Someone once said that a good writer, whether for children or adults, has one story, which s/he keeps telling in various disguised ways; the fantastic writer has two stories; and the genius has three. Shakespeare, for example, could write tragedies, comedies, and histories with equal brilliance. In the world of children’s books, you can count the geniuses on one hand. In the pieces in this section, we write about them all – the good writers, the terrific writers, and, yes, those geniuses.
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/Jane-Yolen-and-her-Dinosaurs.mp3 Author Susan Raab Air Date 8/1/2005 Jane Yolen and her Dinosaurs Transcript All this month, Recess! correspondent, Susan Raab will be visiting with children’s book authors and illustrators at the recent Book Expo in New York City, asking them to read from their work or to tell us more about it. […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Lost-Worlds-and-Ancient-Places.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 7/25/2005 Lost Worlds and Ancient Places Transcript The summer is the perfect time for kids to go exploring, in search of far away places and lost worlds. And there are many recent books that will help to whet their appetites for ancient lands, like […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Fabling-Around-Japan.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 7/18/2005 Fabling Around Japan Transcript The scene is a deserted hut on a mountain top during a very ferocious thunderstorm. Into the cabin stumble a goat and, later, a wolf. They’re both terrified of the storm, and in the dark they can’t see who […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Mei-Li-the-Second-Caldecott.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 7/12/2005 “Mei Li,” the Second Caldecott Transcript A book entitled Mei Li [May Lee] written and illustrated by Thomas Handforth, was the winner of the Caldecott Award in 1939, the second year the Award for the most distinguished American picture book was presented. The story is […]
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/John-Cages-Mud-Book-and-Action-Jackson.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 7/6/2005 The Mud Book Transcript With full summer upon us, there are sure to be days in a child’s life when there is nothing much to do, especial if it’s been raining, and play spaces have turned to mud. But that’s also one of […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Nathaniel-Hawthornes-First-Story.mp3 Author Rita Smith Air Date 7/5/2005 “Little Annie’s Ramble” Transcript Nathaniel Hawthorne’s first published story for children, “Little Annie’s Ramble,” appeared in late 1834 in an annual intended as a holiday gift for children entitled Youth’s Keepsake: A Christmas and New Year’s Gift for Young People. Although the story is […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Ramona-Quimby-Turns-50.mp3 Author Ramona Caponegro Air Date 6/30/2005 Ramona Quimby Transcript “‘I am not a pest,’ Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus” in the opening line of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona the Pest, a line that I frequently repeated throughout grade school myself. Sharing the same first name with Ramona Quimby ensured […]
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/A-Cool-Drink-of-Water.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 6/22/2005 A Cool Drink of Water Transcript It’s the beginning of summer and as the weather gets hotter and hotter, we’ll be all looking for the subject of a new book by Barbara Kerley — A Cool Drink of Water — from the National Geographic Society. […]