 The first was "Baboushka and the Three Kings", retelling the "Russian folktale about an old woman's endless search for the Christ child".For that work he received the annual Caldecott Medal from the American Library Association in 1961, as illustrator of the previous year's "most distinguished American picture book for children".From 1945 to the 1970s, San Francisco was a hub of creativity and Nicolas was in the thick of it.