Ann McGovern, a prolific author for children whose work ranged over women’s history, adaptations of folk tales and her own exploits as a globe-trotting adventurer, died on Saturday at her home in Manhattan. She was 85.

…

The author of more than 50 titles that have collectively sold millions of copies, Ms. McGovern was known in particular for “Stone Soup,” her 1986 retelling of the traditional story, with illustrations by Winslow Pinney Pels.

Her books carried artwork by some of the foremost picture-book illustrators of the era, among them “Too Much Noise” (1967), illustrated by Simms Taback; “Zoo, Where Are You?” (1964), illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats; “Nicholas Bentley Stoningpot III” (1982), illustrated by Tomie dePaola; and “Little Wolf” (1965), with pictures by Nola Langner, a friend since grade school who illustrated a half-dozen of Ms. McGovern’s books.

Before turning to writing full time, Ms. McGovern was a children’s book editor in New York.

via Ann McGovern, Author, Is Dead at 85; She Made ‘Stone Soup’ a School Staple – The New York Times.

The older daughter of Julian Dann, an architect, and his wife, Jill, Penny was born in Slough, Berkshire, and was educated at Burnham grammar school, Buckinghamshire, and Brighton College of Art. After graduating, she remained in Brighton, where she played an active part in the monthly meetings of the Brighton Illustrators Group. Between the early 1990s and the early 2000s, she lived in Australia, in Sydney then Melbourne, but continued to work for London-based publishers.

After returning to the UK, through the Brighton Illustrators Group she met Tom Sanderson, a book designer, whom she married a few days before her death.

via Penny Dann obituary | Books | The Guardian.