Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for November 12, 2024

 This Indiana-born writer wrote non-fiction for children, often illustrated with her husband's photographs. She wrote The Weaver's Gift about how wool becomes a child's blanket, and The Puppeteer which explored the crafters' artistic concerns. For her 1990 book Dinosaur Dig she and her husband packed up the kids and moved from Cambridge, MA to the Badlands of Montana. She was greatly interested in history, and her book The Night Journey tells of a Jewish girl and her family's dangerous flight from Czarist Russia. She once said that she didn't care if her readers didn't remember a single fact, as long as they came away with a sense of joy. Her name is Kathryn Lasky, and her husband is Christopher Knight.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for October 29, 2024

 When this German-born 12 year-old recieved a diary for her birthday, she never expected her daily entries would one day become a banned book in Florida. Her writings (the original version, not a later graphic novel illustrated version) joined Schindler's List, Maus, The Fixer, along with dictionaries, the Guinness Book of World Records, science books by National Geographic and even thesaureses being removed from school libraries and classrooms in Escambia County, FL in 2024. The book is Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, first published in 1947, and the group wanting it banned due to "sexual content" has ties to the national organization, Moms For Liberty.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for October 22, 2024

 Although this author gave up working on her doctorate when she married in 1953, she went on to become a feminist voice in science fiction and fantasy. She wrote the Earthsea trilogy for teens and the Catwings picture books for the youngest readers. Her novel The Left Hand of Darkness took place on a fictional planet where no one had a fixed sex. This book and others for adults led to her becoming the first woman to win the Hugo and Nebula awards. She once said "Hard times are coming...we'll need writers who can remember freedom..." Her words still ring true today. She died in her beloved Portland, Oregon in 2018. This is Ursula K. Le Guin.

October--Lots of Literacy!

  Early in October, author/illustrator Suzanne Bloom arrived in Glenwood from her home in upstate New York, to share her books, in English and Spanish, with children up and down the valley as part of  Raising a Reader. Suzanne and I met ten years ago at a Highlights workshop and it was so fun to see her again! We took a drive through the mountains for barbecue in Redstone, and rode the gondola up to the Adventure Park high above Glenwood Springs. Suzanne was also part of the Arts and Literacy fest at the Glenwood Library on October 12th.

Then on Saturday, October 19th, the Garfield County Libraries held a protest against banning books in Centennial Park downtown at 11:00, and then at 12:00--our town's new book store opened down the street in the King Mall! Welcome, welcome Alpenglow Books and Gifts!  And let's celebrate the love of books and reading among all ages!

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for October 8, 2024

 This Pennsylvania illustrator loves drawing the natural world and is particularly good with pumpkins. She illustrated one of my favorite non-fiction picture books, Cactus Hotel by Brenda Z. Guiberson, about how a cactus is host to numerous desert creatures even after it collapses. Her beautiful pumpkins appear in Linda White's Too Many Pumpkins from 1996 and aso the preschool Halloween classic, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams from 1988, which was a Publishers Weekly seasonal bestseller for many years. This is the illustrator Megan Lloyd.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for September 24, 2026

 Sept. 22-28 is Banned Book Week. My favorite book, Charlotte's Web, was added to the banned list in Kansas in 2006, when a group of parents declared that the idea of talking animals was "blasphemous and unnatural." Can you guess which banned book this quote came from? "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children...let's get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him to preserve our family line..." A.) Beloved by Toni Morrison B.) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck C.) Dracula by Bram Stoker D.) none of the above. The answer is D, because the quote is from the Bible, Genesis 19:30.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for September 17, 2024

 Today's trivia celebrates Haitian picture book writers. Carline Smothers is a first generation Haitian who couldn't find books for her young  daughters about Haitian culture, so she wrote some. Two of her titles are Fanmi Mwen (My Family) and Mmmmmm! Soup Joumou, written in English and Haitian Creole. Jinica Dauphin is Haitian/American and an elementary school teacher in Florida. Her book Haitian Flag Day, Fleurina's Way tells about a little girl learning about her heritage as she plans a perfect celebration. Author M.J. Fievre was born in Port-Au-Prince Haiti and now lives in Miami. Her book Haiti A to Z  is "a bilingual book about the Pearl of the Antilles." Preshoolers will learn about Haitian traditions as well as the Creole alphabet sounds. It's always a good idea to learn to appreciate other cultures, but particularly Haitian culture, especially now.