Richard Scarry, a best-selling author and illustrator of children's books, died Saturday at Saanen hospital in Gstaad, Switzerland. He was 74. The cause was a heart attack, said his son, Richard Jr.

For my family, reading Scarry together was itself like a car trip — the rare sort where no one gets cranky and the world, as seen from the back seat, is fresh and startling. From “Richard Scarry’s ...