Feodor Stepanovich ‘Rojan’ Rojankovsky (December 24, 1891 – October 12, 1970), also known as Rojan, was a Russian émigré illustrator. He is well known for his illustration of Children’s Literature. In 1936 he illustrated ‘The White Drake’ (now Firkin and The Grey Gangsters). In 1941 he moved to America where he illustrated over 100 Children’s books mostly to do with animals or nature. He worked as an illustrator on ‘Little Golden books’ at the same time as writing and illustrating his own books such as The Great Big Animal Book, published in 1952. He won the 1956 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration from the American Library Association, recognising ‘Frog Went A-Courtin’ by John Langstaff. He said of his art, ‘Two great events determined the course of my childhood. I was taken to the zoo and saw the most marvellous creatures on earth: bears, tigers, monkeys and reindeer, and, while my admiration was running high, I was given a set of colour crayons. Naturally, I began immediately to depict the animals which captured my imagination. Also when my elder brothers, who were in schools in the capital, came home for vacation, I tried to copy their drawings and to imitate their paintings.’

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