Leonard Kessler, the author and illustrator of hundreds of children’s book for early readers, died on Feb. 16 at his home in Sarasota, FL. He was 101.

Of the more than 300 books Mr. Kessler wrote and illustrated, perhaps the most popular is Mr. Pine’s Purple House, the story of how Mr. Pine set out to distinguish his white house from others on the block with purple paint. When it was published in 1965, it sold widely for 29 cents a copy. But by the mid 1990s, it had been out of print for decades and became a collector’s item, selling for $300 on eBay.

Mr. Kessler often found inspiration in the everyday. The hungry feelings of a small boy on a trip to the supermarket are magnified in Crunch Crunch, the sequel to Plink Plink, a book about feeling thirsty. The Big Red Bus, about a bus that lands in a pothole, snarling traffic, was chosen by The New York Times as one of the best illustrated children’s books of 1957. In 1990, it was a Times crossword clue (Big Red Bus author, 5 Down.)

About the color purple, Mr. Kessler told The Tampa Bay Times in 2005 that purple was his favorite color. “I have a purple door. I have a purple studio. I think purple is a color that vibrates. I think that’s me.”