Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for June 24, 2025

 In honor of my 19 year-old cat Maggie May who passed this week--This author/illustrator from Oregon began drawing cats at age 2. She studied art in Paris hoping to become a portrait artist but devoted herself instead to painting cats. Her book Mittens, about a cat with six toes, became a best-seller soon after it came out in 1936. This is Clare Turlay Newberry.

June 2025--an amazing month

 As June comes to a close, I'm so grateful for all the wonderful things that happened this month. June 1st I got the clear mammogram report, "No evidence of cancer." It's been 12 years, but still always a relief to get that annual letter! On the 4th, I signed the contact for my third picture book with Familius publishing, "Nighty Night, Bears." This means a lot to me because the very first book I ever learned to read on my own was "Little Bear" by Else Homelund Minarik. 

On the 5th, we invited a petsitter over to meet our dogs and it turns out he was the man who saved our dog Lacy's life when she was hit by a car! The driver never stopped, and this man, Mike, got her out of the street and held her until we got there in minutes. We drove straight to the animal hospital, and I never got his name of contact info. She had a broken pelvis but has healed beautifully, and Mike was thrilled to see that she's doing well.

On the 13th, three good things--started the day by getting the Wordle word in two guesses, got a "champagne rejection" from agent Miranda P. wanting me to know that my story "Toys Ahoy" intrigued her and she would reconsider it if I revise. And...after 7 years together, Jim and I got married! Very small gathering but just a lovely day.

There have been some sad days, too--a funeral for a friend from my cancer group, and our 19 year old cat Maggie May passed away. Jim has had some issues with back pain. But the month will end joyfully--on the 29th, grandson Oliver will turn 3 years old! And July will start off happily with Jim's brother and sisiter-in-law arriving from Boulder on the 1st to celebrate Jim's 75th birthday on the 2nd. We'll be off to my nephew's wedding in Boise on the 25th and my kids will arrive to visit on the 28th! Life is so good. 

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for June 17, 2025

 It's a fact--snails have both male and female reproductive parts. 400 Virginia elementary students were denied an author visit when one parent saw a video of this author where she referred to her book Snail and mentioned this fact. The parent insisted the visit be cancelled, which it was, with no explanation. But, the author had a contract and insisted she be paid. The principal told the school librarian she'd have to pay the author out of her own pocket! The author refused to take the librarian's money and instead went to court. The school board ended up paying author Erica S. Perl, who feels that authors and their contracts (and binary snails) need to be respected, and children need author visits.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for June 10, 2025

 A NYC couple, one a psychiatrist and the other a playwrite, read a newspaper story about a penguin couple at the Central Park Zoo. When the chinstrap penguins paired up to start families, Roy and Silo, both males, built a nest and took tuns sitting on an egg-shaped rock. When another penguin laid an egg she couldn't care for, zookeepers gave it to Roy and Silo who took turns keeping the egg warm until it hatched and then they all lived together happily. The two authors published their (often banned) book about the little family in 2005. The are Peter Parnall and Justin Richardson, and their book is And Tango Makes Three.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for June 3, 2025

 Although this English writer, born in 1881, won several awards for her children's books and poetry, she is best remembered for the hymn lyrics she wrote to a traditional Scottish tune, published in 1931. She was a shy, sickly, nearsighted child who spent most of her days in the attic, surrounded by books. Her father encouraged her to write from the time she was five. Who knew the hymn she wrote would become a hit on the pop charts in 1971 when performed by an English singer? The hymn is Morning Has Broken, sung by Cat Stevens, also known now as Yusuf Islam.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for May 27, 2025

 This New York City cartoonist worked as the art director for magazines and made his debut into the world of children's books when he illustrated "The Carrot Seed," written by his wife Ruth Krauss in 1945. He wrote and illustrated his most famous book in 1955, about a toddler with a magic writing implement, and it has never gone out of print.  He was bald and said he drew characters without hair "because it's so much easier."There were other book in the series, but none did as well as the original. The book is Harold and the Purple Crayon and the author/illustrator is known as Crockett Johnson, but his real name was David Johnson Leisk. 

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for May 20, 2025

 This former elementary teacher from Los Angeles now lives in Plainfield, MA. A mom of three, she has written over 70 children's books. Her best known are part of a series, begun in 2008, about a small, colorful vehicle. Over 20 million of these books have sold, and they include some in Spanish, such as El Camionsito Azul. The author is Alice Schertle, and her series began with The Little Blue Truck.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for May 13, 2025

 The librarian at The U.S. Library of Congress was recently fired. The reason?  "There were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children." However, the Library of Congress is NOT A LENDING LIBRARY. It is a RESEARCH LIBRARY and only members of Congress may check out books. The librarian, Carla Hayden, posed no threat to children.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for May 6, 2025

 One of the books I've read to children most often through the years has only 34 words and was a Caldecott honor book for illustration. The author/illustrator, born in Pennsylvania in 1959, graduated with a BA in biology from St. Olaf College and planned to become a doctor, but realized his passion was for art and children's books. He moved to New York City where he still lives with his wife and son. He plays the viola and the concertina and enjoys yoga and knitting. This is Chris Raschka, author of Yo! Yes?

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 29, 2025

 This Swiss author, born in 1827, began writing at the age of 43. She was critisized for using religion in her novel to resign the poorer characters to their impoverished fate, but she also created a fearless young character who faced an enormous change in her life with cheerfulness, curiosity, and a love of nature. The author is Johanna Spyri and her first novel was Heidi, published in German in 1880 and translated into English in 1884.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 22, 2025

 It's often thought that rhyming picture book manuscripts are tough to sell because they can be difficult to translate for foreign markets. But this New Jersey author/illustrator has had great success with her rhyming stories about a South American mammal. Before she sold her first book in 2005 and went on to become a New York Times best-selling author, she worked as a rural mail carrier, a waitress, and a teacher at a boarding school for dyslexic boys. She said she wanted her books to let kids know "People love you and they will help you." This is Anna Dewdney, who died at age 50 from a brain tumor. Here series began with Llama Llama Red Pajama and continued with many llama books.

After 27 years of submissions....

 ...a publisher asked me for more books! Well, the head of the publishing company asked if I'd consider writing a series of Nighty Night books, to follow up my Nighty Night, Dinos which comes out next March. Hmmmm, let me s YES!! YES!! He gave me 8 possible topics, and I sent him Nighty Night, Trucks and Nighty Night, Puppies and we'll see how they go over at the marketing meeting in May. And here I was scared to open his email because I was sure it was going to tell me that tarrifs made it too expensive to print my dino book. But NO! What a terrific surprise.

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.