In a career spanning more than three-quarters of a century, Maine artist Dahlov Ipcar has written and illustrated more than thirty children's and young adult books, starting with The Little Fisherman (written by Margaret Wise Brown) in 1945 and including The Cat at Night, One Horse Farm, Hardscrabble Harvest, The Calico Jungle , and My Wonderful Christmas Tree . Her unique and distinctively modern style helped change the role of artwork in children's literature. She first summered and later moved with her husband Adolph to Maine in 1937, where she still lives and continues to paint almost every day. In 2010, she released her first new book in more than twenty years, Dahlov Ipcar's Farmyard Alphabet , which she has followed with two more in the series, Wild Animal Alphabet and Maine Alphabet . In 2012, she was awarded the Maine in America Award from the Farnsworth Art Museum for her outstanding contribution to Maine and its role in American art.