more. Then she began her artwork, which involves cutting out each piece individually and then gluing them on the pages of her book. Her work reflected her love of nature with gardens and nature playing a central theme in many of her works. Her 1989 book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, was a best seller and sold over 12 million copies worldwide. The book, which had text by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, had an entire set of brightly colored alphabets climbing a coconut tree. The book was read by the then US president Barack Obama, who read the book and showed the illustrations to young visitors during the 2013 White House Easter Egg Roll. Writing about her, the Publishers Weekly, called attention to her “signature collage artwork featuring bold colors and crisply cut shapes as well as found objects.” Through her career she wrote and illustrated 38 books for young readers. Ehlert won the Caldecott Honor Book in 1990 for Color Zoo and won a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for Snowballs. Ehlert became the Booklist Editors' Choice for Cuckoo/Cucú: A Mexican Folktale/Un cuento folklórico Mexicano. She also was awarded the IRA Teachers' Choice and NCTE Notable Children's Trade Book in the Language Arts for Feathers for Lunch and received the American Library Association Notable Children's Book and Boston Globe – Horn Book Award for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. She received an Honorable Mention from the National Outdoor Book Award (Children's Category) in 2005 for Leaf Man, which was also awarded the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in 2006. Personal life Ehlert married designer and artist John J. Reiss in 1967. The couple divorced in the 1970s. Ehlert died on May 25, 2021 at her home in Milwaukee at age 86. Selected works Growing Vegetable Soup (1987) Planting a Rainbow (1988) Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (illustrator) (1989) Color Zoo (1989) Eating the Alphabet (1989) Thump, Thump, Rat-a-Tat-Tat (illustrator) (1989) Color Farm (1990) Fish Eyes (1990) Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf (1991) Feathers for Lunch (1990) Circus (1992) Moon Rope/Un Lazo a La Luna (1992) Nuts to You! (1993) Mole's Hill: A Woodland Tale (1994) Snowballs (1995) A Pair of Socks (illustrator) (1996) Under My Nose (1996) Cuckoo/Cucú: A Mexican Folktale (1997) Angel Hide and Seek (illustrator) (1998) Top Cat (1998) Waiting for Wings (2001) Market Day/Día de marcado (2002) In My World (2002) Crocodile Smile (illustrator) (2003) Moon Rope