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.