Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 19, 2023

 When this Massachusetts writer read an article about the "pallid primers" featuring "abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean children" that kids learning to read found boring, he came up with an early reader in 1957 that featured wild misbehavior--subversive for that time. The book became the first of  17 books in the Random House series Beginner Books, which featured limited vocabulary but unlimited creativity, fun language and zany illustrations. This was Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss and that first book in the series was Cat in the Hat.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 12, 2023

 This author/illustrator was a successful artist in Italy and earned a degree in economics before moving to the US in 1939 and working as art director for magazines and as head of the graphic design dept. at Parsons School of Design. On a train trip with his grandchildren, he tore up a magazine and created a story, which led to his later career as a children's author. He is one of the very few who had four books listed as Caldecott Honor Books for their illustrations. His collage story Swimmy, about little fish who join together to form one big fish to avoid being eaten, is one of his most famous. This is Leo Lionni.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 5, 2023

 This author grew up struggling to read, and he credits his storytelling grandmother and his 5th grade teacher who read aloud to the class twice a day with his ability to appreciate the sounds of language. He became an editor and created reading programs at a publisher and then began writing books of his own, meant to be read aloud, that featured repetition and rhythm and encouraged the child audience to participate. His most famous books were illustrated by Eric Carle (Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?) and Lois Ehlert (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom). This was Bill Martin Jr., 1916-2004.