Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 26, 2022

  This British writer was a sickly child, often confined to his nursery, where he imagined swashbuckling tales of pirates and treasure. Many of his poems in A Child's Garden of Verses, 1885, have become classics. This is Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped, and poems such as "I have a little shadow who goes in and out with me, and what can be the use of him is more than I can see," and "How do you like to go up in a swing, up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing ever a child can do."

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 19, 2022

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 19, 2022--Her mother gave her unlimited crayons, lots of time to draw, and no art lessons. This author/illustrator, born in Massachusetts in 1949, created richly detailed picture books often based on folktales, such as the Ukranian tale, The Mitten. This is Jan Brett. She says she was a shy child who had trouble saying what she meant, but "happily, when it came time to draw, everything came out right."

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 12, 2022

    This beloved children's poet from Chicago worked as a cartoonist for Playboy and won a Grammy in 1970 for the country song "Boy Named Sue." He once said he didn't believe in happy endings. His own ending came in Key West, Florida where he died of a heart attack in 1999. This was Shel Silverstein, whose poems are collected in Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic and Falling Up.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for April 5, 2022

 For years, this author had the idea for a story about a friend of her mother's. When her mother developed Alzheimer's, the author decided it was time to preserve a memory for her mom and write the book about a mail-order bride and two children. The 1985 book won the Newbery Medal and is sometimes called the great American children's novel of the '80's. The writer died this week at the age of 84. The author is Patricia MacLachlan, and her book is Sarah, Plain and Tall.

My 2022 Spring Fling Entry MORE FUN THAN PUDDLES (120 words)

 

Spring Fling entry, 2022 (120 words)

 

The Joyful Splash by Deborah Holt Williams(110 words)

 

Two yellow boots languished, lonely, at the back of the closet. Their world was dark and smelled like wet socks. The yellow boots yearned to play outside.  “Will we ever walk between the flowers again?” asked Lefty. “Remember how we stepped so carefully around worms on the sidewalk?” recalled Righty. At the same time, they asked, “Is there anything more fun than puddles?” and they sighed at the happy memory. Then one day, thunder shook the closet and rain danced on the roof. Small hands grabbed the yellow boots, and soon they were on feet and out the door, into a glorious spring shower. Then, with a joyful splash, into puddles. And even more fun than puddles? Puddles with friends!

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for March 29, 2022

    This Massachusetts author/illustrator created stories for her two little boys that featured a steam shovel and a snowplow who became heroes. Her primary focus was her art. She was working on a book about design when she died in 1968 in Folly Cove, MA. This was Virginia Lee Burton, and her books include Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel, Katie and the Big Snow, and The Little House.

Tuesday Kidlit Trivia for March 22, 2022

 This author/illustrator's daughter thinks his stories about two male amphibian friends who loved each other but lived separately may have reflected his own life, as he came out to his family as gay not long after the stories were published. Sadly, he was an early casualty of AIDS and died in 1987 at age 54. This is Arnold Lobel and his beloved characters are Frog and Toad.