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Vlasta Carol van Kampen ne Rabel (born August 22, 1943) is an award-winning Canadian children’s book illustrator, author, graphic artist, and teacher. She has illustrated and written over 37 books. Van Kampen graduated from the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University) in Toronto, Canada in 1966. She studied typography and book design at Gerritt Rietveld Akademie (Amsterdam, Netherlands) from 1966–67. Her book ABC, 123: The Canadian Alphabet and Counting Book won a Governor General’s Award, through the Canada Council for the Arts, for Best Children’s book in 1982.

Early Life:
Van Kampen was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, the first of three children of Frank Rabel (an engineer who immigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia with the Bata Shoe Company) and Muriel (Bowman) Rabel. Van Kampen grew up in Batawa, Ontario the factory town for Bata Shoe Company workers. She moved to Frankford, Ontario at the age of five and lived there until she moved to Toronto to attend the Ontario College of Art, where she met Jan van Kampen, who became a graphic designer. Vlasta and Jan were married in 1966.

Career:
Van Kampen started her career as a graphic artist working for the Canadian publishing company McClelland & Stewart in Toronto. Together with Gord McLean, Jerry Kozoriz, and Hugh Michaelson, van Kampen developed a unique graphic technique using printing inks on wax backed rub-down (blank acetate lettering sheets) which were heat set to create intense textures. These textures were meticulously cut out and adhered to paper substrates.

Van Kampen left McClelland & Stewart in 1970 to freelance for them and other publishers. Through her freelance career, van Kampen was commissioned through Parks Canada to produce eight illustrations of natural habitats for permanent exhibition at Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick.

Van Kampen collaborated with her daughter Saskia van Kampen to illustrate the selvedge of the postage stamp booklet and the first day covers celebrating the anniversary of Jasper National Park in Alberta and Terra Nova National Park in Newfoundland through Canada Post. Van Kampen toured Canada as part of Reading Week on three different occasions.

ABC 123:
The simple premise of an alphabet and counting book is countered by the highly detailed black and white ink drawings of Canadian symbols such as M for Moose, H for hockey and 8 beavers icing a cake with their 8 beaver tails. ABC, 123: The Canadian Alphabet and Counting Book won a Governor General’s Award through the Canada Council for the Arts for the best children’s book in 1982.

Beetle Bedlam:
The story of Beetle Bedlam is essentially a court case to see which beetle is killing the trees. The educational and entertaining book includes an afterward written by entomologist Dr. J. M. Campbell and a glossary with a list of the beetle characters and their individual scientific details.

Orchestranimals and Rockanimals:
These books are educational children’s books that walk the reader through each musical instrument, their sound, and musical notation. The books were co-produced with composer Irene C. Eugene and included a read along cassette. Orchestranimals was performed live at the North York Performing Arts Centre, conducted by Kerry Stratton. The original artwork for Orchestranimals was lost while being shipped. The original artwork including all roughs for Rockanimals has been purchased by The National Library of Canada and is now in Ottawa as part of their archives and art collection for children.

Awards:

 * Academic Award, Society of Illustrators, 1966;
 * Amelia Francis Howard-Gibbon Award runner-up, 1979, for Great Canadian Animal Stories;
 * Canada Council Award, 1982, for ABC, 123: The Canadian Alphabet and Counting Book;
 * Applied Arts magazine award, 1997, for Beetle Bedlam;
 * Parent's Guide to Children's Media Award, 1999, for The Last Straw;
 * Skipping Stones Award, 2001, for What's the Difference;
 * Storytelling Award, Storytelling World, 2001, for Two Lazy Bears;
 * International Orders of the Daughters of England Award, 2002, for A Drop of Gold;
 * Toy Council of Canada Award, 2003, for Marigold's Wings.

Book words and illustrations:

 * It Couldn’t be Worse, traditional folk tales, (Annick Press) 2003
 * Marigold’s Wings, (Key Porter) 2003
 * A Drop of Gold (Annick Press) 2002
 * Bear Tales, traditional folk tales (Annick Press) 2000
 * Rockanimals, written with I.C. Eugene (Scholastic) 1991
 * Orchestranimals, written with I.C. Eugene (Scholastic) 1989
 * Beetle Bedlam (Key Porter) 1997
 * ABC/123: The Canadian Alphabet and Counting Book (Hurtig) 1982

Book Illustrations:

 * Who Can?, written by Charles Ghigna (Orca Book Publishing) 2018
 * Under The Star, written by Jane Yolan (Key Porter) 2009
 * The Bears We Know, written by Brenda Silsbe (Annick Press) 2008
 * Hippo series of board books, One Hippo Hops, Hip Hippos, Sad, Mad, Glad Hippos, written by Jane Yolen (Key Porter) 2008
 * Hands On Bible (Group Publishing) 2004
 * What’s the Difference?, written by J. Diehl & D. Plumb (Annick Press) 2000
 * The Last Straw, written by F.H. Thury (Key Porter)1998
 * Monkey Tales, written by L. Dee Gugler (Annick Press)1998
 * Cookie Critters (Somerville House) 1997
 * Muddle Cuddle, written by L. Dee Gugler (Annick Press) 1997
 * God Loves You (Thomas Nelson / Compass Productions) 1996
 * Abraham, written by J. Root Wilger (Group Publishing) 1995
 * Dinosaur Days, written by L. Manning (Stoddart) 1993
 * King of Cats, written by Arthur Johnson (Stoddart) 1992
 * Animal Hours, written by L. Manning (Oxford UP) 1990
 * Racing Stripes for William, written by D. Joan Harris (Three Trees) 1988
 * My Dad Takes Care of Me, written by P. Quinlan (Annick Press) 1987
 * Four Seasons for Toby, written by D. Joan Harris (Scholastic) 1987
 * Pocketful of Puzzles, written by L. Marcus (Puffin) 1985
 * Emily Umily, written by K. Corrigan (Annick) 1984
 * The Princess, The Hockey Player, Magic and Ghosts, edited by M. Whitaker (Hurtig) 1980
 * Stories from the Canadian North, edited by M. Whitaker (Hurtig) 1980
 * Great Canadian Adventure Stories, edited by M. Whitaker (Hurtig) 1979
 * Great Canadian Animal Stories, edited by M. Whitaker (Hurtig) 1978
 * The Fisherman and the Queen of the Fishes” in Treasure Chest, written by With J.A. McInnes, et al. (Thomas Nelson & Sons) 1977
 * Rowboats & Rollerskates, edited by J. McInnes & E. Harris (Thomas Nelson & Sons) 1975
 * Sleeping Bags & Flying Machines, edited by J. McInnes & E. Harris (Thomas Nelson & Sons) 1973
 * Toboggans & Turtlenecks, edited by J. McInnes & E. Harris (Thomas Nelson & Sons) 1973
 * Kites & Cartwheels, edited by J. McInnes & E. Harris (Thomas Nelson & Sons) 1972
 * Hockey Cards & Hopscotch, edited by J. McInnes & E. Harris, (Thomas Nelson & Sons) 1971
 * Northern Lights & Fireflies, edited by J. McInnes & E. Harris (Thomas Nelson & Sons) 1971
 * Driftwood & Dandelions, edited by J. McInnes & E. Harris (Thomas Nelson & Sons) 1970
 * Sauerkraut and Enterprise, written by Edna Staebler, (McClelland & Stewart) 1968
 * Flying free, written by Kate Seredy (W.J. Gage Ltd.) 1966

Book Cover Illustrations:

 * What A Goat (Annick Press) 2004
 * Drusilla The Lucky Duck (Annick Press) 2003
 * Northern Cookbook, written by E.A. Ellis (Hurtig) 1979
 * Frozen Fire, written by J. Huston (Puffin) 1983

Puzzle Illustrations:

 * Birds and Beasts (Great American Puzzle Factory) 1998
 * Sea and Sky (Great American Puzzle Factory) 1998

External Links:
https://vlasta.ca/ https://biography.jrank.org/pages/1832/Van-Kampen-Vlasta-1943.html https://www.charlesbridge.com/pages/vlasta-van-kampen https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/302260.Vlasta_Van_Kampen https://www.orcabook.com/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=24900&Name=Vlasta+Van+Kampen https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-88106-695-1 https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/eppp-archive/100/200/300/cmarchive/vol20no2/revrockanimals.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_General%27s_Award_for_English-language_children%27s_illustration https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/vlasta-van-kampen/ https://www.iodeontario.ca/book-winners.html https://gallerix.org/storeroom/1611366395/N/269454998/