Born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin in 1934, this author/illustrator grew up in a happy home filled with art supplies, scraps of lumber from her father's workshop and fabric from her mother's sewing room. Her favorite medium was collage, and after graduating from the UW/Madison she went to art school in Milwaukee and worked as a freelance illustrator. Her first book as an author and illustrator was Growing Vegetable Soup in 1987, but perhaps she is best known for her artwork in the book by Bill Martin Jr. where the alphabet climbs up a coconut tree. The book, chosen by President Obama to read to visiting children, is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and the artist is Lois Ehlert.
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Monday, July 14, 2025
Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for July 14, 2025
He was the author, she was the illustrator for numerous books featuring animals, including Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas and a novel called The Mouse and His Child. The couple married in 1944, and they are perhaps best known for their series of picture books in the 1960's about a young badger who loves bread and jam. The couple divorced and the husband remarried and moved to England, where he described why writers and artists create. "They can't help it...Art, like babies, is one of the things that life makes us make." This is Russell and Lillian Hoban, creators of the books about a badger called Frances.
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for July 8, 2025
I was happy to learn that this Canadian Indigenous singer/songwriter, who sang Now That The Buffalo's Gone and other songs about Native Americans, had written a children's book. Her chapter book Tapwe and the Magic Hat came out in English and Cree. I was a bit disappointed to learn that she is actually an Italian American, born in Massachusetts. When this was revealed, she was removed from the Order of Canada and the Canadian Hall of Fame, but she has done a lot to raise awareness of Native issues and culture. This is Buffy Sainte-Marie, born Beverly Jean Santamaria in 1941.
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for July 1, 2025
It's a rare occurance, but this Irish school teacher's 2001 book was so successful he was able to quit his day job and focus on his writing full time. The author, Eoin Colfer, wrote about a 12 year-old criminal mastermind whose family is in dire financial straits, so he decides to steal fairy gold. The book became an 8-book series and a Disney movie. This is Artemis Fowl.
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