After raising eight ducklings on the island, the mother leads them to the Public Garden downtown. The story, set in Boston, Massachusetts, features a mallard pair that nests on an island in the Charles River. McCloskey won the 1942 Caldecott Medal for Make Way for Ducklings. Twelve years later on June 30, 2003, McCloskey died in Deer Isle, Maine. Three others of his picture books are set on the coast and concern the sea. McCloskey's wife and elder daughter Sally are the models for little Sal and her mother in Blueberries for Sal (1948), a picture book set on a 'Blueberry Hill' in the vicinity. They had two daughters, Sally and Jane, and settled in New York State, spending summers on Scott Island, a small island off Little Deer Isle in East Penobscot Bay. In 1940, he married Peggy Durand, daughter of the children's writer Ruth Sawyer. After Vesper George, he moved to New York City for study at the National Academy of Design. He reached Boston in 1932 with a scholarship to study at Vesper George Art School. His work on the totem pole is said to have led to him being chosen to create the bas relief and cast aluminum pieces decorating the Hamilton Municipal building in 1934, when he was 19.

As a teen, McCloskey was a camper-turned-counselor at Camp Campbell Gard, where at age 16 he carved a totem pole which stood at the camp for over 50 years. McCloskey was born in Hamilton, Ohio, on Septemto Howard and Mabel McCloskey.

In longer works, he both wrote and illustrated Homer Price and he illustrated Keith Robertson's Henry Reed series. His best-known work is Make Way For Ducklings, set in Boston. Four of the eight books were set in Maine: Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder, and Burt Dow, Deep-water Man (the last three of those four were all set on the coast). He both wrote and illustrated eight picture books, and won two Caldecott Medals from the American Library Association for the year's best-illustrated picture book. John Robert McCloskey (Septem – June 30, 2003) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Ruth Sawyer (mother-in-law) Melba McCloskey (sister) Dorothy McCloskey (sister) Howard McCloskey (father) Mable McCloskey (mother)

Robert mccloskey's blueberries for