Over the centuries, many writers have turned their attentions to writing for children. Most found this was not as easy as it might seem at first to be. Many of their works have sunk into obscurity, but the ones who succeeded created masterpieces that stay with us throughout our lives.
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Helene-Hanffs-Childrens-Books.mp3 Author Ramona Caponegro Air Date 8/8/2007 Helene Hanff’s Children’s Books Transcript In her most celebrated work, 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff acknowledges the gift of a book, noting, “I’ll have mine till the day I die — and die happy in the knowledge that I’m leaving it behind for […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Anna-Sewell.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 3/20/2007 Anna Sewell Transcript Anna Sewell wrote only one book in her lifetime, Black Beauty. Sewell was raised in a Quaker household by a mother who took very seriously the Quaker advice “to seek out and alleviate suffering.” She did her share of charity work […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Doctor-Seuss.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 3/1/2007 Dr. Seuss Transcript Someone once said that a good writer, whether for children or adults, has one story, which he keeps retelling in various disguised ways; the fantastic writer has two stories; and the genius has three. Shakespeare, for example, could write tragedies, […]
Today is the birthday of Carlo Collodi, the author of Pinocchio, who based his famous character, at least in part, on himself as a child.
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Marjorie-Kinnan-Rowlings-and-The-Yearling.mp3 Author Patrick Ryan Air Date 8/8/2006 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Transcript Today, August 8th, marks the 110th anniversary of the birthday of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Yearling. Set in 1870 in the scrub country of North central Florida near Lake George, the story describes the waning […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Jim-Haskins-African-Americas-Biographer.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 10/26/2005 Jim Haskins: African America’s Biographer Transcript Jim Haskins passed away this summer. He was very well-known as a writer of biographies and other works of non-fiction for children, young people, and adults, and he was my friend and colleague in the English Department […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Samuel-Griswold-Goodrich-and-Peter-Parley.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 8/18/2005 Samuel Griswold Goodrich Transcript Samuel Goodrich, a 19th century children’s author and publisher, was the creator of the popular children’s literature persona, Peter Parley. As a youngster, Goodrich enjoyed nursery rhymes and fairy tales like “Puss in Boots” and “Jack the Giant Killer,” […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Paddling-Along-with-Holling-C-Holling.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 8/2/2005 Holling C. Holling Transcript Holling C. Holling was a children’s author who used exciting narratives to teach nature and geography in large format picture books for children. Holling grew up roaming the woods of northern Michigan and read with interest the books about […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Celebrating-Henry-David-Thoreau.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 7/11/2005 Henry David Thoreau Transcript It’s Henry David Thoreau’s birthday this week, an appropriate time (though any time is good) to introduce children to the workings of this original mind. A philosopher-naturalist, Thoreau offered an alternative set of values to the myth of American […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Remembering-Harriet-Lothrop.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 6/21/2005 Harriett Lothrop Transcript Harriet Lothrop, who wrote under the pen name of Margaret Sidney, left young readers a multi-faceted literary legacy. One day on a trip into the country, when she was a little girl in the 1840’s, she saw a little brown […]