Hader, Berta and Elmer, were an American husband-and-wife team of children’s illustrators and authors known for their sympathetic portrayals of animals. The Haders won the 1949 Caldecott Medal for The Big Snow (1948), which they also wrote. The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the best picture book by an American. The Big Snow describes how a group of forest animals prepares for, and then survives, a giant snowstorm.
The Haders’ animal books reflect the couple’s love of animals and appreciation of the environment. Their books emphasize the companionship that animals can provide to human beings and the importance of allowing animals to live in their natural surroundings. During their careers, the Haders used a variety of illustration techniques, including pencil and water color.
Many of the Hader books are set in a rural area based on Willow Farm, their country home near Nyack, New York. These books include Squirrely of Willow Hill (1950) and Little White Foot: His Adventures on Willow Hill (1952). The couple also wrote an account of the building of their Willow Hill house in The Little Stone House: A Story of Building a House in the Country (1944). Their other notable books as authors and illustrators include Cock-a-Doodle Doo: The Story of a Little Red Rooster (1939), The Mighty Hunter (1943), and Quack Quack: The Story of a Little Wild Duck (1961). They also illustrated many books by other children’s authors.
Elmer Stanley Hader was born on Sept. 7, 1889, in Pajaro, California. He died on Sept. 7, 1973. Berta Hoerner was born to American parents in San Pedro, Mexico, probably in 1890. She married Elmer Hader in 1919. She died on Feb. 6, 1976. They both studied at the California School of Design in San Francisco, Elmer from 1907 to 1910 and Berta from 1915 to 1918.
