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.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for Novembr 25, 2025

 Turkey Lurkey, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky and Goosey Loosey are all characters in one of many traditional folktales illustrated by this artist/storyteller. He was born in Hungary in 1914 but moved to the United States and carved out a niche for himself with his colorful retellings of familiar tales. He passed in 1986, but libraries still offer his versions of the Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, The Little Red Hen, Puss in Boots, Three Billy Goats Gruff and more. His book that includes Turkey Lurkey is Henny Penny (Clarion Books, 1984), where a chicken feels an acorn fall on her head and is convinced the sky is falling. This is Paul Galdone.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for November 18, 2025

 This author/illustrator was born in New York City in 1946, but his love for nature led him to raise his own children in the woods of Vermont, where he and his wife live in an old farmhouse. He began his career illustrating nature stories for magazines such as Ranger Rick and Jack and Jill. He went on to create 132 books, with titles like Raccoon on His Own, Rabbit and Raindrops, and Otters Under Water, which provide facts with the gentle tone of a grandfather. My personal favorite of his books is Every Autumn Comes the Bear, written in 1996, following a bear as he prepares to hibernate. This is Jim Arnosky.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for November 11, 2025

 A huge thank you to all the Veterans who have kept our country safe and free. There is one American hero who has often gone unrecognized. Everyone knows the name Paul Revere, who rode his horse for 20 miles to spread the warning that the British were coming. But few know the name of the 16 year-old girl who rode twice as far through enemy infested territory in the Hudson Valley in 1777 to warn her father's regiment of a coming British raid. There are over a dozen children's books written about her, and a statue of her on her horse stands in Carmel, New York. She is portrayed brandishing the stick she used to smack highwayman that got in her way. This is Sybil Ludington, who was personally thanked by George Washington for her service.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for November 4, 2025

 As an unemployed commercial artist from Indiana, he really wanted to illustrate children's books. He took his portfolio to New York City where fifteen editors turned him away. One told him his work wasn't very good, that no one would want him to illustrate books, and maybe he should try writing his own. So, he did, naming a character after his own little girl and featuring a large animal. His series has sold over 126,000 books. This is Norman Bridwell, author/illustrator of the Clifford the Big Red Dog series featuring the character Emily Elizabeth.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for October 28, 2025

 This Caldecott-winning Australian author/illustrator, now living in New York, writes books with very simple storylines: a family lives in a farmhouse and moves on, a family lives in a lighthouse and moves on, but her illustrations are rich and full of details. She was influenced by the crowded pages of Richard Scarry's books, Her work and travels for Unicef and Save the Children inspired her 2020 book If You Come to Earth, reminding readers everywhere that "the world is wide and diverse and wonderful and belongs to all of us." This is Sophie Blackall.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for October 21, 2025

Check out my facebook page for the link to the op-ed piece written by Tacoma author Mary Boone. She had an author visit canceled because her book about a woman who rode her bike around the world in 1895 smacked of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. I met Mary in September at a Highlights workshop in Pennsylvania, and she is hardly a radical, but a respected author of 70 books for children. I feel badly for the kids her visit might have inspired.