Gina Calleja, born Jean Gadsby, (March 12, 1928 – March 7, 2017) was an author and illustrator of children's books in Canada.
Personal life and education Calleja was born Jean Gadsby in Lowestoft, England. She studied art at Reading University and London University's Slade School of Fine Art.
She married Joseph Calleja, a painter and sculptor from Malta, and the pair moved to Canada in 1958.
She died March 7, 2017.
Career Calleja worked as a secondary school teacher in Toronto. In 1980, she created the illustrations for Caroline Beech's Peas again for lunch. Soon after, she illustrated two of Frank Etherington's stories, The Spaghetti Word Race and Those Words.
Calleja created her first children's book as an author in 1983, entitled Tobo Hates Purple."TOBO HATES PURPLE" . CM Magazine, Volume 12, No. 1. Jean E. Mabee, Winnipeg, MB. She continued to write and illustrate over the next two decades; her most recent book is Great Food for Happy Kids in 2001.
Publications
As author
Tobo Hates Purple, 1983"Tobo Hates Purple.(Book Review)". Quill and Quire, 1983 Sept, p.74 Key Publishers Company Ltd. ()"Great Escapes". Books in Canada, December 1983, pag e14 May Ainslie Smith. Wizzo and the Cookie Babies, 1994 Bloor and Christie, 1998"Bloor and Christie: The Mystery of the Bright Red Ribbon." CM Magazine, Volume V Number 9 . January 1, 1999. Review by Joan Payzant.
As illustrator Peas Again for Lunch, 1980. The Spaghetti Word Race, 1981 Those Words, 1982 Great Food for Happy Kids, 2001 "Great Food for Happy Kids". review by Thelma Barer-Stein in The Culinary Historians of Ontario, Spring 2002, Issue 32, page 6.
References
External links WorldCat report "Gina Calleja". Family placed obituary in the Toronto Star, March 10, 2017.