Born on July 2, 1919, Jean Craighead George grew up in a family of naturalists, so it was only natural (if you’ll pardon the pun) that animals are a major focus of her writing. She worked as a reporter 1940s and as a writer and editor at Reader’s Digest, but… Read more »
Eric Carle, the popular children’s author and illustrator, was born on June 25, 1929 in New York state. His immigrant parents returned to Germany when he was quite young, and Carle spent the war in Germany. His father was conscripted early in the war, and Carle himself was conscripted to… Read more »
Cynthia Rylant is celebrating her 58th birthday today (June 6, 2012). Born in 1954, Rylant grew up in West Virginia, and discovered a love of writing in college. Her books range from picture books and early chapter books for younger readers (ages 3 to 8) to books for the middle… Read more »
If you have young children, chances are you have at least one book by Richard Scarry in your house. Why not celebrate his birthday today (June 5) by sitting down to read it together? Richard Scarry was born in 1919 and died in 1994. He wrote and illustrated over 250… Read more »
Today is the 448th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. Even if you’ve never read his plays or sonnets, you owe Shakespeare quite a lot. According to scholars, he may have contributed as many as 1700 new words to the English language — words like abstemious, lackluster, and zany. He invented phrases… Read more »
Gertrude Chandler Warner, the author who started the popular series of children’s books known as the Boxcar Children books, was born on April 16, 1890. She came up with the idea for the series while teaching during World War I, and penned the first nineteen books. (The series continued on… Read more »
Apropos of my previous post on hope, I’ve been rereading some of SF author Spider Robinson‘s early works, and I noticed something I hadn’t paid attention to when I read them years ago. Robinson doesn’t shy away from the tragedies of life. His characters are often in pain, wounded in… Read more »
