Krommes, << KROH muhs, >> Beth (1956-…), is an American artist and illustrator of children’s books. Krommes won the 2009 Caldecott Medal for her illustrations for The House in the Night (2008), written by the American poet Susan Marie Swanson. The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the most distinguished picture book published in the United States.
The House in the Night is a poem intended to be read to young children at bedtime. Krommes illustrated the poem with water colors on a cardboardlike surface called scratchboard. She limited the colors to black, white, and golden yellow.
Krommes was born on Jan. 6, 1956, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Syracuse University in 1977 and a Master of Arts in Teaching degree in art education from the University of Massachusetts in 1980.
Krommes became interested in wood engraving in 1982, and her works in that medium have been exhibited in several galleries. She became a full-time free-lance illustrator in 1989. Her first children’s book was Grandmother Winter (1999). She also illustrated The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish (2001), The Hidden Folk (2004), Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow (2006), Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature (2011), and Before Morning (2016).
