Bang began writing children's books after a failed stint as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. At first illustrating folk tales, she turned eventually to her own stories. The ability to carry emotion in pictures is of particular interest to her; her one book for adults, Picture This (1991) is specifically about the practical ways pictures work. Her wordless picture book The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher is notable for its use of negative space and the way Bang contrasts bright colors against grey.[4]
In the 2000s, Bang and her daughter Monika Bang-Campbell collaborated as illustrator and writer to create three picture books featuring Little Rat, a girl rat who learns with courage or practice to sail, to ride a horse, and to play the violin.[5]
From Sea To Shining Sea: A Treasury Of American Folklore and Folk Songs, compiled by
Amy L. Cohn; illustrated by eleven Caldecott Medal and four Caldecott Honor Book artists (1993)
Little Rat Sets Sail, by
Monika Bang-Campbell (Harcourt, 2002) – first of three "easy-reader collaborations" by mother and daughter[5]
^Artists of Books for Children. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Book Bay and Harry W. Schwartz Bookstores. 1987. p. 16.
LCCN86-063431.
^Peterson, Linda Kauffman; Marilyn Leather Solt (1982). Newberry and Caldecott Medal and Honor Books: an annotated bibliography. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. p. 375.
ISBN0-8161-8448-8.