Veteran children's books author & illustrator Sybil Wettasinghe passes away

Veteran children's books author & illustrator - Kala Keerthi Sybil Wettasinghe passed away this morning (01) at the age of 93.

According to family sources, she had been receiving medical treatment at a private hospital in Colombo for the past 4 days and had passed away at around 11.00 p.m. last night (30).

Born on Oct. 27, 1927, Wettasinghe spent the first six years of her childhood in the Southern village of Gintota.

She had joined the Lankadeepa newspaper at the age of 17 and moved to the Lakehouse publications  in 1952. There, she became the main illustrator of the Janatha newspaper. She wrote and illustrated for the Sundayobserver, Silumina, Daily News and Sarasaviya.

Her first book 'Kuda Hora' won several international accolades and was eventually translated into several languages as well.

The internationally-known children’s story writer and illustrator had entered into Guinness Book of World Records in March this year for a book with the most number of alternate endings. The 93-year-old grandmother of five, who has shaped the imagination of four generations, threw a challenge to her young readers to write an end to her story titled Wonder Crystal using their creativity.

Sybil, who was the first Sri Lankan woman to work full-time as a journalist, has published about 200 children’s storybooks, some of which have been translated into languages like Tamil, Danish, Japanese, Chinese, Swedish, Dutch, Vietnamese and Norwegian.

Wettasinghe went on to produce over 200 children's books enthralling and bringing joy to generations of children around the world.