Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 1, 2025

 This French author/illustrator wrote only one book for children, published in 1943, which has become a classic, translated into more than 50 languages.  He worked in a factory, and as a mechanic, and as a pilot delivering mail from France to Africa. His book reaches children and adults on different levels. After the book came out, he served in World War II as a pilot, and was reported as "Missing in Action." Debris from the wreckage was found off the coast of Marseille in 2000, but his body was never found. This was Antoine de St. Exupery and his book is The Little Prince.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for March 25, 2025

 This author was born in China in 1932 to missionaries and moved again and again and eventually became a missionary herself, to Japan. In New York City, while attending a seminary, she married a minister and they had two children and adopted two more. Her 1978 book The Great Gilly Hopkins features a tough cookie who goes from one foster home to another and fantasizes about her beautiful "real" mother. The author's 1980 Newbery award winning book Jacob Have I Loved tells of a girl jealous of her twin sister. The writer understands that "children do hurt, do fear, do grieve. We who care for them must take their feelings seriously." This sensitive author is Katherine Paterson.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for March 18, 2025

  Our town has a wonderful independent bookstore, opened by a local couple in October, with a beautiful children's book section. Our city council is considering offering an incentive to a developer wanting to open a Barnes and Noble in a vacant space in our mall. The owners feel this would essentially mean the death of their store. I'm using this week's trivia spot to say NOOOOOOO! And I'll show up at Thursday's city council meeting in support of our independent bookstore, Alpenglow. Support independents!

My Rant Poem

 My poetry group gives a weekly prompt, and this week we were to write a poem that is a rant:

My chubby thighs rage,

my derriere rants

as I struggle each morning

to pull on my pants.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for March 11, 2025

 This Polish artist lived through the 1939 Warsaw blitz and moved to Paris, Israel and finally New York City. He had only been speaking English for 4 years when an editor suggested he write a children's book to go with his illustrations. After several failures, he completed his first book in 1963--The Moon in My Room. He went on to write and illustrate numerous books and won the Caldecott medal for his artwork. He feels that too many writers want to create picture books because they love children. He said, "Sentimentality does not replace the craft that is essential in making good children's books. My first obligation is to the book, not to the audience." He died in February of 2025 of  influenza and pneumonia at the age of 89. This is Uri Shulevitz.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for February 25, 2025

 As a child, this American poet, born in 1998, had a speech impediment, so she practiced singing songs with lots of "R" sounds to correct it. As a young adult in 2021, she read her powerful poem "The Hill We Climb" to millions at the inauguration of President Biden. A school in Florida removed the book version of this poem from the children's section of the library, because one parent claimed it was "hate speech" and an attempt to "indoctrinate students." This poet has also written picture books for children, including "Change Sings," "Something, Someday" and "Girls on the Rise." This is Amanda Gorman.

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.