Floyd Cooper, acclaimed children’s illustrator, dead at 65

NEW YORK (AP) — An award-winning illustrator and author of children’s books, whose mission to offer candid and positive images of Black history included subjects ranging from Frederick Douglass and the civil rights movement to Venus and Serena Williams, has died. Floyd Cooper was 65.

He illustrated dozens of books and his work on Joyce Carol Thomas’ “The Blacker the Berry” brought him the Coretta Scott King Award in 2009 for achievement by a Black illustrator. He also collaborated with such top authors as Weatherford, Walter Dean Myers, Jacqueline Woodson, and Howard Bryant.