Llama llama red pajama feels alone without his mama
September 6, 2016 9:35 PM   Subscribe

"Children’s author, illustrator, and educator Anna Dewdney, whose toddler-centric picture books starring wildly expressive Baby Llama are multi-million-copy bestsellers, died at her home in Vermont on Saturday, September 3, after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. She was 50." — Publisher's Weekly

Llama Llama Red Pajama, published in 2005, was the first book she both wrote and illustrated. It, and all the other books in the Llama Llama series were New York Times Bestsellers. It's been adapted for the stage. An animated adaptation of the series will come to Netflix in 2017.

Prior to writing, Dewdney worked as a mail carrier, at a daycare, a preschool, and taught art, writing and social studies.

In a 2013 interview, she was asked why children's books are important. She said: "One is literacy. Children need to learn how to read; that is the obvious one. The one that I think that is very unappreciated is that children’s books help children learn what it means to be human. Children develop empathy by reading picture books and learn what it means to be them, and they learn what it means to be other people."

In lieu of a funeral service, she requested you read to a child instead.
posted by brentajones (29 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
This one particularly hit home for me as these books are some of my toddler's favorites right now, and hearing him attempt to say "llama llama" is one of the things that brings me the most joy at the moment.

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posted by brentajones at 9:36 PM on September 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


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posted by fings at 9:38 PM on September 6, 2016


I just recently fell in love with Llama Llama Red Pajama when my wife picked it up at the library, and decided we needed a copy. My son loves it. A couple of days ago we bought a copy to keep in the house and read over and over.

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posted by lostburner at 9:53 PM on September 6, 2016


This is so so sad. Llama Llama Misses Mama was instrumental in easing my eldest's anxiety about preschool drop off. These books were such a tender part of snuggle time with my boys.

She requested that in lieu of a funeral service that people read to a child instead.

Done.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:09 PM on September 6, 2016 [5 favorites]


Way too young.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:18 PM on September 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


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Her books are crazy popular at my library.
posted by sarcasticah at 10:48 PM on September 6, 2016


Yeah, these books are just so sweet and she has helped out so many kids with early anxiety issues. She'll be missed, and remembered.

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posted by montag2k at 10:58 PM on September 6, 2016


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posted by humanfont at 11:37 PM on September 6, 2016


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And, fuck cancer.
posted by DreamerFi at 1:57 AM on September 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


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Llama Llama Red Pajama is my one-year-old daughter's favorite book by a wide margin. We read it almost every day, and we read it last night after I saw this news.
posted by gauche at 3:21 AM on September 7, 2016


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posted by BlueHorse at 4:02 AM on September 7, 2016


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posted by condour75 at 4:09 AM on September 7, 2016


Surprised how sad I feel about this, having know nothing about Dewdney as a person until know. We enjoyed her books, and I won't stop reading to children.

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posted by Songdog at 4:11 AM on September 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Got a three-year-old in the family right now who thinks these books are the best thing on earth: even better than his Thomas train books, which is really saying something. Yes ma'am, I'll borrow the kid and we'll do a little reading in her memory.

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posted by easily confused at 6:01 AM on September 7, 2016


We're slowly gathering a collection of books with our 5-month-old. We just have Llama Llama Nighty-Night right now but I'm sure we will definitely end up with much more of the series.

Tonight's storytime will be dedicated to Anna Dewdney, as requested.

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posted by pianoblack at 6:11 AM on September 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


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posted by dr_dank at 6:16 AM on September 7, 2016


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posted by lollymccatburglar at 6:39 AM on September 7, 2016


I saw this in Twitter and it made me cry. Way too young.
posted by alms at 6:43 AM on September 7, 2016


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posted by dforemsky at 6:54 AM on September 7, 2016


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posted by BibiRose at 8:35 AM on September 7, 2016


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posted by Joey Michaels at 8:58 AM on September 7, 2016


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posted by WalkingAround at 9:32 AM on September 7, 2016


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Love her book, Roly Poly Pangolin too.
posted by threesquare at 9:33 AM on September 7, 2016


Llama Llama Mad at Mama is a great book, and not only because it is the first one I bought for my granddaughter.

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posted by dglynn at 11:57 AM on September 7, 2016


Here's Dewdney reading Llama Llama Red Pajama. This is equally devastating to some of the other deaths this year as I read this over and over to my now-seven year old. He wouldn't let me read it to him last night after I heard about this and it made me sad. I read him his Pokemon guidebook instead.
posted by waitingtoderail at 12:42 PM on September 7, 2016


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posted by Reverend John at 3:33 PM on September 7, 2016


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posted by slmorri at 8:46 PM on September 7, 2016


Her work is uniformly charming as hell. I'm sad for her family and for the future works she won't have the chance to make.
posted by that's candlepin at 12:33 PM on September 8, 2016


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posted by Fizz at 2:45 PM on September 8, 2016


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