Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for February 14, 2023

 This Irish-born author of over 250 books feels a bit like a Shanachie, a traditional Irish storyteller. Her  book The Valentine Bears (1985), about a bear couple who wake from hibernation to celebrate Valentines Day, is illustrated by Jan Brett. Her story Fly Away Home (1991) is about a homeless father and son living in an airport, and her The Wall (1992) is about searching for a grandfather's name on the Vietnam memorial. The Cart That Carried Martin (2013, illustrated by Black artist Don Tate, tells about two mules and a borrowed cart that carried Martin Luther King's casket. This is Eve Bunting.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for February 7, 2023

Growing up as an "Army Brat," this Black author/illustrator was always the new kid at school and made friends by drawing pictures for her classmates. Her own books, Jimmy Lee Dit It in 1985 and C.L.O.U.D.S. in 1986, deal with imagination and fantasy, but she also illustrated books with more difficult themes, such as Chilly Stomach in 1986, about child molestation, and Willie's Not the Hugging Kind in 1989. Her own books, Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon (1991) and Harvey Moon, Museum Boy (2008) feature a young Black character. She was born in 1950 and is still writing and illustrating today. This is Pat Cummings. 

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 31, 2023

 As a little girl this New York author thought she'd grow up to be a cop like her dad, but her first grade teacher told her she was a writer. Her first book came out in 2000 and featured cows who find an old typewriter in the barn and begin to type up demands for the farmer. The barn is cold, and they won't give milk until they get electric blankets! This is Doreen Cronin, and her first book (followed by many others) is Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for january 24, 2023

  Carolyn Keene was my favorite author when I was a young teen, but I later learned she never existed. The first three books in the popular series were written in 1930 by Edward Stratemeyer, the next few by his daughter, and the rest by anonymous authors, all using the psuedonym Carolyn Keene. Ms. magazine called the main character in this series "a role model for young feminists." This mystery-solving teenager was Nancy Drew.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 17, 2023

 When this author graduated from college, she wrote lyrics for her father's Broadway musicals. Later she was a contributing editor to the book and album Free to Be You and Me. In 1972, while home with her five children, she wrote her first and most famous book about Annabel Andrews, who turns 13 and finds she's turned into her mother. This is Mary Rodgers, daughter of Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame, and her first book was Freaky Friday.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 10, 2023

   This English author and artist left school at 14 and worked as an errand boy for an illustration studio and later as an illustrator for advertisers. When he noticed in 1976 that his toddler son loved an ad with flaps, he wrote his first book about a missing puppy where young readers had to lift the flaps to look for the dog. He appeared on Mr. Rodger's program to show how a book is made. This is Eric Hill and his first book was Where's Spot?

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for January 3, 2023

 When she first came to the US from Denmark at 4 years old, this author hated learning the English language.  She earned degrees in education and psychology and taught first grade for many years, and went on to write some of the first books for young readers in the 1950's for her students and her young daughter. Maurice Sendak illustrated her stories about a bear cub and his mother. The author is Else Homelund Minarik and her first book in 1957 was Little Bear.