Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for February 18, 2025

 This author, daughter of a Viet Nam veteran, attended a Department of Defence school in Germany. So it was personal, and quite a shock, when she learned that her 2007 book about a little red haired girl who learns to accept her freckles is now banned from all Dept. of Defense schools. The reason? The little girl comes to learn that her freckles make her different and that everyone has something different about them, which apparently smacks of diversity and inclusion. The author/actor is Julianne Moore, and her book is called Freckleface Strawberry.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for February 11, 2025

 This week in February of 1964, four young English men appeared on the Ed Sullivan show watched by millions. One of the "fab four" went on to write a children's book that came out in 2019 called Hey, Grandude about a grandfather who takes his kids on wild adventures with his magic compass. It was followed by a sequel, Grandude's Green Submarine. This is James Paul McCartney. 

Love Anna Doherty's illustrations!

 I'm so excited to see some of the art for my picture book, Nighty Night, Dinos, coming out in the spring of 2006. I love Scottish artist Anna Doherty's work!

Kidlit Trivia for February 4, 2025

 Her parents emigrated from Nigeria to Ohio, but this Caldecott-winning author illustrator lives in Providence RI where she attended the Rhode Island School of Design. She took a class there on creating picture books and made a dummy of a story about a kind woman sharing her stew. When the instructor invited editors and art directors to look at the class projects, the author was offered a publishing contract and her debut story, Thank You Omu, came out in 2018 and went on to win numerous awards. Her second book, Saturday (2019) tells of a mother and daughter who have everything go wrong on their day downtown, except that they spend it together. The author/illustrator's art style is collage, using cut paper, paint and china marker. This is Oge Mora.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 28, 2025

 The wife made up the stories, but her illustrator husband turned them into oversized books for their children. Author Maurice Sendak said of him, "Between 1931 and 1937, he completed a body of work that forever changed the face of the illustrated book," and noted that the books had "a freedom and charm and freshness of vision." Years after the husband died, his son, who was only 12 when he lost his father, studied art and continued the stories, because he'd grown up with the main character and felt the need to keep the spirit of the little elephant alive. This is the Babar series, and the authors are Jean de Brunhoff and later his son Laurent de Brunhoff, but let's give Madame de Brunhoff credit, too!

Kidlit Trivia for January 14, 2025

 This author/illustrator was born in Australia but raised in Northern Ireland. His very first book, How to Catch a Star (2004) debuted to critical acclaim. His 2017 book, Here We Are, was named the TIME book of the year and made into a video with Meryl Streep voicing Mother Nature. He also illustrates books by others, including Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit (2013). His art involves acrylics, watercolor, gouache, enamel, pencil and collage, but he says the most important ingredient is play. This is Oliver Jeffers.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 7, 2025

 Just as Thomas Jefferson did NOT write the "Jefferson Prayer" written long after his death, "Franklin W. Dixon" did not write the popular series about two brothers solving mysteries although his name appears as the author on the covers. Instead it was written by several different authors, between 1959 and 1972, under the direction of the Stratemeyer Literary Syndicate. The boys' names were Frank and Joe.