180, and Susannah Price, review of Trails above the Tree Line: A Story of a Rocky Mountain Meadow, p. 190; May, 2004, Doris Losey, review of Who Has a Belly Button?, p. 128; October, 2005, Renee Steinberg, review of I Am Sacajawea, I Am York: Our Journey West with Lewis and Clark, p. 123; November, 2005, Lucinda Snyder, Whitehurst, review of The Mighty Mississippi, p. 172; June, 2006, Patricia Manning, review of A Place for Butterflies, p. 141.

ONLINE

Higgins Bond Home Page,http://www.higginsbond.com (March 15, 2007).