Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 30, 2025

 This author/illustrator, born in Nyack, New York in 1960, studied sculpture and filmmaking in college but his favorite illustration style remained comic, outlined in black lines. It perfectly suited his books of palindromes, phrases that read the same backwards as forwards: "Go Hang a Salami, I'm a Lasagna Hog" (1991) included such gems as "Put Elliot's Toilet Up!" and "Elsie's on a Nose Isle." In between his many picture books he followed up with "So Many Dynamos" in 1997, "Sit on a Potato Pan, Otis!" in 1999 and "Palindromania" in 2009. His latest book (2025) features the friendship between a bear and a rabbit. This is Jon Agee, who now lives with his wife in San Francisco.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 16, 2025

 This author, born in Illinois in 1931, wrote plays that were flops and novels that didn't do well before trying his hand at a screenplay over his winter break from teaching, writing the script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He also wrote screenplays for The Stepford Wives, All the President's Men and others. He loved making up stories for his daughters, and when they were 4 and 7, one wanted a story about brides and the other wanted one about princesses, inspiring his 1973 novel which he later turned into the screenplay for beloved 1987 movie, The Princess Bride. He calls the book the only one of his novels he truly liked. This is William Goldman, who died in Manhattan in 2018 at the age of 87.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for December 9, 2025

 This writer, born in 1970, grew up in the woods of northern Idaho with her single mom and a home full of books and no TV. By age 11 she was reading a novel a week. Her mother's job was writing, and the little girl found it boring. But after marriage and becoming a mom herself, she started writing rhyming books about a bear which have become an enormously successful series. Her titles include Bear Snores On (2002), Bear Wants More (2003), Bear Stays Up for Christmas (2004) and her most recent, Bear Feels Sad (2025). She also wrote How to Bake an American Pie, Horse Play and more than 50 other stories. This is Karma Wilson, who now lives in Montana.

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.