She left two years later and married Thomas Tafuri, a fellow student at the School of Visual Arts. Her first job was as an assistant art director for the publishing firm Simon & Schuster. Tafuri entered the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1964. For the first ten years of her life she was an only child and says that this helped her to learn to entertain herself with stories and art. Since then she has had the opportunity to work with Scholastic Press, Scholastic Inc., Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division and most recently Little, Brown Books For Young Readers, Little, Brown and Company. Finally, Tafuri’s talent was recognized and tapped at Greenwillow Books, Harper Collins Publishers. “The pictures are too big,” she was told over and over about the large, colorful shapes she drew. Tafuri’s images were considered “too graphic” for children that age. When Tafuri first attempted picture book illustration in the late 1970’s picture books were aimed at five-, six-, and seven-year-olds. Nancy Tafuri is probably best known as the creator of Have You Seen My Duckling?, a 1985 Caldecott Honor Book described by Parent’s Choice as “beautifully precise yet emotionally affecting.” Trained as a graphic designer, Tafuri has authored more than 45 books over 30 years for the very young.
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