Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for May 28, 2024

 The 1950's TV show Lassie derived from the 1943 movie (which starred Roddy McDowell and Elizabeth Taylor), which came from the 1940 book Lassie-Come-Home, which began as a story in the Saturday Evening Post in 1938, which was inspired by a short story from 1859 of collie named Lassie who guided adults to two brothers lost in the snow. Another story tells of a collie named Lassie in World War I, who licked the face of a soldier thought to be dead and kept him warm until he stirred and eventually fully recovered. The book Lassie-Come-Home was written by Eric Knight.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for May 21, 2024

  This contemporary author/illustrator lives in the country in upstate New York. Her grandfather was a cowboy out west, but she grew up in Queens and attended Cooper Union Art College. On her website she says that while she loves writing stories, "drawing pictures is like dessert." Several of her best-loved books feature a big white bear and his goose friend, but she also has books about pigs and even one that stars a time-travelling trio--an aardvark, an anteater, and an armadillo. I was honored to meet her at a Highlights writing conference in Honesdale, PA where she took me shopping at the Goodwill. This is the wonderful Susanne Bloom, "A Splendid Friend Indeed."

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for May 7, 2024

 This author lives in Massachusetts and has over 400 published books. In the past she has competed in Madness Poetry, where 64 poets are paired up, each pair is given a word to write about, they submit their poems, and the public votes. One continues, one is out, so the field goes from 64 to 32, to 16, etc. This year I'm one of the 64! Please go to the site so you can vote--the poems are fun. The author from my home state of Massachusetts is Jane Yolen, and the word for my first poem is sangfroid. Aaagh! Voting starts May 7, Tuesday.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 23, 2024

 This English author/illustrator born in 1886 attended MIT and settled in New York, but in World War I he joined the British army. While serving in Flanders and France, he wrote stories to send back to his children in the US about a kindly veterinarian who could communicate with animals. An author friend convinced him to turn the stories into a book, which became a popular series. As times changed, some of his illustrations and descriptions of Black people were seen to be racist, and later editions were rewritten to eliminate the offending material. His series of books has been made into several movies. This is Hugh Lofting and his series chroinicles the adventures of Dr. Doolittle.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 9, 2024

 This authhor/illustrator was born April 3, 1953 and grew up as a Quaker in Philadelphia, attending Germantown Friends School and later, Yale. She studied drama at Berkely, and later described her writing as "the culmination of a lifetime spent joyfully squandering an expensive education on producing works of no apparent significance." Her writing and illustrating career began with greeting cards, and her "Hippo Birdies, Two Ewes" birthday card has sold over 10 million copies. She moved on to board books, featuring whimsical hippos, cows, chickens and more, and has turned several of her books into songs. This is Sandra Boynton, and she is currently working on a Christmas album called Cows and Holly which will feature Lyle Lovett, Yo-Yo Ma, and others.

Madness Poetry returns!

 I always love this contest, where the judges are kids and fellow writers. The event is now in it's 11th year, so the application poem had to relate to the number 11. This is my entry:

The One After Ten
The 11th commandment should be maybe...
"Thou shalt not wake a sleeping baby."
"Throweth no shoes over telephone wires,"
"No tissues or crayons in washers or dryers."
Or "Liveth ye not beyond thine means,"
Or "Feedeth not thine chihuahua beans."

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 2, 2024

This Chicago native wrote songs for Johnny Cash ("Boy Named Sue"), Loretta Lynn ("One's On The Way"), Dr. Hook ("Cover of the Rolling Stone") and the Irish Rovers ("The Unicorn"). His cartoons appeared in the military publication Stars and Stripes and also in Playboy. He played guitar, piano, saxophone and trombone, but it was his talent in writing poetry for children that endeared him to elementary school teachers and their students. This was Shel Silverstein, and his most famous collection is called Where the Sidewalk Ends.