Brenda Clark

About Brenda Clark

Brenda Clark (born 10 February 1955) is a Canadian illustrator, born in Toronto, best known for creating the pictures for Paulette Bourgeois's Franklin the Turtle books, beginning with Franklin in the Dark (1986).

Clark studied illustration at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, graduating with an honours diploma in 1977, and began her career with freelance work in educational publishing. Her first contract with Kids Can Press came in 1983, for Allen Morgan's Christopher and the Dream Dragon, and she then illustrated Morgan's Sadie and the Snowman (1985) in full colour. Her other books include Bourgeois's Big Sarah's Little Boots (1987), Little Fingerling (1989), My Dog (1993) and Puddleman (1994).

In 1985 Kids Can Press offered her Bourgeois's manuscript for Franklin in the Dark, which was published the following year. She has since illustrated more than 30 Franklin titles and many activity books. Franklin reached television as an animated series from 1997 to 2004, followed by Franklin and Friends from 2011 to 2013, and Canada Post issued a Franklin stamp in 2012. Several Franklin titles won Canadian Children's Book Centre awards, and she was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2014. She lives in Port Hope, Ontario.

For collectors

The Kids Can Press first edition of Franklin in the Dark (1986) marks the first appearance of her Franklin, and early Kids Can Press titles such as Hurry Up, Franklin, Franklin Fibs and Franklin Is Lost carry her original art.