Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 20, 2026

 This artist's gentle illustrations are perfect with the humble, respectful text in 2013's The Cart that Carried Martin, by Eve Bunting, about the wooden cart and two mules that carried the body of Martin Luther King through the streets of Atlanta. The artist began writing books of his own in 2012, often biographies of lesser-known Blacks of note, such as Jerry Lawson, who revolutionized video games, poet George Moses Horton, and football-player-turned-artist Ernie Barnes. I met him at a Highlights workshop before his writing was published, and I'm so pleased with his success. As kind as he is talented, this is Don Tate.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 13, 2026

 This Glenwood Springs CO award-winning author attended many rodeos during her years on the Navajo Nation, and they often opened with A Cowboy's Prayer. The poem's author was listed as "anonymous," but was later found to be a cowboy poet from Deadwood, South Dakota named Badger Clark. The writer learned more about him and wrote the perfect non-fiction picture book about Badger's life. The South Dakota Historical Society Press only prints one book a year, and the book they released in 2025 is Badger Clark, Poetry Wrangler. The illustrations perfectly compliment the text, the backmatter is engaging, and includes photographs of the real Badger Clark. Non-fiction picture books are such important additions to libraries, classrooms and homes, and this new one is a shining example. The author is Nancy Bo Flood.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 6, 2026

 New Mexico became a state on this date in 1912. Not every resident was pleased with this author's description of his rural New Mexico childhood in Bless Me, Ultima, but his children's books are beloved, including The Farolitos of Christmas, The First Tortilla and Roadrunner's Dance. He had a home in Jemez Springs NM where I worked at the library, and he was a kind and generous man. This is Rudolfo Anaya.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 30, 2025

 This author/illustrator, born in Nyack, New York in 1960, studied sculpture and filmmaking in college but his favorite illustration style remained comic, outlined in black lines. It perfectly suited his books of palindromes, phrases that read the same backwards as forwards: "Go Hang a Salami, I'm a Lasagna Hog" (1991) included such gems as "Put Elliot's Toilet Up!" and "Elsie's on a Nose Isle." In between his many picture books he followed up with "So Many Dynamos" in 1997, "Sit on a Potato Pan, Otis!" in 1999 and "Palindromania" in 2009. His latest book (2025) features the friendship between a bear and a rabbit. This is Jon Agee, who now lives with his wife in San Francisco.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 16, 2025

 This author, born in Illinois in 1931, wrote plays that were flops and novels that didn't do well before trying his hand at a screenplay over his winter break from teaching, writing the script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He also wrote screenplays for The Stepford Wives, All the President's Men and others. He loved making up stories for his daughters, and when they were 4 and 7, one wanted a story about brides and the other wanted one about princesses, inspiring his 1973 novel which he later turned into the screenplay for beloved 1987 movie, The Princess Bride. He calls the book the only one of his novels he truly liked. This is William Goldman, who died in Manhattan in 2018 at the age of 87.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 9, 2025

 This writer, born in 1970, grew up in the woods of northern Idaho with her single mom and a home full of books and no TV. By age 11 she was reading a novel a week. Her mother's job was writing, and the little girl found it boring. But after marriage and becoming a mom herself, she started writing rhyming books about a bear which have become an enormously successful series. Her titles include Bear Snores On (2002), Bear Wants More (2003), Bear Stays Up for Christmas (2004) and her most recent, Bear Feels Sad (2025). She also wrote How to Bake an American Pie, Horse Play and more than 50 other stories. This is Karma Wilson, who now lives in Montana.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 2, 2025

 This Little Golden Book came out in 1950, adapted by Annie North Bedfield from a popular song. The book was a big hit and became a holiday classic. The story became a TV special in 1969. The song it was based on, written by Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson, has been recorded by Gene Autry, Jimmy Durante, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Buble and many others. Rollins was working as a baggage handler in NYC when he met Nelson, and together they wrote "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" before their wintertime favorite. A number of versions of the winter classic are still available, including the Little Golden Book. This is Frosty the Snowman.