It’s the birthday of bestselling children’s book author/illustrator Mark Teague (b. 1963), perhaps best known for illustrating the rollicking How Do Dinosaurs…? series (author Jane Yolen), illustrating the beloved Poppleton series (author Cynthia Rylant), and writing and illustrating the wildly popular Dear Mrs. LaRue series. (If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading a Teague [...]
NB: Today's post is a re-post from last year because reasons, and those reasons are deadlines, doctor's appointments, and birthday planning. Plus this author seems to bear repeating. It’s the birthday of the woman who wrote: “On the outskirts of a tiny little town was a neglected garden. In the garden stood an old [...]
It’s the birthday of the frankly astounding Canadian author Gordan Korman (b. 1963), who wrote his first book when he was 12, got it published by Scholastic at 14, published four more and was a bestselling author by high school graduation, and had 10 books published with more than a million copies sold by 21. [...]
It’s the birthday of British author Roald Dahl, whose beloved children’s books such as James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), The BFG (1982), and Matilda (1988) tend to feature children pitted against hostile and malevolent adults. Dahl was born in Llandaff, Wales, to Norwegian parents; Dahl grew up bilingual. [...]
It’s the birthday of Charlotte Zolotow (1915-2013, #nicelonglife), author of over 90 children’s books and editor of hundreds more. Her best-known books include Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present (1962, illustrated by Maurice Sendak), The Hating Book (1969), The Seashore Book (1992), My Grandson Lew (1974, illustrated by William Pène du Bois), and William’s Doll [...]
It’s the 90th birthday of Eric Carle (b. 1929, #nicelonglife) and this year is the 50th birthday of Carle’s bestselling children’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which begins, “In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.” About 50 million copies of Caterpiller have sold, which means that every 30 seconds [...]
It’s the birthday of Richard Scarry (1919-1994), one of the most beloved children’s book authors of all time. Scarry wrote more than 250 books that were translated into dozens of languages and sold over 100 million copies; his main audience were toddlers who prudently recognized Scarry’s books as an excellent way to acquire language skills. [...]
It’s the birthday of bestselling children’s book author Andrew Clements (b. 1949), master of the genre known as “school stories” and best known for his novel Frindle (1996), in which a fifth grader named Nick locks horns with a dictionary-loving teacher who tries to squelch his attempt to get the made-up word “frindle” into common [...]
It’s the birthday of Peggy Bacon (1895-1987, #nicelonglife), who was the author and/or illustrator of 60-some books and won great recognition for both her art and her writing, including an Edgar Allen Poe Mystery Award nomination for her novel The Inward Eye (1952). Margaret Frances Bacon was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, to two artists; her [...]
Susan’s Almanac Project for March 25, 2019 It’s the birthday of Kate DiCamillo (b. 1964), two of whose 25 children’s books have won Newbery Medals and who has been writing beautifully about surviving loss and loneliness from her very first novel, Because of Winn-Dixie (2000). DiCamillo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but the family moved [...]
It’s the birthday of children’s book author Louis Sachar (b. 1954), best known and loved for his wacky Wayside School series and for Holes, which won a ton of awards including the 1999 Newbery Medal and which was made into a movie in 2003 starring Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight. Sachar was born in East [...]
It’s the birthday of Ellen Raskin (1928-1984, #diedtooyoung), author of The Westing Game (1978), a middle grade murder mystery novel that won the 1979 Newbery Medal and the undying devotion of a bazillion readers, including Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, who rereads the novel once a year. The novel begins, “The sun sets in the [...]